Could decimal places become cumbersome?

[reedjholmes]

Like most on these boards, I would like to see bitcoin become a widely accepted means of exchange. However, one concern I have is decimal places. As bitcoin appreciates in value, anything priced in BTC will require increasingly more decimals.

For instance, say a pen costs 0.04 BTC today. But in the future (perhaps not too distant), that same pen might cost 0.000567 BTC. With so many decimals, understanding the cost of the pen may be tricky to comprehend for the potential buyer.

Or, say I buy the pen for a friend, I then go to my friend to collect the money in exchange for the pen. Meeting with my friend, I say, "Here's the pen. You owe me 0.000567 BTC." Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, or brain for that matter.

Of course, most transactions will be done electronically, so perhaps you wouldn't have to quote prices to someone. Nevertheless, understanding values in BTC could become tricky, especially if we want to go beyond translating BTC prices into our home fiat currency.

Perhaps we will need to begin computing values in reverse. In other words, we have an intuitive understanding of what 100 USD represents. In the future, will we have an intuitive understanding of what 0.00000752 represents?

Just thinking out loud. No doubt I've missed something in my thinking. I'd love to hear some thoughts.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Asked and answered.  See mBTC.