Bitcoin Forum

Once .1 BTC becomes $10, people will likely say things like "This rubber duck is worth .0125 bitcents." Okay, that works.

Then .01 becomes $10. .001 is not a bitcent. What do we do with the vocabulary we have now? We go the way of the Japanese Yen.

When we have .001 Bitcoins, we will say we have 100,000 satoshis, since there are 100-million satoshis in a Bitcoin. The satoshi is the smallest unit.

So, in short, when we start commonly pricing things in .001-.01, thousands of satoshis will be the wording since we will get tired of adjusting to the exchange rate through vocabulary.

TLDR: .001 = 100,000 satoshis

Thoughts? Is my math right?

I prefer mBTC and µBTC, and satoshis for values 1 to 99.

How many satoshis in an atlas?

bitcoin price rise is slowing down from exponential to linear.
I suppose it is because bitcoin already burned through most of the geek mass,
and all that is left are slower type of people, slow linear adoption ? who would know

also, there is now resignation, If i cant get 1000 coins I won't buy

after this new year turmoil, I would not expect any excitement for a long time,
I doubt any big company will adopt it before next reward drop from 25 to 12.5

I will argue that it's hard for people to understand what these exactly mean. I can't even grasp it based on those names.

I hope you're right. I need more time to buy.

I also prefer mBTC and µBTC because this keeps the unit "BTC".

mBTC = milli Bitcoin    (milli   = the thousandth part of something)
µBTC  = micro Bitcoin  (micro = the millionth part of something)

No other currency does this though and it's hard to grasp the part to whole ratio for most non-geeks. I mean, look at Yen. They happily go into the millions.

I believe mBTC stands for millibitcoin (10^(-3)) and µBTC stands for microbitcoin (10^(-6)).

The people on Silkroad are quite familiar with the word milligram (mg) ;)

This is a great point. Seriously. Bitcoin will eventually be closely tied with drug culture.

In Europe, we also use ml (milliliter/millilitre) and mm (millimeter/millimetre). People here have no problem with that.

That's not with money though. That's with measurements. Nobody uses those with currency as far as I know.

But we all know milli = 1/1000.

It takes a moment to get used to, but once you use it a few times it just seems natural.

If you pay attention, people sometimes denominate small values in cents, nobody has a problem converting that to dollars. And for large values people sometimes report values in k$ or M$.

Right now a US dollar is worth about 80 mBTC. One share of SatoshiDice is going for about 3.4 mBTC. One US cent is now about 0.8 mBTC or 800 µBTC.

For speculating on value, I suspect the price will level off at some point, so I don't think we will ever be dealing in satoshis.

Let's look at from a emotional point-of-view. Would a person be most comfortable saying:

Here's 100 millicoins.

or

Here's 100k in satoshis.

Which uses more common language?

In Yen, people commonly deal in 10s to 100s of thousands of a unit. Not the metric system applied to the largest unit.

BTC is different than any other currency in history in many more ways than that... why not have unique measurements?  Everyone has already accepted and uses mBTC and µBTC... they are simple and make sense. My advice is to learn it and get used to it.

5.56×45mm NATO ammunition, if you prefer Bitcoins being linked to guns. But I'll admit that I don't know of any currency that uses "milli" or "micro".

It may work on this forum but with most people, according to history, I doubt it. I will wait and see how the culture forms.

Most currencies only go by set names for two-three different units and they aren't metric prefixes. I doubt humans will suddenly change for anything.

1 million satoshi = 1 cent or BTC0,01
100 cents = BTC1

I think we can comfortably deal in satoshi and 1/100s of a cent (units of 10k satoshi), but that's just me. Bitcoin-Qt, of course, allows users to display amounts in mBTC and µBTC. Just be sure not to send someone five bitcoins when you meant to ship 'em half a cent! ;D

I can't even type the "u" thing for the last subunit name. Based on that, it's going to be dead soon.

Also, again:

10,000 Satoshis

or

1 uBTC

(The fact I probably got the math wrong for the last one shows the problem I am speaking of.)

Which one is more easy to grasp at first glance? We will always know there are 100-million Satoshis in a Bitcoin.

