Move the decimal place! (Is it possible?)

[AbsoluteZero]

I know it is technically possible. I can think of two ways:

Change the Bitcoin source code and the block chain.

Change all the bitcoin clients and online wallets, etc.


But will we ever have consensus?


First of all, why move it at all:

Today a bitcoin at 12 bucks its probably fine, but at $100 or $200 (or $1,000 etc..)  it will give a sticker shock to new users and the adoption rate will slow down.

Also, when using bitcoins, it seems better to pay with 1 or 2 bitcoins for something and not with 0.001.


Many people have suggested just calling the new units mili, micro, bitcent, etc. but the brand awareness is “Bitcoin”. We should stick with it.


When a stock splits to maintain an affordable level, the new stock keeps the name it had even though is not the same thing.


When a country wants to remove zeros from their currency, generally they just do it and the new currency maintains the old name. Maybe calling it “new” for some time like New Peso, etc.


So the questions are:


1. How can this be done (if ever)?

2. Should it be done?

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[wachtwoord]

1. Yes
2. Nope (use search)

[DeathAndTaxes]

Just switch your client to report values in mBTC.  Done.
Hey I am selling this steam game for 2,000 mBTC.  Anyone want it?

To change the value of Bitcoin would require increasing the supply (i.e. turn every BTC into 10 BTC).  That is simply never going to happen.  Not today, not next year, not ever.  While in theory it "could" happen (any change could be made to Bitcoin with enough of a consensus) you will never find the consensus necessary.

[matthewh3]

I know it is technically possible. I can think of two ways:

Change the Bitcoin source code and the block chain.

Change all the bitcoin clients and online wallets, etc.


But will we ever have consensus?


First of all, why move it at all:

Today a bitcoin at 12 bucks its probably fine, but at $100 or $200 (or $1,000 etc..)  it will give a sticker shock to new users and the adoption rate will slow down.

Also, when using bitcoins, it seems better to pay with 1 or 2 bitcoins for something and not with 0.001.


Many people have suggested just calling the new units mili, micro, bitcent, etc. but the brand awareness is “Bitcoin”. We should stick with it.


When a stock splits to maintain an affordable level, the new stock keeps the name it had even though is not the same thing.


When a country wants to remove zeros from their currency, generally they just do it and the new currency maintains the old name. Maybe calling it “new” for some time like New Peso, etc.


So the questions are:


1. How can this be done (if ever)?

2. Should it be done?

I had the same idea a while ago and still think it's a good idea although most people either don't care or are against the idea.

[ArticMine]

No. One can use mBTC or eventually µBTC.

[phillipsjk]

No. One can use mBTC or eventually µBTC.

Why would the Metric system, or more precisely, Engineering notation (the base unit is 10nBTC) be so hard for the average person to understand?

For me, that is easier to understand than arbitrarily moving the decimal place. The best part of engineering notation is that you can move the decmal place on the fly, depending how large the transaction is. Your proposal won't work (unless everybody agrees to switch at the same time (thus won't work)).

Edit: :oops: I thought I was responding the the OP, and disregarded important punctuation.

[SgtSpike]

Just switch your client to report values in mBTC.  Done.
Hey I am selling this steam game for 2,000 mBTC.  Anyone want it?

To change the value of Bitcoin would require increasing the supply (i.e. turn every BTC into 10 BTC).  That is simply never going to happen.  Not today, not next year, not ever.  While in theory it "could" happen (any change could be made to Bitcoin with enough of a consensus) you will never find the consensus necessary.

Eh, I'll have to disagree with you on this one.

Transactions are done in Satoshi's (or whatever you want to call them).  When I send a single Bitcoin to another person, I am sending 100,000,000 Satoshi's behind the scenes.  A single Bitcoin is only a single Bitcoin because everyone agrees that's what 100,000,000 Satoshi's are called.  If people agreed to 100,000 Satoshi's being called a Bitcoin instead, then the clients could be changed to show balances in the new denomination, and everything goes on as normal.  There's no change necessary to the protocol itself, and no need to make 1 Bitcoin = 10 Bitcoins - it's all about how it is displayed to the end user.

[D.H.]

Threads about this from June 2011:

Shift the decimal point over? (with poll)
Solution: How to shift the decimal