Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion => Topic started by: European Central Bank on January 12, 2018, 01:27:23 PM



Title: unit bias
Post by: European Central Bank on January 12, 2018, 01:27:23 PM
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitcoin-investment-trust-announces-stock-split-300581752.html

gbtc have just announced they're doing a 91 to 1 stock split. why would they do this? because they operate in the real world and realise real people want to own more small units than one big one.

in all the time i've been in crypto i still haven't seen one crypto project do this, even though it happens all the time in stock markets and we hear constantly from noobs that a coin is 'too expensive' even when the market cap is lower than something with 1000x more units.

every time someone raises this on here most people jump down their throat and say it's unnecessary. maybe it is, but i still think it's helpful and instinctive.

where do you stand on this?


Title: Re: unit bias
Post by: stompix on January 13, 2018, 02:24:31 PM
It is going to be another fork and we already have to many of them.

We could always switch to mbtc and satoshi.
There are already wallets that show you the balance in mbtc.
I really don't see the reason for it, especially during this forking season.It will do more harm than good.

Besides, noobs will always say BTC is too expensive.
I'm sure that even at 15$ some will argue they can't get a full coin.
And if let's say we split so that 1 BTC > 1000 BTC.
If the price goes from 15 to 120, we're going to split again?

It would be better to give the mbtc a cool nickname to see that unit getting used more.
I just bought a nakamoto!!!!!!! for example :D






Title: Re: unit bias
Post by: Kprawn on January 13, 2018, 02:37:17 PM
It would be better to give the mbtc a cool nickname to see that unit getting used more.
I just bought a nakamoto!!!!!!! for example :D

I think you might be onto something here. A cool name for the smaller units might just catch on and this will highlight the

fact that Bitcoin can be bought in smaller units. I would think that a "Toshi" might be a very cool idea for a name for a

unit, smaller than a Satoshi. Cool idea, run with it.  8)


Title: Re: unit bias
Post by: European Central Bank on January 13, 2018, 05:48:43 PM
It is going to be another fork and we already have to many of them.

it doesn't have to be a fork. all it has to be is a collective decision to rename and move some commas around in wallets and exchanges.

and i'm not necessarily talking about bitcoin, i think it's too far gone for people to come together on that, but i find it very strange that smaller projects haven't experimented with this to see if there's an effect.

gbtc are doing this soon because they have the power to and we probably will see an uptick in interest.


Title: Re: unit bias
Post by: btcgreen63 on January 13, 2018, 06:25:09 PM
it doesn't have to be a fork. all it has to be is a collective decision to rename and move some commas around in wallets and exchanges.
How does this work? If the blockchain says my address contains 1 BTC, how does that change? The blockchain, with its frozen past ledger entries, is the source of truth.


Title: Re: unit bias
Post by: European Central Bank on January 13, 2018, 06:29:00 PM
How does this work? If the blockchain says my address contains 1 BTC, how does that change? The blockchain, with its frozen past ledger entries, is the source of truth.

wallets and exchanges and others already give you the option to display in mbtc or whatever. all they have to do is make the smaller unit the default one that they display. instead of one btc you'll see 1 million bits.

but like i said i think it's too late for bitcoin. it'll cause confusion unless there's some grand changeover day where everyone does it at once which will not happen.


Title: Re: unit bias
Post by: European Central Bank on January 13, 2018, 06:52:59 PM
Also, i think Byteball community considering similar idea.

the byteball developer has already shot down the idea for good. it's the most obvious coin that would benefit from this but he's refusing to do it. it would be great just once to see a developer do this to see what happens.