professorhantzen
commented
6 years ago This proposal on xrpchat.com also satisfies many of these criteria, assuming it were not always strictly necessary to have the gap in the middle (so the shorthand form for writing, or fast addition to a font-set would be an ordinary capital "X" with two crossing horizontal lines):
https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/23604-xrp-symbol-idea/
Also, I note it has the same visual metaphors as the previous suggestion, except the bridge is somewhat stronger, and bringing the two sides together adds another interesting element. The bridge part looks like its binding two previously straight lines, which is a great analogy for what Ripple is doing in the payments industry. Monolithic, unadaptable systems being effortlessly bound together with the "XRP bridge".
I believe a suitable currency symbol for XRP should satisfy the following considerations:
1) Fast to learn & recall. 2) Easy to hand-write on paper. 3) Fast to add to an existing font-set. 4) Be immediately likeable/accepted by a broad-range of people. 5) Follow currency symbol convention (tying in with point 1).
In service of these goals, I support the first proposal made on reddit by /u/dderkomai, of a capital letter X with an extra parallel line running from top-left to bottom right. This is similar to the current proposal, but with differences that satisfy the above criteria.
It's fast to learn and recall, easy to handwrite, fast to add to existing font-sets and it appears to be immediately liked and accepted by a broad range of people, having garnered a large number of votes in a shorter space of time than the original proposal, even though the included suggestion for "drops" appears to be almost universally disliked. This suggests the response to just the "X" may be even more positive (as upvotes may have been lost as a result of the disliked second idea). It also follows currency symbol convention.
Another somewhat less important but relevant consideration is the meaning behind the symbol. The "X" strongly visualises key properties of XRP and its intended use-cases:
If a symbol is also required for "drops", I propose following existing convention for the worlds current reserve currency. The symbol for US cents" is a "c" with a vertical line through it. How about lowercase "d" with a vertical line through the circular portion, for drops? This would also satisfy all of the main criteria, with the coincident visual property that a lowercase d resembles a drop of water, and a vertical line through it symbolising a glint of reflected light. It is also a simple iterative step, "d" comes after "c" in the alphabet, making it rudimentary to learn and recall.