Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone,

I have a question concerning the current high value of a BTC. I talk a lot with friends who don't know much about BTC and try to convince them to buy some too.

When I tell them about it, the same question which always comes up is:

"But since it is so expensive (2000-3000$), how can I afford 1 BTC?"

I always tell them that it is possible to buy 0.5 BTC or even 0.001 BTC. But I think this is a major problem which gets worse with the price rising even higher.

So here is my question:

Are there any plans on changing BTC to make it "look more affordable"? Perhaps introduce something like mBTC (worth 0.001 BTC / 1 BTC = 1000 mBTC) so that people have a better feeling buying something, which is not a number behind a zero (e.g. 0.025).

I don't want it to become something like a "discount looking currency". But it's a psychological problem, that people don't like to buy only a part of something or (as in this case) often don't know that they can buy less than 1 BTC.

To say "Well, the people who don't know better shouldn't buy anyway" seems to be the wrong approach on the way to mass adaption.

There are no plans to do such a thing.

21 million bitcoins and that's it!

mBTC, uBTC, BITS, Satoshi, and a whole lot of other stuff already exist. you can read more about it here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Units

and most wallets already have the option to switch between these popular units that i named so you can see what you are most comfortable with.

We should all wear T-shirts saying things like, " Just 1 Satoshi at a time to my first Bitcoin " or "Bitcoin has small babies and they

are called Satoshi's " ..... or something similar to educate people. I have the same problem and once I explained this to people,

they dive right in. Once they bought their first few Satoshi's... they figure it out and they start buying more.  ;D

The best time to buy bitcoins was this past weekend when prices was driven to such an extremely low that investors were panicking, what a difference that a week makes now its soaring again. They can buy in small quantities if they cant afford to buy 1 BTC in just a single purchase, I am certain that their purchase will be rewarded in due time.

mBTC and other fractions have already been "introduced" and you can use that instead of BTC.
Perhaps it's linguistically easier to say bits than anything else though. 1 bit = 1uBTC = 0.000001 BTC.

There are already small coins that are available and those are called mBTC, Satoshi, and BITS. You can earn them by doing trades, captchas, and other stuffs to earn them but if you want to convince them to buy coins you can tell that if you just buy worth of $20 of coins its value or price of BTC will soon increase and also they can just earn by doing campaigns, watching videos, and or doing surveys there are a lots of ways to earn bitcoin if they don't want to invest or buy. Also, let them see a chart of the increasing rate of bitcoin over time and if they still have many excuses and other stuffs to neglect, there is nothing we can do about it. You can't force people who are not interested on something and let them convince something that they don't like. You did your best to explain in your part and if they are truly interested they will come back to you and asks for help but if they don't just leave them alone and just keep earning. Someday just prove to them that you are earning something through bitcoin.  ;)

I would just explain the benefits and potential of bitcoin to them and tell them that you don't even need to own a whole bitcoin. People just need to get over their own psychological barriers cos maybe someday they will be kicking themselves for not buying in when bitcoin was at 2k and then asking is 0.1btc unaffordable now. If people can truly see the potential of bitcoin then then value of bitcoin today could be peanuts in comparison to the future price but that's something people are going to have to make their own mind up about but you're never going to get anywhere in business or finance if you don't take the risk on some investments at least. You've just got to decide whether bitcoin is going to be one of them.

They are thinking about it wrong. I assume you want your friends to invest in BTC. So a good way to start it is to think of how much they can afford to invest in fiat. The amount of BTC does not matter.

Eh no this might not work, realistically a random stranger is not going to get interested in bitcoin by just reading your T-shirt quote. The only solution is to explain people properly that 1 BTC is just a larger unit of bitcoin can they can very easily but smaller amounts in Satoshi or mBTC.

While you introduce it to your friends, the best thing you can do to catch their interest in it could be the price rise itself, that how it started from less than a cent and is taking over the world currently with its price tag of more than $2500. Why do you think it could become a barrier here while you can put it in front of them as a positive as well as beneficial state-of-the-art comment and ask them to get in while they can still as many big businessmen have stated that the value could go to more than 5000 later this year.

Ask your friends if they want to be 1 of the 21 million newly minted millionaires or if they are happy flipping burgers till they retire. 1 months hard work and saving will bag you 1 BTC or 20 ETH.

Bitcoin is still cheap until you reach to 2018 Q1. If you have missed the train to BTC then probably there are still buses like LTC and XMR which could take you to Dreamland.

Don't be sad If you cannot afford 1 BTC. You are not alone.
We buy Bitcoins to buy other crypto coins with lower exchange rate hoping to give us more high returns when those coins will get higher. Bitcoin is very useful as a mode of payment. Thanks.

