I think switching to mBTC is a bad idea, and here's why.

[Plazmotech]

So a lot of people have been going around wanting to change BTC to mBTC as default. Now, instead of saying something costs BTC 0.03069 they say it costs mBTC 30.69. They say it will be easier to think about and count. But they say the strongest part of this is that Bitcoin will seem cheap. People wont look at the Bitcoin prices and go "$130 is too expensive! I'm not going to buy this scam!" They will go "$0.13 is cheap! If this is a scam I wont be loosing much anyway!"

I think this is a terrible idea. Here's why.

Bitcoin is pricey because it's VALUABLE. Something valuable shouldn't seem cheap. It should seem expensive. If someone looks at a gem that is priced at thousands of dollars they will think it's a very valuable gem. Something worth having.

However, if someone looks at a gem priced at only like $100, they will think it's a crappy gem. Nobody cares about it.
Don't try to control the value (or at least psychological value) of Bitcoin. It will throw off the whole system of value.
Also, people who want to use mBTC for cheap things are free to use it anytime. There's nothing keeping you from selling mBTC or buying mBTC either.
That is all.

[eMansipater]

When BTC were at .13, people didn't look at them and think they were crappy.  They thought they were a deal.  But nothing is stopping someone from talking about how much the price per bitcoin is--awareness of mBTC just gives people who are trying to sell things for less than $130 a way to meaningfully price them.

You can talk about the BTC price when you are discussing how valuable bitcoins have become, and you can use mBTC when, you know, you're trying to actually use bitcoins for something.

[jag2k2]

You make a valid point however if the currency denomination is impractical for day to day transactions then people can't relate to its value.  People can relate to the price of a cup of coffee, not to the value of a small investment vehicle.

[Razick]

Bitcoin is a currency, not a gem. Also, chances are by the time someone thinks about buying it they aren't so ignorant as to think that a cheap currency = a crappy currency.

[amincd]

People buy XRP because they think it's cheap. The result is that if you multiply the current price of XRPs by how many there are - 100 billion, it has a market cap equal to Bitcoin's. Even if you take into account XRP's market being too illiquid to accurately estimate its market capitalization based on price, the fact that XRPs are trading as high as they are on just a couple of exchanges should tell you everything you need to know about market psychology.

I have seen many people claim bitcoin is expensive, even so-called financial experts. The only reason they think this is because the bitcoin unit has a high price, and it's the standard of account right now. If the standard unit were a millicoin, then they would say "bitcoin is still cheap right now, trading at $0.12, so investing in some right now could pay dividends down the line".

[linuxer]

Bitcoin is a currency, not a gem. Also, chances are by the time someone thinks about buying it they aren't so ignorant as to think that a cheap currency = a crappy currency.

Exactly.

[cheesylard]

Agreed. A bitcoin is a bitcoin.