Bitcoin Forum

Noob question ??? :
Can we just move comma 2 steps right? For example turn 0.05297585 into 5.297585
So, 5.297585 will be equal ~5$ its very convenient. Block rewald will be 2500 BTC
Its like turn BTC to centiBTC.

Because i think, that when bitcoin was created, no one expected that it will be cost ~100$. And now we have some problems with useless micro BTC transactions dusting blockchain, and diffirent opinions about upcoming 0.8.2 client.  ::)

Great idea man!  :D

Hey, you wanna buy some magic beans?

You can't do that since it would be manipulating the amount of bitcoins available.

People need to get it in their minds that the whole idea is to separate bitcoin from the dollar.  Also, a bitcoin is worth as much as somebody is willing to pay for it or give for it.  It just isn't some made up number.  The amount that the bitcoin is at today, is how much people are buying them for.

So no, regulation and manipulation of the price is not a good idea, as you would have ass-hats like Ben Bernanke at the controls. :o

Yeah, the 8 decimal digits were a huge troll from Satoshi.  ;)

I think what the OP means is to change the nominal amounts of BTC. Basically to move the decimal place, so that the price will not seem so high.

I agree with this (although it would require a hard fork and never happen). It would work for all the same reasons that companies who split their stocks work, to make the price more attractive to buyers. Even though in theory there should be no difference.

Sadly this would not work, it would take a lot of work if it was possible, remember bitcoin changes so much it's hard to keep track sometimes.
So even if we did do this, next week we could be facing the same problem as we did before changing it.

I would not require a hard fork. Currently there are no decimal numbers in the protocol. All amounts are stored in Satoshis and the location of the comma is arbitrary. If you like to move the comma change the setting in Bitcoin-QT to mBTC and it will show the amounts as such.

That's exactly what I meant.
As i know (maybe wrong) hard fork is not nessesary, because protocol works with satoshis, without decimal at all, so I think that it's the only question of some simple changes in client software?
And it will reduce transactions size (maybe wrong again) + more convenient (user-friendly for new adopters) because 1 bitcoin cost will be ~similar to 1 USD/EURO cost.

At the same time I understood, that it would require incredible changes in all old/current bitcoin users's mind.

Actually it requires zero changes. People will use the denomination which is most suitable. For example when I talk about the power usage of a lamp I talk about how many Watt is uses. If I talk about the output of a nuclear power plant I talk about MW. See, we didn't have to redefine the meaning of Watt, we just use the appropriate precision based on the size of what we commonly talk about in a certain context.

I doubt we will ever know all aspects of bitcoin inventing.
Anyway, microBTC transactions nowaday causes some problems + I guess, there still will be long way to make bitcoin more convenient and clear for casuals.
(Despite the fact, that some oldfags think Bitcoin is perfect.)

Why is this convenient?

Bitcoin is bitcoin - just like Berkshire-Hathaway-A is itself:  at $140k per share.  Nobody has any difficulty thinking that 1BTC = $115.  Do we change the forex rate for Yuan to US pennies?  Or the standard, quoted price of corn to ounces of gold per cubic rod?

WTF?  Just stop.

I see nothing but ego in all these posts about changing how bitcoin is quoted.

/ rant

No ego. Just opinions that each of us has, just Bitcoin discussion.

It would not!

In the protocol, bitcoin is represented in satoshis. Clients can simply display 1 satoshi = 100000, for example.

That is a damned good idea.
mBTC instead of BTC should be represented and so new users wouldn't have a bad feeling that BTC is expensive and new investors would enter the bitcoin market.