This would be horrible option. Bitcoin price is set to rise with time and there is no downside to that rather it make it more lucrative as an investment. There would only be 21 million bitcoins in circulation. That means possibility of people holding a whole bitcoin is only 0.3% of worlds population. Here comes an interesting part. In not more than 5 years I think People will love to hold 1 whole bitcoin specially the top 1%. Think how much people will be willing to pay for it. So instead of thinking about the high price think this way and insead of buying a whole bitcoin buy in parts and make a whole bitcoin. Bitcoin will skyrocket. Make your friends understand this.

While I get the point of everyone and yes satoshi/mbtc is honestly the solution I mean the fact that btc is divisible down to 0.00000001 means that even if btc was to reach the high expectation of 500,000usd/btc 1 satoshi would still be worth 0.005cents, so the btc version of a penny would still be worth less than an USD penny even at that level.

What needs to happen isn't a coin split or anything like that what needs to happen is people need to be explained that you don't need to buy 1 btc you can buy .001 btc if you want or .00001 btc (though the way fees work currently :S)

You miss it mate, the time that you can buy some affordable bitcoins are last week it's price go down and many are in panic that the bitcoin will be gone (that's what they knew) but they misinterpret it and many sell their bitcoins even lower than a thousand dollar. Tell your friends that if they want to buy some bitcoins with the current price maybe they should lower their demand for them to have some and even if they just keep it, we'll not know someday if 1 sat becomes a dollar and it would be great if it happens.

Just tell them to get some mBTC... I'll happily sell them 1mBTC for around $3.00
i'm sure they can afford that. ;)

i think you can answer their question with they don't have to buy the whole bitcoin, i mean they can buy with small amount for example, they only have $200 which mean they only get 0.07xxxx depend on the rate.

you can say that bitcoin is not like fiat, with bitcoin you can buy whatever amount of bitcoin with your money. tell them that bitcoin is another investment that will help them in the future because the price is always increase.  i think it is only psychological of people which don't want to know about something because if they are curious, they will trying to search more info in many places.

That's a great idea, maybe you should start your own business.


I never had a problem with Bitcoin prices. A price of a whole gold bar is also ridiculously high, does that mean that we can't invest in gold because we have to buy a full bar? Of course not! If you want to invest buy whatever you can, you will still earn in proportion to your investment.

No matter what amount of money you have. Your income depends on your desire to earn. Initially, there will be small amounts, but you gain experience and by the time you will have enough money for large transactions you will be a guru of investment and trade.

I think that's not a bad idea, but BTC is more famous than mBTC, uBTC and others.

bitcoin is not a 100% perfect system but hopefully the future
will iron out its issues.

I understand that it would be great if there wasnt a total of 21,000,000
coins and that each $0.05c was called 1 bitcoin but its the system
and it has to be thought of differently than FIAT and that means its $
value also to a point needs to be ignored.

if you believe that its going to be widely adopted in the future, buying
into it now with $100 will be insignificant in 5 years time or less even!

only spend what you can afford to loose  ;D

Majority of people can't do decimals, imagine if they need to learn about micro and milli and nano. :D

Why would you try to convince them? If Bitcoin drops, they'll blame you.
You can give information, tell them where to find more information, but I would never give investment advice to friends.

Honestly if your friends are just looking to make a quick buck and not really use the technology, they should expect to get owned hard on losing money.

Are they trying to buy in now at 2,700 USD and sell later? There are pletny of other coins you can buy in and hold for a week and make 50% or double or more.

Bytecoin regularly goes from 40 satoshi to 200 satoshi in a week.

If they are looking for profit only and lose money, they are going to hate you. If they buy at 2,700 USD and price goes down to 2 ,000 USD for months they are going to hate you.

Don't bother with it. It will just make them bitter. If they are actualyl smart and understand BTC that is different. Don't convince stupid people to buy something they don't understand because of the "Fear Of Missing Out" on profit.

This problem is due to the ignorance about Bitcoin and crypto currencies. It is better for you to invite your friends to this forum, to read more and learn about Bitcoin, then they will know and be encouraged to start dealing and holding btc, even if starting with a very small amount

This already exists

Ignorance? It is a matter of unawareness, so ignorance doesn't come at first place.
They might feel a bit risky and think many times before investing in such a volatile thing which has died many times and been called off by saying that it has no future. Albeit it proved itself and revival had been much better, but it would definitely make anyone think that why they should put in their money in a digital currency. We need to give them the best answer and that is, it's been more than seven years Bitcoin has been into existence and it has just started being used as a global currency all around the globe with the increase in number of transactions and the value itself. And your way of inviting them here for more knowledge also sounds great.  ;D

I come up against that one when speaking to people about bitcoin you get how much does one of them cost and they are like I can't afford one of them. You say you don't need a whole one but if I had the money I would be buying whole bitcoins.

