mBTC: At what point should the community use this as the default unit?

[Realpra]

Use Satoshi's with the familiar "computer" prefixes Kilo (K), Mega (M), Giga (G) etc.

I agree. milli BTC is also messy because micro also has first letter m and then you have use the weird u thing.

1 BTC = 100.000KS/100MS/0.1GS

Right now one apple/can of cola should be 0.5-2MS, nice and simple.

[1714899478]

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[ABitBack]

Bitcoin > Bit > Bite > Nibble > Crumb
1.            1        1        1             1  

[BTC_MACD]

Use Satoshi's with the familiar "computer" prefixes Kilo (K), Mega (M), Giga (G) etc.

The point is not to appeal just to the techy mind - in which case you're absolutely right - but to take it out to the currency using masses. We should try to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers.

I agree. There is no easy solution. It is easier to use Kilo, Mega, Giga (and increasingly so as computer uptake increases) than milli, micro and nano though is my main point.

[Kao]

The real question is will major sites like blockchain.info and instawallet, since the former punishes you with fees for doing smaller transactions and the latter doesn't support anything less than 0.01 BTC, start supporting more granular bitcoin transactions first which will push more people to use them or will people want/need due to price to use smaller transactions which will force them to adapt.  I'm just using them as examples incidentally, there are plenty more like them and I in no way endorse them specifically.

[casascius]

I have liked 0.01 BTC = 1 internet.

It just seems natural, because to the average mind, "an internet" (1/100 bitcoin) is the currency of "the internet".

[BTC_MACD]

Of course Kilo, Mega and Giga (Satoshi) can be replaced with thousand, million and billion repsectively.

[huggybear]

1 internet  sounds suspicious

why not just bitcoin and satoshi?
i am not a fan of milli and micro

for example 3.25 BTC for big goods and smaller goods
100.000 SAT or 100T SAT

[BIGMERVE]

I have liked 0.01 BTC = 1 internet.

It just seems natural, because to the average mind, "an internet" (1/100 bitcoin) is the currency of "the internet".

I like it too but how would you shorten it. Would it be 1 int. ?

[teukon]

I've tried to use mBTC as the basic unit since around July 2012.  I prefer working with whole numbers to fractions, even if those numbers are in the thousands.

To members of the community, I certainly recommend changing now, especially since the US dollar is closer in relative value to the mBTC than the BTC (true roughly since the exchange rate eclipsed the 2011 high).  At the current rate of 70 USD/BTC, I say preference for BTC over mBTC indicates pig-headed inertia or market bearishness that would make proudhon blush.

I personally like writing 'mil' as an informal suffix (just as it is for millilitres; likening Bitcoin to a liquid highlights its divisibility).  However, I would not recommend anything other than mBTC and uBTC for official/introductory purposes.

[foo]

I really think we're making too big a deal of this. The "general public" already deals with this in $.  Ex: $50B. $50M. $50K. $50. 50 cents.  we choose the appropriate units depending on the amount. I'm sure people will figure out how to do the same with bitcoin.

I understand your point, but the billion/million/thousand specifiers aren't (relatively unknown) descending SI units in an currency looking for recognition. Most people still can't differentiate between megs and gigs on their smartphone. Ask a hundred people on the street which is worth more, a BTC, mBTC or uBTC and I'll be surprised if more than 10% even notice that mBTC != uBTC.

To that end, doesn't it make sense to start using mBTC as the standard unit now, since that's the way the world will be headed if BTC/USD price continues to rise?

Tell you what: when BTC settles at over $100 a pop, I vow to start using mBTC

Sounds good to me, because when the exchange rate is over $100, two decimals are no longer enough to convert a dollar to BTC. Seems like a good time to go mBTC.

[thezerg]

I think mBTC and uBTC are here to stay because a lot of consensus has appeared around them.  But how about using the acronyms MBC and UBC, to keep them the as standard 3 letter acronyms?

