MacOS, the operating system behind tech giant Apple’s most popular laptop production series MacBook, introduced a new Unicode for Bitcoin.
Unicode is an international encoding standard designed to be used with different languages and scripts. The core of multiple operating systems such as MacOS, Ubuntu and Microsoft is based on Unicode encodings, which enable users to embed symbols, characters, or numbers into a program of a piece of software without integrating additional features.
On the image provided below the symbol of Bitcoin is used in correlation with other characters and digits seamlessly within the same program. On the MacOS, users can type the Bitcoin symbol in the same way they would type letters or numbers.
Ubuntu, another leading operating system for computers and mobile devices also introduced support for Bitcoin Unicode recently, allowing users to embed the Bitcoin symbol on the UbuntuOS-supported programs without having to add or install custom fonts or symbols into a device.
In late 2015, Bitcoin Core developer Luke-Jr added the U+20BF Bitcoin symbol to the Droid Sans and Console fonts to enable any OS users to embed Bitcoin symbols.
Some major operating systems such as Microsoft and Linux are yet to formally introduce native support of Bitcoin Unicode. For users using operating systems without the built-in support of the Bitcoin symbol, they can rely on alternative solutions like Luke-Jr’s font addition to embedding the Bitcoin symbol into a program.
Making Bitcoin Official, Leading Mainstream Adoption
On January 1, Cointelegraph reported that Microsoft added native Bitcoin support for its Microsoft Excel software. The integration of Bitcoin support into the Microsoft Excel program effectively allowed users to calculate, recognize, format and analyze numbers represented in Bitcoin.
Martin Butler, account executive at Microsoft, stated:
“In 2017, Excel will be able to recognize, format, calculate and analyze numbers expressed in Bitcoin currency. The new feature will be available for Excel running under Windows 10, Android, Mac OS and iOS and will include Excel Mobile versions as well.”
The Bitcoin community responded positively to the efforts of Microsoft in making Bitcoin official in its software for users.
The introduction of native Bitcoin support by technology firms such as Apple or Microsoft which oversees a consumer base of billions is important for Bitcoin to gain increasing mainstream adoption and awareness from the general population as an official currency and a store of value.
If more users begin to see the Bitcoin symbol and accurate formatting of the digital currency in the programs or software they use on a daily basis, a strong awareness of Bitcoin will be established and the digital currency will be found by a significantly larger user base.