Bitcoin doesn't need to adjust for them, people must. For a person that introducing bitcoin to others, they must think of a way to explained it simply that bitcoin doesn't need to buy as a whole since Bitcoin can be broken down to 0.00000001 (but of course don't say that they can consider buying on low decimals.

After doing such then up to the person who you given an explanation if they will move forward or still on doubt. If they seek for more questions, guide them.

In a few years even less people will be able to afford one bitcoin, better got it now while it's cheap. :D :D

I like this statement, because when it comes to the question that you are not able to buy one whole BTC and you want to explain it with mBTC and so on you should start with the analogy with gold. That could help - instead of confusing them with nano and millies right from the beginning.

There are some wallets that show BTC balance in bits and mBTC terms. Like Zebpay in India show balance in bits as default. Else there is no way.
But in my opinion, any Bitcoin user using it from long time can easily recognize and value decimals of Bitcoin. It is only new users who despair using zeroes.

This is a topic which comes up again and again and had been discussed several times. And for a good reason I think. You're right that people think Bitcoin is too expensive to buy it. I always answer that it probably will get even more expensive with the coming years.
Furthermore I could imagine we are switching to smaller units regarding the valueation.
For instance if we should hit at least $10k/BTC one day, measuering the price in Bits would definitely make sense imo.
1 Bit = 1 millionth of a Bitcoin = 100 Satoshis = 0.0000001 BTC = 0.01$ or 1 Cent

Why buy bitcoin when there are tons of other coins out there. These are are going to be have a good value too in the next years to come. I did buy btc once but after seeing there are lots of Alts, I stick my nose to them more.

There are so many coins today, you should look for one.

Proposing units does not change Bitcoin at all. Units has always been there.

This:

It seems you have not convinced them enough because if you have, then you get to show them various threads or even websites where they can buy in bits. And aside that, you can equally introduce them to faucets as that is something that show them the bits in which bitcoin is divided into. With all this put together I am sure any serious individual can leverage on that as a stepping stone to an higher level for being able to afford 1btc in the long-run.

Actually there is no specific rules or thing that says that you need to afford one bitcoin because what really matter is how you are going to earn. If you will invest time and effort you could actually earn more aone bitcoin. You will just need to continue on educating yourself on different aspect in regards on earning then have a suitable way to have an option of earning like investment and trading where you are the one who will manage it.

Oh good idea bro but that is not possible because everybody wants for bitcoin price go up and bitcoin is cryptocurrency what is a good reason why that is not possible.They will not make btc for some small amount of peole more similar to fiat currency that is not good.

Why do you need 1BTC? I think it does not matter, you can own any number of bitcoins, it does not need to be an integer. You should not take that seriously, "What would you do with that money?" That is the important issue.

Gold have a high price too but that is not stopping people who want gold buying them. I think the problem lies more on the fact that bitcoin is a new concept to them and they are afraid to invest a large amount of money. It is easy to explain that you do not have to buy in bulk or 1 btc and you can buy in retail. But if they insist that they cannot afford 1BTC, then it is an alibi to avoid buying bitcoin at all.

As others are saying, there is already a established units for what op wanted.

I don't see how this is a problem, most people also cannot afford 1 kilogram of gold...

Buying bitcoin is not a emotional investment it is just like hard cash and whatever you have in bitcoin have some value so you don't need 1 full bitcoin to get its value.

This is just some nonsense and not really a problem. There are few bitcoin wallets that allow its users to watch their balance in mBtc so you can suggest those wallets to those friends.

When talking to a friend or relative or whoever that is new to bitcoin, they often say something along the lines of "Bitcoin is too expensive," or "I can't afford to buy bitcoin," or anything indicating that it is cost prohibitive - ie whatever the current price of bitcoin is what is keeping them from buying in.

What I tell them - or rather, what I ask them, assuming that they are actually interested in buying bitcoin, but feel they can't because the price of 1 bitcoin is too high, is I ask them: "Without looking at the current price of bitcoin, how much money would you be able to afford/would be willing to invest/buy in bitcoin?" Then they will say whatever fiat dollar amount. And then I will say, "That's good, you CAN invest/buy that exact fiat amount worth or any fiat amount worth you want in bitcoin." I then go on to explain to them that it is not a requirement to buy bitcoin only in 1 btc increments and that you can buy lesser, decimal amounts.

I also tell them even if you can't afford 1 full btc all at one time, you can eventually reach that 1 btc amount incrementally by buying whatever you can afford bit by bit over time. The important thing is to just get in with any amount so you have some skin in the game, a ticket to ride on the Bitcoin Train and hopefully upgrade to a seat on the great Bitcoin Rocket to da moon and beyond.

