With Bitpay's announcement of a move to 100 satoshis being the base unit, the time has come to vote on the name of this unit.  Vote in the poll here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=593705.0

Have you noticed that everyone has the same blocks in their blockchain?  Somehow we manage to have consensus without centralized authority.


Nope.  Everyone would switch over.  Anyone who doesn't will find himself unable to interact with the rest of the bitcoin economy.  This is a case of the network effect.  Everyone would switch over, including you.


People would switch over voluntarily.  No one would need to be forced.  Some would be reluctant (such as yourself) but everyone would switch.

That sounds correct in theory, but in practice you are wrong.  As I said, Mexico switched the definition of a peso in the 1990s and everything worked out.  That's a currency that was actually being used in shops and by illiterate peasants.  If they could do it, we can do it.

In order to make the switch we would just need to coordinate it so that several major sites switch over on the same day.  We can call it "split day" or something.  Flashy logo, etc... everyone is happy.  Everyone would switch over, because the people who don't will look like idiots.

Whereas attempting to get people to adopt bits would be harder.  That's because the old term "bitcoin" would still be available.  So we'd have a tiny minority using an inherently confusing term, and the majority sticking with the tried and true.

I voted for "bitcoin" because it actually makes the most sense.  When governments revalue their currencies (usually going the other way) they end up using the same name.  For example, back in the 90s Mexico moved the decimal place on the peso over by three.  The currency is called the peso now, and it was called the peso before the switch.

Likewise, when a stock splits the name is kept the same.

I see no reason to use any term other than bitcoin.  Bitcoin is an established brand and a good name.

Bitpay is making the move to 100 satoshi's being the main unit.  The only strong contenders for names are "bitcoin" (redefining the basic unit) and "bit" (which conflicts with the other uses of the word, such as talking about how many bits a private key is).

I was tempted to put "other" as an option but the reality is that no other option really has sufficient support.  If you prefer something else please vote anyway.  We need to know which of the two popular choices you are willing to support.

Our policy is that we don't sell any unless it will be a huge change in our life, and then we sell only a small fraction.  I advise you to hold as long as you can.  If you can buy more, even better.

My wife is incredibly happy that I bought some bitcoin a while back.    We have some major hardships that money can solve, and so she convinced me to sell a portion to deal with one of them.  She checks the price frequently now.

We aren't talking about a change to the bitcoin protocol.  We are talking about user interface changes.  So no, your client would not reject future blocks.

Of course there is a "top".  The big exchanges and brokers, along with the core developers.

Two years ago MtGox could have single-handedly switched the denomination and everyone would have updated their services.  Right now there are more big players, but it would only take half a dozen influential people to make the switch happen in a week.

No currency in the entire world is metric.  The Euro was recently created and could have been created as a metric currency.  It wasn't.  How do you explain that?

1. We have been having these threads for years now.  Everyone who is clued in is in complete agreement that the price per bitcoin is holding back adoption.  The problem is that we're nobodies.  This kind of change has to come from the top.

2. Metric is never going to catch on.  Never.  Just give it up.  If people wanted a metric currency then the Euro would be metric.  No one talks about centieuros or kiloeuros and no one is ever going to talk about millibitcoins.

3.  Real-world splits do not change the name of the currency unit, at least not permanently.  In 1993 Mexico shifted the decimal place on their currency three places.  One new peso was equal to 1000 old pesos.  For three years the new unit was referred to as the "new peso", not millipeso.  After three years they want back to calling it a "peso".  What if we did the same thing with bitcoin?  What if one bitcoin became equal to 100000 "new bitcoins".  Then after three years we went back to simply calling them "bitcoins"?  With stock splits there is no transition period.  Master Card split its shares 1 to 10.  Their stock symbol did not change from MA to dMA because the name of the stock did not change from MasterCard to deciMasterCard.

So there are the facts.  I don't really have any recommendations, because there is no point.

I'm not fully informed on this, but it seems like it would be better for both countries if they split.  England might be able to finally shed the Labour party and Scotland might stop rallying around it.  The only downside that I see would be Scotland succumbing to the Euro.  Smaller, more homogeneous countries are better able to resist corruption of all sorts.

2014: fairly stable at $400-500
2015: peak at $4000
2016: fairly stable around $3000
2017: peak near $20000
2018: stable above $5000

Many altcoins are scams, the others are a harmless hobby.  If you are looking for a way to waste time and/or money then you might want to look into altcoins.  Otherwise you should ignore them completely.

Mining is for people with millions of dollars to spend building a mining facility.

Buy and hold.

As a rule, men take risks and women don't.  More women will get into bitcoin once it is an established technology.  This is basic biology and would be taught in schools, if the world was a sane place.

Actually no, they will just charge you with the crime of not sharing your private key.



Maybe in TV and movies, but in real life it is very easy to convict an innocent person.

You have to pay capital gains tax.  Short-term capital gains (less than one year?) counts as income.  Long-term capital gains have their own special tax treatment that is superior.  In most cases you will pay 0%, though if you are dealing with big money you will pay 20%.


No where near as profitable as bitcoin.  I have a tiny percentage of my wealth in stocks but only as a diversification tactic.



We are entering the information age.  So my strategy has been to buy information.  Not so-called "data companies" because they don't actually have any data.  I buy stocks in companies that have big databases, for example Amazon, ADP, Pearson, etc...  I view the fact that these databases come with a company attached as a bonus.

I also want to invest in robotics companies so I have invested in iRobot.  I can't find any other public robotics companies to invest in.

I invested in a corrupt utility company (Pepco) that services a growing metro area (DC).  More government jobs = more DC residents = more revenue for Pepco.



If you want noticeable dividends you need to invest in stocks with a low PE ratio.  If you have a stock with a PE ratio of 8 that means that you need to invest $8 to get $1 per year.  Most of my stocks have a high PE ratio (meaning low dividends) but that is normal with stocks that are expected to go up in value.

When choosing stocks I first made a list of companies that I was interested in.  More than half of them I had to take off of the list because they weren't public.  Then I looked at their market caps and compared them to each other and other companies in the same industry and in different industries.  This gave me a sense of how big companies are and how big they should be.  So I got a sense of their potential for growth, stability, or decline.

Then I looked at PE ratio to get a sense of what other investors think about a stock.  A very high PE ratio means that other investors think that the company is going to have a major expansion.  For example I was thinking about buying Whole Foods stock, because I think that their company will double or triple in size.  However the PE ratio was very high compared to other stocks in their sector, indicating that other investors think that Whole Foods will do much better than double or triple.  So while I am bullish on Whole Foods I decided to skip buying that stock, because the market is even more bullish than I am.

Also I don't let my personal views cloud my judgment.  I hate Pepco.  They are incompetent and corrupt.  I am also opposed to Pearson Education and their tie in with the Common Core.  That doesn't stop me from investing in these companies.  They will continue to be profitable, I might as well get a share of their blood money.

It wouldn't fall.  It would instead max out at tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars per coin, rather than millions.

Altcoins are a silly and harmless hobby for people who are fools and/or eccentric.  They will never threaten bitcoin, in the same way that whittling, dog breeding, and fencing do not threaten bitcoin.

What would happen if a new clothing store opened up and only accepted bitcoin?  That would help bitcoin, if only a tiny amount.  Altcoins are bought and sold using bitcoin, and thus are just another thing that people can spend their bitcoins on.