Top 10 Cryptocurrency — Grading Names, Logos & Symbols
Top 10 Cryptocurrency — Grading Names, Logos & Symbols
Author: El Crypto Chapo (@el_crypto_chapo)
Bitcoin (BTC)
Name: Bits are small pieces of digital information & coins are small denominations of money. Simple to understand and seems to roll off the tongue, beautiful.
Logo: Clean, classy & classic. The orange really pops & reminds us that this is new money with a bright future. From a distance, the symbol looks a little bit like $ but upon further inspection it is different in many ways at all. The slanted B is symbolic of the banks toppling as Bitcoin gains adoption.
Symbol: Phonetically brilliant, matches the full name.
Overall Grade: A
Ethereum (ETH)
Name: 2 point deduction for having a name which is pronounced incorrectly often by noobs. Ether is a volatile liquid that is highly flammable. Being the first DApp platform and the pioneer of the smart contract, the name seems to fit well — the concepts that Ethereum has brought to the table have lit the crypto world on fire.
Logo: The black color choice is boring, though Vitalik Buterin seems like a dark soul so maybe it’s fitting. A diamond, indicating that Ethereum is a true gem. But…it’s split in half! Ah, now I get it. This is meant to represent an un-executed smart contract that will be completed once the two parties come together!
Symbol: Logical & bonus point for being able to say the symbol without spelling out each letter individually.
Overall Grade: B-
Ripple (XRP)
Name: When I think of the word “ripple”, it reminds me of skipping stones as a kid. When the rock hit the water, it would make a ripple….then 10 seconds later it was gone. Is this intended to be symbolic in some way? Any project name that rhymes with “nipple” & “cripple” can’t get my vote of confidence.
Logo: A blue fidget spinner? Really Ripple? These were the dumbest successful toys to come to market since the Pet Rock. However, you may notice that the three nodes all come together to a centralized hub. Ah, I see what they did there! To their credit, the shading on the blue has a nice gradient.
Symbol: XRP shares two letters with Ripple, but you’d need A LOT of guesses before you’d come up with this one if all you knew was the project was called Ripple. Maybe the team wanted to make sure people knew that buying XRP has nothing to do with the real company (Ripple Labs) since their network doesn’t even require that their XRP token is used.
Overall Grade: D-
Bitcoin Cash (BCC or BCH)
Name: If Bitcoin was a company, this would be copyright infringement. Playing off the popularity of Bitcoin by using its name in vain, this name was created to intentionally confuse the inexperienced people in the market. It isn’t Bitcoin, it isn’t cash…it’s a nothing-burger.
Logo: A mirror image of the true Bitcoin logo, this is the perfect logo for Bitcoin Cash. The project is all smoke and mirrors and makes every attempt to confuse buyers who think this is the real Bitcoin. Fitting.
Symbol: The fact that they use two different symbols creates even more confusion, just as Roger Ver dreamed it up. The BCH symbol can simply be pronounced “Bitch” which is the most accurate description out there for Roger Ver and his little Bitcoin (core) fork.
Overall Grade: F
EOS (EOS)
Name: Let’s get the elephant out of the room Is that a long “O” or a short “O”?. 2 point deduction right out of the gate for having a name that nobody knows how to pronounce correctly. Eos is the Greek goddess of the dawn. Women live longer than men, so this is a positive with respect to this project’s lifespan. The name “Eos”, regardless of how you pronounce it, has a bit of a mystical aura and leaves you wanting to know more.
Logo: I’m no jeweler, but that looks like a blend between a pear-cut and a princess-cut. What do you get when you cross a pear and a princess? Who the hell knows! A black gem with no clarity…sounds a lot like the project’s future.
Symbol: One of only two coins in the top 10 with a symbol matching the name exactly. 1 point deduction for creativity, but 1 bonus point for no confusion.
Overall Grade: C+
Cardano (ADA)
Name: Sounds more like the newest Toyota model than a cryptocurrency coin — “Hey Jim, have you seen that slick new 2018 Toyota Cardano — that thing would be a total pussy magnet!”
Logo: A delicate snowflake, symmetrical in many directions, and a little mesmerizing if you stare at it long enough. A cool, icy blue really makes this logo pop. Clean and easy to draw with a Magic Marker.
Symbol: Okay….those three letters at least appear in the full name. It should be CAR….oh but that would make everyone think of this as a Toyota model. Well played Cardano, well played.
Overall Grade: B+
Litecoin (LTC)
Name: Bitcoin Lite has a nice ring to it, but it would have confused people like Bitcoin Cash and would also make some people think it was a frothy happy hour beverage. Logical name, appropriate given the coin’s history & sounds like a digital currency.
Logo: For some reason, the world has decided that when you put a strikethrough on a single letter, that makes it a symbol for money. Well…Litecoin’s logo fits the bill & also has the benefit of a big letter “L” just like its big brother Bitcoin has its “B”. Black and white, a little boring, lacks the pizazz that I like to see in a winning logo.
Symbol: The only symbol that makes sense, congrats on not doing anything dumb.
Overall Grade: B
Stellar Lumens (XLM)
Name: When I utter the name of this coin aloud, I’m immediately transported to the year 2185 on an intergalactic spacecraft. This is as nerdy as it gets, folks. Lumens are a measure of light, and if you’ve got stellar lumens….then that must mean it’s bright. Being bright is better than being dim.
Logo: The only coin in the top 10 that just grabbed the most commonly used emoji in all of CryptoTwitter and used that as its logo. Zero points for creativity, 2 bonus points for logo recognition.
Symbol: There’s a special draw for all coins that have symbols starting with the letter “X”. Proven fact. Nice choice.
Overall Grade: A+
Tron (TRX)
Name: Tron is easily pronounced, easy to spell, feels powerful & has a techy sort of vibe. The name of this coin is by far the most redeeming aspect and something I can get behind.
Logo: This logo seems like it was “borrowed” from Ethereum & EOS, sort of like how they borrowed a bunch of words for their whitepaper. The shape reminds me of the endless staircase drawn by M.C. Escher, which is as frustrating as the blind followers in the Tron cult.
Symbol: There are three things that come to mind when I see this symbol, and none of the them are crypto-related. T-REX (dinosaurs), Trex decking & Trix cereal. I’m a fan of the first two, but Trix cereal is lame. They should have put the X in the beginning of the symbol — see above.
Overall Grade: D+
NEO (NEO)
Name: Any normie only thinks of one thing when they hear Neo — The Matrix. There are so many parallels that can be drawn between the Matrix and the crypto world, I’m not even sure where to start. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely already taken the red pill and are deeply engrained in the crypto Matrix. You have insomnia from staring at Blockfolio, you’ve sacrificed your “real” life in many ways, nobody outside your world understands any more. You are forever changed and there is no going back. This may be the best coin name in all of crypto.
Logo: This simple three-sided object represents the gateway that we all walk through when we enter the crypto space. What you don’t realize is that it’s a one-way door. You see that bright sunlight hitting the side of the doorway? That’s the sunlight you’ll never see again since you’ll spend the rest of your days in front of computer screen and won’t even know what season it is outside.
Symbol: No tricks here folks, Neo is NEO. Since the name is one of the best in the whole space, why not double down?