Tell your friends to not look at it as an investment in terms of number of coins purchased.  They need to look at it from a US Dollar standpoint.  

If they can invest $1000, then they are hoping that their investment will become worth $2000 (or anywhere above their initial $1,000).

When I first got into bitcoin, I was really concerned with the number of coins that I could purchase, but if you are looking at it strategically to make money, you just have to look at it from a dollar standpoint (or whatever local currency you would be converting to).

If your $1,000 becomes $2,000...it doesn't matter if that is 1 bitcoin or .000001 bitcoin, you have still doubled your investment.

Is this really a big problem ?  ::) The one who can see potential of bitcoin will go straight and buy bitcoins with whatever they have ready to invest. I have also suggested and even helped many of my relatives and friends to buy bitcoin and never got any such questions/ dilemma from them.

So you are blaming bitcoin for this there is already mbtc and for your mind set it won't make a difference amd it's not at all complusory to actually buy exactly 1 btc i had purchased in starting 0.7 btc but i start trading and quickly turned those 0.7 btc to more than 1 btc , it will take time but I'm telling you trading is a hell lot of fun ones you start understanding.

Right now I can get away with ~10k satoshi fee for each transaction I make but when a satoshi becomes 1$ (that'll make 1BTC=100Million$ btw), my minimum fee will become 10k$.

It is all good for early adopters (even the 3k$ buyers will be early adopters) but if the fees don't get adjusted to those high prices, bitcoin will never be able to reach everyone in the world. Now, you may come with a counter argument and say that bitcoin's (or blockchain's) transaction capacity will never be able to handle a worldwide demand because, physics.

And If the information I recently read wasn't wrong, if we stay with blockchain, that limits will never change and bitcoin will never be >1million$.

People name bitcoin as v1.0
Some name eth as v2.0
If the dude in alt forum says the truth, v3.0's will come out in 5-10 months. (he is working on some other alt named radix)

Unless bitcoin upgrades itself something similar to that v3.0 protocols which can handle visa level huge amount of transactions without being centralized and dumps the block chain; bitcoin is about to hit its limits. We either need to make super cheap transactions (segwit/lightning will do this) and miners won't like it or increase the capacity by huge amounts so miners can make the same amount of money while processing more transactions.

The cap increase shouldn't be by increasing the blocksize btw, because it will reduce the node count&safety and increase the centralization.
And super cheap transactions won't last forever.

We need to increase the cap without hurting anybody.

The best thing about bitcoin is it can be divided into many fractions the least being 1 satoshi. It can easily be taught to people that thete are fractions of bitcoin available for them to buy in case the can't afford to buy the whole bitcoin. Just like cents are to dollars satoshis are to bitcoin.

No such plan, just waiting for bitcoin for less than $ 1800.

Im totally down with that. Anyone know where to buy cool bitcoin /altcoin merchandise? I haven't really found good quality stuff, only the cheap s**t on ebay.

Will earning $2500 a problem for anyone ? Will you buy your wedding ring for one full ounce of gold or some fractions of ounce ? Bitcoin is a currency like PayPal or some other foreign currency, you may go buying it (for what ever prices ) and will spend it (for same value) to find the benefits of using BTC payments which may not available with other payment systems. Now tell me why we need to worry about price levels of bitcoins ?

This is the problem now if others wanted to buy bitcoin at lower price. And cannot afford for 1btc, all of us are aiming to get profit of btc. Actually, bitcoin price is volatile all of us must be ready and willing to take the risks. Just enjoy the ride and invest on what you can afford.

The first thing that you need to do is to stop complaining about the bitcoin price because in future you may not get it on 3000 USD even. It will grow higher because there is only 21 Million Bitcoin and look at the world population if 5% of the world population starts using bitcoin its price will go ways high.
In my opinion it is wise to convince those who can’t afford to buy 1 bitcoin as a whole to buy the satoshis they can afford and if they are fond of having 1 bitcoin in their wallet, they should start working for it to earn. BTC allows everyone to avail the opportunity to earn it. BTC can be earned through freelancing, signature campaigns, facets, and mining and through many more activities. :)
If you are waiting for BTC price that it will come down sorry to say but you are living in fools paradise.  ;)

Discount? Where do you even want to get that? Everyone had their chance, this is your chance not until it gets to 10000usd and you start saying if I had known, I would have just gotten 0.01btc at least. If you or your friends had the chance to buy at 20usd, I am very sure you must have still said it is expensive then. Buy now what you can afford at the present value, the same amount in usd, you would have bought few years ago and at least you will still be better than people who ends up knowing and buying few years later. If you feel you are angry with the price, just find a way to earn if you have some skills then. But those your thoughts as well as those of your friends will keep taking you back until you regret later.