Why?  There likely will be a psychological dampening effect if people think of buying a thousandth or millionth of something... these acronyms start the process of thinking of MBC as a unit in itself.  Especially if a few vowels could be thrown in there make something pronounceable -- "Mibic" for example. This should emerge naturally but it would be better if it was guided so it did not sound diminutive.  "Mibbies" would be bad for example because it sounds to me like some kind of plastic toy coin used in tiddily-winks


For newbies: no name that even refers to a colloquial name for USD should be used to ensure that there is no possible probable cause to create a (trumped up) counterfeiting case.  There's lots of discussion on this, search around.

casascius:  Doesn't work for me or a lot of other ppl I think.  Because the "internet" already IS something.  You'd have better luck with something like intercoin or netcoin I think... but unfortunately all those (and everything without bitcoin in it) sounds more like an alt-coin to today's ears.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

No one is ever going to visit any websites whose top level domain is not provided by default by their browser when they enter a real word keyword, all this geeky crap like .com and so on just confuses them, the web will never catch on until top level domains are gotten rid of...

-MarkM-

...and the .9 at the gas pumps here in the US freaks me out also. Somehow, I even believe I'm being fucked when I buy a liter of Coke. Didn't it used to come in tiny 6oz bottles?

And can somebody explain to me the number system used for AM and FM, and why can't they be numbered 1 to 10 using the same dot system I'm accustomed to?

Announcer: Welcome to 9.5 on your AM and FM dial. The weather today is expected to be...

[evilpete]

...and the .9 at the gas pumps here in the US freaks me out also. Somehow, I even believe I'm being fucked when I buy a liter of Coke. Didn't it used to come in tiny 6oz bottles?

No, you mean 9/10th of a cent.. because the US public doesn't understand decimals in general.

Somewhere along the way, they figured out that people will chose the price "3.89 9/10th" over "3.899" when all else is equal.

It is kind of sad.

[Grafzep]

For newbies: no name that even refers to a colloquial name for USD should be used to ensure that there is no possible probable cause to create a (trumped up) counterfeiting case.  There's lots of discussion on this, search around.

point taken, thank you

[eklass]

A drink (as in my original post) now would cost around 0.0053 BTC (assuming $1.25 cost and $235 exchange rate).

Bitcoin use in Africa has been in the news lately. Are any Africans on the forum that can give us insight into how well-known SI prefixes are on that continent, especially in the poorer nations?

[Luckybit]

If/when BTC hits $126 USD, the price will be 0.00992.

Quite specific...

How so? If I had to guess, at present, most users on these forums expect 1 BTC to surge past $100 by next year at the absolute latest. To see it go beyond--driving the relative fiat prices to smaller and smaller amounts--isn't much of a stretch.

Edit: To me, it's a question of user-friendliness to ease uptake.

LOL these posts are funny now. It's a year later.

[DeathAndTaxes]

A drink (as in my original post) now would cost around 0.0053 BTC (assuming $1.25 cost and $235 exchange rate).

Bitcoin use in Africa has been in the news lately. Are any Africans on the forum that can give us insight into how well-known SI prefixes are on that continent, especially in the poorer nations?

I could use a cold drink for a 5 mills right now.*


*To those who realize 5 mBTC is $1.17 not $1.25 it doesn't really matter.  Stores simply set prices where they are consumer friendly (hence lots of $0.49, $0.25, $0.99, etc).  If the store couldn't maintain their margin at 5 mBTC the drink would be 6 mBTC.  Given that 1 mBTC provides ~20 cent granularity not much reason to make it more complicated like 5.35 mBTC to ensure that the store collects the "full" $1.25 equivelent (a made up price anyways).

[johnblaze]

i think people should start using mBTC regularly

[nobbynobbynoob]

i think people should start using mBTC regularly

I'll be switching my client to mBTC/BTM default once we blow through 250 USD/BTC (if that happens, of course). I would encourage others to consider the same, but of course it's their client and they can use it however they wish.