Bitcoin Forum

on capitalization, I like this lots:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Introduction#Capitalization_.2F_Nomenclature

Accepted practice is to use Bitcoin (singular with an upper case letter B) to label the protocol, software, and community, and bitcoins (with a lower case b) to label units of the currency.

but when it comes to the plural, I can't find solid info.  Personally I've been using bitcoin as the plural. 

"I have 5 bitcoin" instead of "I have 5 bitcoins"

then it gets hairy with fractions... do you have "0.8234 bitcoin" or "0.8234 bitcoins"

when looking at the SwC FAQ we write "Why do bitcoins have value?"  should it be "Why do bitcoin have value?" because that sounds fucked when reading it in my head.

Um the plural usage is right there in your quote.


Do you also say I won five hundred dollar or man prices in the UK were expensive that [...] was 10 pound.

It is units of currency thus it is plural.   The only time the units of currency is singular is when it is one unit.

That will be one dollar.
That will be one bitcoin.

That will be two dollars
That will be two bitcoins.

If I have $0.82, I don't say that I have "zero point eight two dollar(s)", I'd be more likely to say "eighty-two cents".

I use "bitcent" for 1/100 of a bitcoin.

Capital "B" Bitcoin is for the protocol itself, or the reference client. Lower case "b" bitcoin is for other uses, using plurals as is necessary or as conforms to common usage.

I think that there may be a similar issue (with regards to the plural form of the unit name) with the Euro.

Pound is already both plural and singular.
£10.50 is pronounced 'ten pound fifty' (rarely pounds) - but it's ok to say 'ten pounds and 50 pence'

Interestingly 1p is pronounced 1 pence, but the coin is referred to as 1 penny.
2 pence is 2 pennies if there are literally two 1 pence coins, or 2 pence if it is a 2p coin.
ie penny has two plurals - pence and pennies depending on context.

I should have known the British would fuck up my example. :)

Exceptions to every rule but generally currency units are plural.  
1 dollar,  15 dollars
1 euro, 15 euros
1 ruble, 15 rubles
1 bitcoin, 15 bitcoins
1 milliBitcoin, 15 milliBitcoins

but in german you only say Euro and not Euros.

...and German has some interesting capitalization rules.

Yeah, I don't see "euros" that much. "50 euros" sounds just weird.

In spanish, though, we do use plural.

Interesting thread. D&T you're both wrong and right ;)

It's true that in American English we often add 's' to denote plurality but it's also true our language comes from Europe where the 's' isn't always included for plurality, as in 50 euro.

This is a reason they say English is one of the hardest languages to learn. It's f-ed up and not always consistent.

Good thread.  When living in europe, i always said 100Euro or 20Pound / Quid.  20Bitcoin sounds right.

I have a half dollar. I have .5 dollars.

But that's still one unit. A half is a unit. I have two half dollars. That makes one whole dollar. Simple.

Is 0.5 considered one unit?

No, but a half is, just like 1000 is not one unit, but a kilo is. One kilo, two kilos, one half kilo, and so on.

I see my error.

I have 0.5 bitcoins.
I have a .5 bitcoin.

Albeit not common to say it that way, the keyword in the phrase is "a", thus one unit.

Question: If a mugger said, "Give me your bitcoin!", do I had over to him the protocol or a single bitcoin?

but in the case of bitcoin i would say: 1   bitcoin
                                                       10 bitcoinS  :D

I just use lower case bitcoin or bitcoins for everything. Uppercase Bitcoin just looks odd to me except when it is at the beginning of a sentence.

Bitcoins - plural, capitalized.

technically its bitcoinz

technically it is btc or if you are anal about it BTC

Or is it technically XBT?

Did you mean internetly?

I like it. Can we make it official?

It sounds fucked becouse it's "Why does Bitcoin have value?".

Plural is difficult. The system revolves around chopping Bitcoin up and putting it back together so in essence there is not 'a Bitcoin'.
But this compare this:

"I've moved all of my Bitcoin to a cold wallet" - "Where did you put it?"
"I've moved all of my Bitcoins to a cold wallet" - "Where did you put them?"

'All of my Bitcoin' sounds goot to me, but 'Where did you put it?' doesn't seem right.
'All of my Bitcoins' can't be correct, however, I do like 'where did you put them?'.

Difficult...

i has many bitcoinz!

I'd say:

1 Bitcoin
x Bitcoins
0.1 Bitcoin
0.x Bitcoins
0.0001 Bitcoin
0.000x Bitcoins

with x being anything else than 1 (101 is different than 1).

Not a native speaker but:


"I've moved all of my sugar to another place" - "Where did you put it?"

Sounds right to me, and uncountable bitcoin is just the same.

Thanks to this thread, I'm now proud to be of Homo Semantics decent.

Interestingly the word coin itself can be both plural and singular: I dropped my coins. He inherits a lot of coin in the will.

While Merriam Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coin) doesn't show the plural use case and Oxford (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/coin) does, I believe those sentences are grammatically correct in both American and British English.

So I'd say as with much related to Bitcoin: do what you like  :D

eh, if this thing ever goes mainstream everyone will just say bits anyway. "How much is that apple?", "Two bits please".

1 pound, 15 quid.

Seriously, us British don't do normal.