Nope fixed supply its beautiful cause its divisible, if they really want a whole coin there are plenty of alts on the marketplace
Could be balling with Dogecoins and be much wow lol.

That's a psychology of round numbers, everybody love it. You are right that buying of mBTCs is going to be the right investment, cause of the price will raise even higher than 3000$. But you see, if a person will buy just 0.001 BTC the profit is not going to be so noticeable, as it would be if it was at least 1 BTC, right? I think for the kind of people who think the same there is only one option to earn and collect bitcoin.

It's hard to overcome human physiological. When I explain BTC or mBTC to my friends, they would say it's a nice way of saying that you have "X" amount of cents and cents isn't worth having (which is true to a certain extent because what can 5 cents buy you in the real world? then again 95 cents is a lot but that's very close to the integer 1).

I must admit that 1btc is a whole lot of money when converted to the fiat of my own local currency which I am very sure not a lot of youths can afford and those who can, I am not sure they can afford to lose it since that is the disclaimer of putting  your money into bitcoin. But my challenge is when telling them to buy what they can afford in the case of fraction of bitcoin but they still insist they are not because they are expecting the returns of 1btc but I think a more detailed explanation would do well to clear their curiosity.

Frankly, they need to change their mindset because 0.1 is a great value or 0.01 is something that is affordable and 0.0001 is also a fair and small amount. Maybe they wish to convert it to USD so they can see the real value to it and sooner or later if they don't decide quickly then they will surely miss the opportunity.

   It is a lot of money for many people here, me too. Creator of this topic wrote "it's a psychological problem" and it is my opinion too, people would like to by whole bitcoin, but it is hard to get one. Many of
this people, and in that I count some of my friends, would like to be rich without work and risk. Buying small amounts when you can, 0.001 BTC or more, and working for it in several ways is also great. That
could be a way for many people to get to 1 BTC, it is how I plan to come to 1 BTC.
   Internet is free for all the people, people who do not know better should use free internet and find information that needs them. If no one offers you approach find it yourself, there is always a way if you are
ready to look for it!

Thats why we have that so called "satoshi". It is like cents on a US dollar but. Satoshi is equivalent to cents if you would just like to compare it to a currency and the "dollar" itself is the bitcoin.

Bitcoins do not necessarily buy, they can also be earned or won, but gambling is too risky. It is also good to wait when the price goes down and you can buy coins at a low price. Bitcoin has grown well and will continue to grow, so you need to find ways to get coins.

Agree! People's mindset usually is the reason why they do not go in investment because they think its too expensive or something. No one tells them to buy 1 btc right away they can accumulate whenever they have available money. When I started buying bitcoin I wasn't thinking that bitcoin price will be what it is right now and that time $800 is already expensive for me but I took the risk anyway and now I am happy with the result.

yeah anything in bitcoin or in cryptos will only make sense when we take the risk, risking it may result good or not depending on what we choose to do. So be smart on making decision it might result big impact.

Nothing extra could be done in this matter except creating awareness among the people that bitcoin is further divisible into 8 units called satoshis.So no need to get worried about the high price of bitcoin.Just they could even buy 0.00000001 btc which is one satoshi.Even i faced the same problem with my friends when i introduced them bitcoins.Then i explained them that they could even buy 0.1 btc or 0.01 btc and then they got convinced.

youre right. the rising price of bitcoin is not the problem here but the knowledge and the correct approach is. understand that everyone loves their money so intoducing an

unknown to them will be difficult particularly if you yourself doesn't really understand it well. it just results you getting overwhelmed by their questions. which is not a good thing

it can leave a bad impression on them. friendly advise, bitcoin is and will never be for the rich only

Some of my Family Members also say that they cannot purchase one full Bitcoin. I tell them I also do not yet own one full round Bitcoin but if one purchases slowly, a little at a time, one day one can own a complete Bitcoin. It' is as simple as that. The only problem there is here is for those who cannot think outside of the box and don't want to make the effort to start accumulating before the price rises a lot in the near future.

Somehow I feel that way. I've never really grown used to saying stuff in microbtc, etc. I say, "oh, I bought this alt for 0.00008564 bitcoins each" (dot zero, zero...).  ;D

Would be nice if there are easier name for denominations, like how the dollar have pennies, quarters, dime, nickels, etc... I usually just say, "half-bitcoin", "quarter bitcoin".



Awwww, the Satoshi babies would be cute. Someone make an image for this!

Why should we do it easier for anyone? I see no reason for that.
If they want to understand, what it is, and why should they buy it. It it their problem

Point well taken. When I discussed Bitcoin with some of my friends and when it came to the price, I said Bitcoin reached $3K mark (it reached that mark 2 days ago at that time), then the very first reaction of couple of them was, "cool, so now we need to save $3K to buy Bitcoin." I explained them about smallest denominations and they were impressed with the various fractions of Bitcoin. We collectively need to do something to tackle this misunderstanding of the general public.