We will always know there are 1 million µBTC in a Bitcoin :)

1 BTC = 1,000 mBTC = 1,000,000 µBTC
0.1 BTC = 100 mBTC = 100,000 µBTC
0.01 BTC = 10 mBTC = 10,000 µBTC
0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1,000 µBTC
0.0001 BTC = 0.1 mBTC = 100 µBTC
0.00001 BTC = 0.01 mBTC = 10 µBTC
0.000001 BTC = 0.001 mBTC = 1 µBTC
0.0000001 BTC = 0.0001 mBTC = 0.1 µBTC
0.00000001 BTC = 0.00001 mBTC = 0.01 µBTC = 1 Satoshi

You can remember those conversions or you can just remember  1 Bitcoin, 100 bitcents and 100-million satoshis. See my point?

Most people can't even type uBTC much less say "uBTC'. It's so awkward.

They only need to remember 1 BTC = 1,000 mBTC = 1,000,000 µBTC.

I believe 1 - 1,000 - 1,000,000 is easier to remember than 1 - 100 - 100,000,000.

I guess we'll call it "microbit" when speaking.

It will have to be defined through gradual consensus. All that is certain is that the smallest unit is a satoshi.

As long as the amount in BTC is clearly and unambiguously understood, the different designations are purely arbitrary. The BTC-cent-satoshi division is logical only because legacy currencies have often divided the major unit by 100 at the first level.

That is only temporary. When we are all stinking rich we'll be buying stuff for satoshicents or less a pop. :)

-MarkM-

And after that we'll be paying in milliSatoshis! :)

Nice one  ;D

It is easier to remember it this way: 1,000 millibits per bitcoin, 1,000 microbits per millibit.

On a mac it is easy, hold alt and hit the 'm' key to get the µ, which is mu, the greek equivalent for m. But if you type uBTC people will recognise it is actually supposed to be µBTC. Just like if you are talking about small distances and if you say um people understand the context and know you actually mean µm.

You mean like how "microtorrent" is dead? Instead of just colloquialized to U Torrent?

at least we need to switch to something other than 0.001 btc or 1 mBTC as it is psychologically hard to exchange your hard earned fiat into anything that sounds so small

what about: 1 btc = 1000 bitbucks btb, bitstones bts, bitbits btb, bitdough btd

Some do (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2isSJKntbg).

But yeah, people will get used to mBTC.

I have no problem with, and expect millibit and mubit to become common jargon.

I don't like it, it's not linear. There's hardly any difference in the value of 1 satoshi and 100 000 satoshies as of now, but there is a huge difference in value between 10^6 satoshies and 10^9 satoshies. All those zeroes will just confuse people.

I think you are right, it's the most simple solution for people not used to technology, also because most people would mistake mBTC and uBTC.

History says otherwise.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/1000_yen_Natsume_Soseki.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/10000_yen_note.JPG

http://www.tokyomango.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/01/picture_2_2.png

Isn,t it something like what we have had in europe some 11 years ago when we were implementing the Euro, a lot of people were scared for that switch??  people adjust very quick to changes offcourse the geek will do faster then your grandfather but still.. ones known it will adapt..

And o yea were is the nano bitcoin??? nBTC...

So the problem is what to name the sub-unit once btc gets to $100? How'bout we worry about getting to $100 first? That's at least $1 billion market cap, we still have a ways to go :)

Interesting thoughts anyway!

You would better argue that its  hard to you to understand. Where were far more exotic currency divisions in the past, well known the  Pound in great britain was divided in 20 Shilling each 12 pence. And even 1/1000 division exist 1 Kuwaiti dinar = 1000 fulūs  (singular fils).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fils_%28currency%29

Exactly! 1 Kuwait dinar = 1000 fulus, not 1 Kuwait dinar = 1000 mdinar !

Argh! i didn't search hard enough, how about this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_dinar


Unless its a false etymolgy i guess mili[...] means  1/1000 just like cent  means 1/100 ...
Besides this, i wonder if true nerds would rather prefer a 2 based division of the bitcoin so 1/1024 ;) :D

Bravo! You beat me!

Iran has toman which is actually funny because one toman is either 10 Rial or 10,000 Rial depending on what is more reasonable. As a tourist you can easily be off by x1000 in your guessing when it comes to buying small quantities of funny stuff you can't identify on the bazaar ;)

In software I see no problem with mBTC muBTC and nBTC as people will get used to it easily and won't confuse it twice.

