Bitcoin Forum

Can we modify the software/bitcoin blockchain to allow for division and smaller denominations than a Satoshi if we decide to in the future?

Of course! You just have to wait a day or two for the transaction to process that way, cause it will be deemed "Low Priority" by miners. Also you need to deal with wallets rounding up (or ignoring) the denomination at some significant digit.

Right now bitcoins can be divided into smaller denominations. The smallest being 0.00000001 as everyone says. This is controlled by or coded or whatever in to the blockchain. If whoever seems to govern bitcoin, (Gavin or whoever), wants to allow bitcoins to be divided into smaller denominations, example; 0.0000000000000001 or 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 can this be done?

I guess it cant be done because satoshi is the smallest unit for bitcoin and I dont think it is needed because it will just create alot of confusion . Even with the current denominations, satoshi , bits , mbtc and ubtc, many people are already confused about it and keep on asking what is that about

it can easily be implemented in bitcoin. if the price is at a stage that even 1 satoshi is worth something and transaction fees are getting too expensive, then it can be divided to smaller parts like 1e-9 1e-10 ...
so that it can be spent too. but i say it depends completely on the price.

isn't better to hope for a price rise, this is the whole point of it, but the software could always be modified for what you want, it is then a matter of consensus

something like this isn't needed

Is this going to be like blocksize debate in the future? I hope not.

I don't think so at least it does't have any negtive impact on any miner or bitcoiner. It could be an option for them to choose, like mbtc, satoshi etc.

Anything is possible. But proberly not a good idea.
It is unlikely it would be needed.
With how things are developing then will the future most likely not only have one digital currency, but many. Bitcoin will proberly end up being a reserve currency. Only used to store large amount of money.

Any form of money needs to be easily broken down into its sub-units which allow an equal exchange for goods or services. :)
as bitcoin can divided into eight decimal places.
It can divided into bits,that would mean a single bitcoin would be divided into 1,000,000 individual units – or 'bits'. ;D

Maybe at some point in the future, it's going to be a long time until we reach that hurdle so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I wont be complaining when satoshis are worth more than a $1 :)

It is good to keep dreaming, but satoshis of 1 usd? Haha..

I don't think there would be a need for this, if a Satoshi would be worth 1 ct (smallest for usd) than a bjtcoim would be worth 1 million USD if my calculations are correct..

If a Satoshi is worth $1 you would have a problem already. How do you buy anything if it cost less than a dollar. We would also be filthy rich, when 1 Satoshi = $1

In this instance, they would have to shift the comma once. {0.000000001 = 1 Satoshi}

Now would that not be a great day, when that happens.  ;D {Early retirement}  8)

Exactly this. There are technical possibilities to upgrade bitcoin core protocol and change it. But there won't be any need for that in our lifetime. Number of decimal places in bitcoin is already sufficient enough.
In fact we will see probably fall of bitcoin first. So we don't have to worry about creating more decimal places.

it would require a hard fork.

if bitcoin price was to go that high that one satoshi was worth 1USD i am sure that nobody can resist keeping their bitcoins through all the ups and downs of the market.
there is a lot of people who will sell as soon as price goes to (for example) $500

ofc it can be done, also if things are going like i expected this will happend soon or later, because this will mean that more and more ppl are using it and we need more 0's ;)

There is no more zeros needed, you can already divide it into 1M individual units which are Bits. If the price goes up people can use Bits (which already is happening btw), as of now for one Bit to be worth $2.40, 1 Bitcoin needs to be worth $2.440.000.

Fixed that for you.

You seem to be from a country that uses a period for digit grouping instead of a comma?

I think adding in more 0's to divide Bitcoin into even smaller denominations will create a lot of confusion for people getting started with Bitcoin. Whenever I explain Bitcoin to a newbie, I almost always forget to mention one of the most important parts of Bitcoin, which is the fact it can be divided. Dividing it further than the current limit would be beneficial in some ways, but it would confuse many people. This, of course, is just my personal opinion.

Well i don't think people are going to say satoshi, give me 1 satoshi, its a stupid name for money with all respect for bitcoins creator. Bits is much more suitable, i'm from europe and we use comma but since the majority here is from us/uk (i think) i used period.

We use commas in the UK so it would just be $244,000,000

Far as I know the only place that uses all the periods is the US.

Its possible and an important possibility because you already know that there will never be enough bitcoins for everyone in the world. Which means bitcoins need to rise in price up to that point. And when it does then bitcoins need to be divided into smaller units of value.

Its possible...