No it isn't possible already to buy cheaper coins infact if you did buy on those days on where price is on lowest 1800+ in previous days then you will surely gain profits as of now. Bitcoin is really expensive to buy it as a whole which an average joe would really have a hard time to buy it that's why we can really buy it on smaller parts which isn't bad at all and its not really necessary to purchase 1 bitcoin, you can always do it on a gradual way.

It's a tricky situation. I often get asked how much BTC I own by IRL friends. If I turn around and say 0.3 BTC (thats vague), their faces drop. They all expect me to turn around and say something like 200. People don't realise the value of Bitcoin, because one I say to them thats $800, they become interested again.

The dilemma in short is that any decimal number sounds like it's worth nothing. The only fix (I think) is that once BTC grows enough and a satoshi becomes worth something, we will work in satoshis, like cents.

In my opinion the lack of feeling of affordability is a part of the bitcoin's aspect.

People are resisting the urge to buy something they percieve as expensive, until they see it rise in price. In that moment they see themself as been wrong - it was not expensive, and they end up buying something that they previously resist to buy. Its somewhat a psychological hack.

If that would be the other way around it wouldn't be so magical in the eyes of the bitcoin buyers.

it's pathetic that this is an issue, but it really is an issue.

it's too late now. luckily there's enough pockets who can see past it but i do wonder how much progress is being hindered by a very simple piece of psychology.

and the people who don't have a problem with it, you're wrong and always will be.

Those who have a problem with the concept of not being able to buy a full bitcoin are easily encouraged to buy a portion share instead by simply saying:
When you can't afford a whole pizza. Just buy yourself a slice.

People will gain confidence in their purchases involving BTC once they actually own some. I always tell people to start small. $10 is a good entry point. Granted it's not going to make them $30 profit if BTC jumps $1000 in value. But to show how one can use %s of a whole can still be worthwhile.

If someone is looking to buy BTC but cannot afford 1 BTC, then tell them to just buy what they can afford or wait for a drop and buy at the new low price.

People seem to like over complicating the simple things.

Stock splits are very common in share markets. For example, the shares of Apple was split 7-for-1 basis on June 9, 2014. Something similar can be done with the Bitcoin as well, although it may need forking and such efforts. Showing the prices in mBTC is not an ideal solution. And this issue is pretty serious, as I know a few guys who went with ETH since they thought that the BTC prices were too high.  

The default notation in any wallet software could always be changed to mBTC.
But this is only an issue when you're misinformed, lack knowledge, or desire that the price inflates by panic buyers.
In my opinion, it is only useful to switch unit notations when you're spending bitcoins.

The panic buyers will be shaken out just as quickly as they bought. So this is not an issue at all.

Answer is simple:
1. Take loan
2. Sell ur car
3. Sell ur house
4. Sell ur kidney

There you go :) u have whole BTC.
There are millions of people with no idea what they are doing in financial world. You cannot educate them all :/

why would you buy 0.1? what for? trading? you would better spend  time with some girls instead  ;D

how would you buy 0.1 BTC?  bank wire? the bank wire fee is more than the amount you send.

so, it's useless to buy few BTC cents :)

My advice is to ask them how much money they are willing to invest in Bitcoins. If they say $500, then tell them they can buy $500 worth of Bitcoins which is currently about 0.2 Bitcoins. Regardless of how small that seem, that 0.2 Bitcoins may be worth $1000 in a couple of years. They could double their money in a few years, so they shouldn't get caught up in buying 1 Bitcoin. The other thing you can tell them is that the longer they wait to buy, the less they are going to be able to buy (unless they time a buy in a correction).

Yes you can't educate them all and when you just like always convincing them hard to invest bitcoin they'll hear you like a scammer ;D
Let them the one who approach you that they want to learn or invest bitcoin because when you force them to this and they'll just end up to nothing you're the one they will blame. So leave them alone and be more rich.

But people shouldn't be buying bitcoins without having a reasonable understanding of it.  Bitcoin is still effectively an experiment and, if it continues to succeed, will take decades to mature.

I dislike the huge, de-facto standard unit but if we adopt smaller units we should do so because it makes Bitcoin easier to use, not so that we can trick people into buying.  If anything, discouraging such buying is the one redeeming feature of the unit.  It's an opportunity to explain the bounded supply, the importance of it, and discuss debasement, money printing, and inflation versus deflation.

People shouldn't need to study economics to use money, but I wouldn't recommend uncommon stores of value to people with no interest in economics just as I wouldn't recommend uncommon operating systems to people with no interest in computers.