Satoshis FTW
A simple nomenclature will be more easily adopted by the general public, ie. bitcoins & satoshis. The rest is just fluff.

and what about the smaller segments?
 BTC/Bitcoin (BTC1.0)
dBTC/deciBitcoin (BTC0.1 or bit-dime)
cBTC/centiBitcoin (BTC0.01 or bit-cent)
mBTC/milliBitcoin (BTC0.001 or bit-mill)
µBTC/microBitcoin (BTC0.0001 or bit-mike)
nBTC/nanoBitcoin (BTC0.00001 or bit-nan)
pBTC/picoBitcoin (BTC0.000001 or bit-peek)
fBTC/femtoBitcoin (BTC0.0000001 or bit-fem)
aBTC/attoBitcoin (BTC0.00000001 or bit-att)

it's all there. The metric system. The nomenclature that keeps on giving.

So, uh, if anybody wants to tip me a bit-mill, feel free. :-)  

19psECta6MkNNZukuZ2LTiBdBUXrkCo1Ch

I don't like this idea of referring to a fraction of a bitcoin as it's own "coin". Satoshi FTW

+1

Although cents might be pretty useful too (it is money!), and one cent = one million satoshi.

can we at least use the name of a sexy anime female or japanese porn star? Who's that one with the giant freakin' knockers...Hitomi Tanaka.  So, how about instead of "Satoshis" we use "Sakuras" or "Hitomis", or maybe Ozawas?

Isn't she American?

I need to go do some more research...

So, you'll be in your bunk?

That's not correct.

µBTC/microBitcoin = BTC0.000001
nBTC/nanoBitcoin = BTC0.000000001
and so on...

Why is cent (centi) useful and not milli or micro? Because you have heard of it before?

Now you're starting to understand how humans work. There is a good reason why Americans still hate the metric system.

FTFY  ;)

+10

It is already tied with drug culture.

So is USD.

Wiki page on metric prefixes lied to me? Mothersmurfers!

*edit* oh it didn't lie to me, i just read the dang thing wrong *facepalm*

hrm. ok, so µBTC is really the smallest useable metric prefix for bitcoin, then. ie 1 µBTC BTC0.00000100

Which brings us back to coming up with a name for BTC0.00000001

I still wanna go with the ozawa or the hitomi.  "Hey bro, transfer me 50 ozawas to <address>?"

0.01 µBTC

I'm very familiar with SI divisions but not so much in the context of dividing up money. The question of how best to describe divided units of revalued bitcoins is important, of course.

Here's a clearer proposition, verbally:

1 Bitcoin = 1 Bitcoin

.1 Bitcoins = 10 million satoshis

.01 Bitcoins = 1 million satoshis

.001 Bitcoins = 100,000 satoshis

.0001 Bitcoins = 10,000 satoshis

.00001 Bitcoins = 1,000 satoshis

.000001 Bitcoins = 100 satoshis

.0000001 Bitcoins = 10 satoshis

.00000001 Bitcoins = 1 satoshi

So BTC1 = 100 million Ozawas?

Well, that's true.

I don't like it, it's not linear. There's hardly any difference in the value of 1 satoshi and 100 000 satoshies as of now, but there is a huge difference in value between 10^6 satoshies and 10^9 satoshies. All those zeroes will just confuse people.

Yeah, what the hell is the point in calling them Satoshi's? There's nothing difficult about writing 0.000001 Bitcoins, this is reminding me of silly overcomplicated bullshit that financial people try to use to confuse people and I already see it happening with these survey sites who say it to try and make you think you're getting a lot when you actually aren't. Talk about it amongst yourselves if you like, as for me? I don't like making up words for things we already have words for in the first place, not when it comes to business anyway because it is pretty dishonest.

Next we'll be seeing people re-invent mathematics to make 1 + 1 = 3 and 2 + 2 = 6

Also, while it is possible Bitcoins will be insanely valuable, as people have said in conversations with me that would take an insane amount of printing for that to happen in reality, 1 Bitcoin by itself is already worth quite a bit when you consider other currencies out there.

Not a prediction its a fact, give it 1-2 years and people buying and selling a whole bitcoin will be very rare.

Pretty optimistic, I'd give it at least 4-8 years.  The next reward halvings will be very very interesting times.

Hey jackhole, any reason you're NECROPOSTING old threads?

Bitcoin has risen in fiat price more than thousandfold since its inception. It might not go up that much in the next four years, but hundredfold looks possible if not probable. Or it might be worth nothing. :)