I agree with you, mate. Bitcoins are just another digital currency that’s offering world better opportunity of exchanging money as compared to fiat. Just like paper money, it’s a mode of buying and selling things. Bitcoins are digital sound money that’s bringing people closer from all over the world. Yes! We need not to worry about the value of bitcoins even if they dump. All know that soon the prices recover.

It is a bit hard when it comes to convincing people to use/buy bitcoin.
Also, those mindset is typical actually.

First ask them, how much money they are willing to invest?
We could just started from a really small amount. Tell them try to use a small amount first,
let them understand how the market goes, the prices and how to get profit from it.

People talked about this back in 2014 and the overall answer was that we can show it in different denominations but overall it really doesn't matter and there's no point trying to change it because it opens up a whole new can of worms, compared to what it would "fix". If people don't understand that Bitcoin is divisible, and highly divisible, and they don't have to buy a whole Bitcoin, then they probably shouldn't be getting invested in the crypto at all. They should have a better understanding before anything is pushed through.

Expensive is a relative word. What's expensive for others might just be peanuts for some.  And if we talk about investments, it is usually the ones who have money to spare that are able to afford to buy bitcoins even at such a high price. The lower income people can still invest by buying in fractions and if they are patient enough, one whole bitcoin isn't too hard to achieve.

patient enough? years? :)  BTC won't exists as it is in years and it's a high risk investment. this should be a fast return investment. how long will someone earn if he invest 200 usd today? LOL

to invest 200 usd worth of BTC, he has to send a bank wire(fee around of 40 usd) and then, IF he make any profit, he will have to pay another wire fee for withdrawal. :)

There are already many small units for bitcoin, I think in your problem, you can start to introduce bitcoin with mBTC unit, or actually convince them to invest in dollars and not worry about how much BTC they are getting for their investment initially.
As if they invest $100, you can sell them the idea that in very short time, their investment can grow to $120 or even higher.
So I think its just about how do you sell it, bitcoin does not have to change for it.

Bitcoin is not so expensive for those who know how to make good money. To begin with, people need to learn how to earn well in their own currency, and then move on to the crypto currency for a while.

You can simply quote them the price in smaller units. The most commonly used units of bitcoin are expressed in decimal exponents such as BTC ("bitcoins"), mBTC ("millibitcoins") and μBTC ("bits"). Its not hard to explain, just use dollars and cents as an example, eventually you will break through.

I understand where you're coming from, and I experience this alot. People are simply stunned and in awe, when I tell them Bitcoin is $2.7k apiece. It just makes it deal near impossible to get one.

But just like how one Troy ounce of gold is $2.1k, one Bitcoin is just a unit of measurement. It should have no effect on it's users, but yet it does, because it is the default measurement and barely any services will show your balance to you in bits (or mbtc, or ubtc...).

I think it would be wise to change the default measurement by multiplying every single output by 100, making a total of 21 billion Bitcoin. This would mean that one Bitcoin would be $2.7.

Still the same value, just the default has been shifted up.

When I am discussion bitocin with my friends and people I meet occasionally and try to convince that BTC is something to invest into, this topic "how I can afford 1 BTC"  is always present.
From my experience, I can tell you that the best answer which can motivate people to buy bitcoin is telling them about bitcoin history and price evolution.
You need to assure them that current $2000-$3000 price is not the end of the read here and bitcoin will be much more expensive in the future, by no buying BTC they would miss a serious opportunity.

The same problem occurs with many people here especially newbie. Even i didnt bought 1 BTC when i was a noob. To start with, we can always prefer small amounts like you mentioned 0.5 or even 0.0001. You canstart with low and once you have enough to spent on 1 btc, you can invest it. All the earning activities like trading, gambling, etc can be done with small amount bitcoins and it dosent really have any restriction to spend atlease 1 BTC.

I know there are so many people who cannot afford to buy even 1 BTC. I myself cannot buy 1 BTC. There are also those that can buy but are afraid.
I think buying BTC right now is expensive but it will get more expensive soon so better buy now. I am buying, but less than 1 BTC.

Yeah, bitcoin is too much expensive, now it is out of our budget to buy 1 Bitcoin. But we could try to earn and i prefer to you, should try altcoin trading, it definitely help you to earn bitcoin in a good source. Actually, now you have late because in the previous year, bitcoin has no highest price. Also it is really hard to buy in the coming years, because everyday bitcoin price is going to high. 

If I think 1 mbtc is also difficult, what else does 1 btc take long to achieve if I have the capital I want to buy when the btc price goes down and I will resell it when btc goes up so continuously up to 1 btc even if it can be more ;D ;D

Consider as answered, clearly about "discount looking currency" as you want, it has been stated since long time ago :D
The most famous units are:
- BTC       : 1
- mBTC    : 1,000
- uBTC     : 1,000,000
- satoshi  : 100,000,000
Even though it seems bigger but its value still the same, after they are figure it out about bitcoin units.
What's matter is whether they know about the advantages of bitcoin, purchase BTC1 at rate $2750 indeed require big amount of money, but as long as they know the value keep growing over time, then it shouldn't be problem anymore.

there is no solution, it's about the money they can spend, if they cna spend $1000 what matter if bitcoin is at $10k or $1000, they will not buy more anyway, they just need to get rid of this mental thing and buy what they can buy, this is a non-issue tell that to your friend

The issue is not even limited to Ops friends alone but also to mine too. The moment I just introduce my friends to bitcoin, the next question they ask is, how much is 1? thinking its cheap but the moment you tell them in terms of dollar value, they shout. But when you now tell them how much they can afford, they say they will wait till they can afford a whole 1btc, months and weeks go by, and I ask again, telling them the current price, then they say, if I had known, I should have bought it then... and the story continues.

well you are right we cannot blame bitcoin for this if the price of the bitcoin is out of reach now and we cannot afford it but I think the most positive point of the bitcoin is that it can be divide into fractions  it can be easy to use and to make other people understand the term bitcoin the price of the bitcoin will be stable after august first.

It is crazy how almost anyone could have bought multiple Bitcoins in 2013, but now most people in the world cant afford even half of a Bitcoin...

Such units already exists and are known to most of the people using bitcoins -
0.00000100 ฿ = 1 μBTC (microbitcoin)
0.00100000 ฿ = 1 mBTC (millibitcoin)
Tell them it's not  expensive yet and still affordable.  ;)

Yes its good question even i tried to convince my friend to invest on BTC they asked the price then lots lost interest some are tried but seeing buying and selling difference  in exchanges like premium . There should be some common term like Mbtc so that common people will not afraid to buy because of high investment.

Today it's not easy to get one Bitcoin especialy if you have to buy it. And it's going to be even harder because it's expected for price to rise further. Having in mind current price, in some countries the value of one Bitcoin is equal to small fortune. But there is no use of thinking what you could have done but what you can done in the future to get at least one Bitcoin.

I'm not sure why this concern has come up with bitcoin distribution. We don't need to explain people about its use if how to buy it or how much is affordable or etc. I'm really confused why you need to have plans for making it look like affordable. The value of bitcoin is same whether or not you divide it. It is volatile and you can divide it all the way down to 1 satoshi.



It's not about their feeling, it's about how much they know about the bitcoin and its working. The statement you made as quoted above is not realistic or what can I say worth investing time in it. People will buy if they afford to buy otherwise they are their own.

Such units like the μBTC, mBTC and satoshis exist already. But using this units won't make the bitcoin price look more affordable. Why? Because 1,000 mBTC for example is still just equal to 1 BTC. No matter how big it looks, it still has the same value. Now if they want to, they can buy 1 mBTC, but it is just equivalent to 0.001 BTC. In the end it won't depend on how the consumer feels about buying. It will still depend on how much the consumer is willing to pay in exchange for bitcoins.

I think we need a re denomination of Bitcoin in order for us to use the smaller units which is more appealing to the lower and middle income families than the current one.

Why force your self to buy the whole bitcoin. If they cant afford the whole, or half, then buy the small parts. I started to know bitcoin at 2000usd. But didn't buy. I bought it at 2400 :(

What you seek is mere semantics. You just don't want a situation where zeros will appear before the actual numbers, right? It's like saying you don't want six of a product but you want half a dozen of that product. Whether you count it in mbtc or ubtc, it all gets down to satoshis. One hundred million satoshis equal 1btc. That's just the calculation. I agree that  not everyone can afford one Bitcoin at a go. However, one can build it up gradually.

Personally, I think that they shouldn't get into it too much, the price is currently what it is and there are a lot of people trying to profit just from buying and selling. What people should understand is that you can do it by parts, it's just like a dollar but you can afford it in cents, it's divisible. It's never 1 BTC in the market today, probably when it was $3 or something, it could be always a whole number. Basing on mBTC, it's already happening but here in bitcointalk forum, they are used to BTC only, so they have to adjust and let them know that's it's not all about the money, it's about what Bitcoin can do for us especially in the future.

There is no problem, we probably don't want people who can't grasp the concept of Bitcoin is divisible. It's not that hard to understand. These people only add to the volatility of Bitcoin as they will be the first to dump on any bad news.

The fact that Bitcoin is a fixed supply is a wonderful thing. It is deflationary. The price rising is a good thing for anyone invested, perhaps your friends just need some basic economic lessons  ;)