Why I'm switching to mXBT — and why you should too

[Ares]

Agreed. I've heard people say they love the idea but can't afford one.

Those same people would have gladly said "I'm gonna but 50mBTC

[wumpus]

I agree. I've just switched my client to mBTC too.

My concern with enabling it by default in the client is that it will confuse users; after all, all exchanges and merchants still use 'whole BTCs'.

So, keep up the good work of convincing people (maybe to list both BTC and mBTC prices, so it gets exposure)

[crazy_rabbit]

I agree. Switching to mɃ from now on. I suggest we just call these "millibits," which is easier to say than "millibitcoin".

Millies have been agreed upon for millibitcoins and Mickeys for microbitcoins.

I'm pro.

[101111]

I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment, but would rather not use BTC for mainstream usage, it's too nerdy. No one has a BTC key and they aren't going to learn alt codes.

I would love to see Clark Moody or others switch to mBTC as default. Or is that already available somewhere?

in edit - I've posted to Clarks page.

[BigJohn]

I actually believe this is a pretty big problem in the marketing aspect of this thing, and that it's not really a good idea to have the base-unit that everyone uses be 1/21million of the total units ever.

What's funny is that when I explain Bitcoin to people, the first question they have is "So what actually IS a bitcoin", and I have to explain that there's no such thing, that it's just a ledger with entries, and that the base-unit is actually a Satoshi which makes 1 BTC be 100million base-units. Then the reaction to that is usually "Oh so it's like futuristic "credits" from the sci-fi movies", which isn't all that inaccurate really. And people grew up watching all these sci-fi movies where in the future you just have ambiguous "credits", and that's how they relate to it.

If the base-unit was 1-credit (which is just 1 satoshi), then it would solve all these problems. You'd just buy 1million credits for like a dollar, and there would never be a need to adjust any of this stuff. Even if we start calling it mXBT, at some point that's going to become "too expensive" as well. Why not just use the actual base-unit and call the whole thing by its real name?

There are only 2.1 quadrillion "base units" that will exist, ever. This is clearly not enough in a growth situation as you suggest, so the base unit will have to be changed anyways. Better deal with fixed-value units than volatile-value ones.

Are you saying that 2.1 quadrillion credits/satoshis aren't enough? By all accounts there are only several trillions of dollars in existence, maybe in the tens of trillions, but that's it. Say that we want to measure in cents, so that it compares to one of Bitcoin's base-unit, then we're still talking about some hundred trillion cents, or maybe a quadrillion. And that's after massive inflation. I would think that 2.1 quadrillion credits is more than enough.

Even if that's true, that's a problem with Bitcoin itself, not its nominal denomination. I still think that referring to it by its base-unit will make it easier for everyone who's new into it understand, and allow them to get in at any price-point, rather than having to buy 0.5BTC or 0.1BTC. They could get in with 1 dollar if they wanted to. All without the mental barrier that the single unit is actually 1BTC=100million

[jubalix]

I fully agree with this post!

but note we are in the process of psuedo banning 54uBit transactions

thus 1mBit = new, then nothing less than 54/1000 of this can be spent.

so by comparison, my 5 cents are worthless/unusable in my 100$ notes

so the sell will be you can but you can spend this portion of it "wat?"

although I accept some shops stop accepting low denomination coins as well in real life

[astutiumRob]

100 years ago a quarter would get you a gallon of milk.

3 years ago in the UK 20p could still get you a pint of Milk :p

[adamas]

I agree. Switching to mɃ from now on. I suggest we just call these "millibits," which is easier to say than "millibitcoin".

I also prefer Millibits!

Mickeys sound like we are promoting Mickey Mouse.

This!

[Brushan]

Or bitmills? I think it's very easy to pronounce.

[mc_lovin]

I fully agree with this post!

but note we are in the process of psuedo banning 54uBit transactions

thus 1mBit = new, then nothing less than 54/1000 of this can be spent.

so by comparison, my 5 cents are worthless/unusable in my 100$ notes

so the sell will be you can but you can spend this portion of it "war?"

although I accept some shops stop accepting low denomination coins as well unreal life

+1

We can't aim to go down into the decimal places like we used to.

When BTC price climbs to reality, "worldwide adoption", soon the $5 notes in your wallet are useless too.

[wumpus]

+1

We can't aim to go down into the decimal places like we used to.

When BTC price climbs to reality, "worldwide adoption", soon the $5 notes in your wallet are useless too.

By the time that is true, the limit will be lowered. Going even further there will need to be a hardfork to make smaller subdivisions than a Satoshi possible. But that's not the point of this thread. Baby steps first.

[AMuppInTime]

guys - what happens in 20 years when the mB is too expensive again?

I see no reason not to move down to the Satoshi - we will actually see prices fall down. Think of the psychological effect:
"You TOO can be a Satoshi Millionaire!". Add to that Satoshi's story as hook, and the transition from BTC to SC is simple, adding pseudo wealth all around.

[melvster]

I agree. Switching to mɃ from now on. I suggest we just call these "millibits," which is easier to say than "millibitcoin".

(I finally figured out how to type the "B with bar" character in OS X Mountain Lion--need to go to System Preferences/Language & Text/Input Sources. Then scroll down and select "Unicode Hex Input" and select "show input menu in menu bar."  Then go to the input menu selector icon in the menu bar, choose Unicode, and hold down the Option/Alt key while typing "0243".)

+1 millibits

[gogxmagog]

when they introduced the 1$ coin in canada, people began calling them loonies because there is a picture of a loon (marine bird) on the reverse of each coin. many people thought this was silly/irreverent/unacceptable, but the nickname persists to this day. micky is ok imo cuz people will remember it and feel a sort of affinity for it as it is already associated with a common nmonic. basically whatever people start calling it = its name, but since we can steer this, millies and mickies are ok with me. it anthromorphosises it a bit, which makes it human in people's minds, which can only be good. and yes, more transactions should be in mBTC, if the exchanges would adopt this we'd be all set.

[adamas]

guys - what happens in 20 years when the mB is too expensive again?

I suppose you are quite young. Believe me, in 20 years you'll have other worries than BTC decimals.

[Technomage]

I fully support this. My Bitcoin-Qt balance is in mBTC already.

[Bitcoinpro]

what about MiB 

[Aswan]

Or bitmills? I think it's very easy to pronounce.

This, I have used and will use this   But I usually leave the plural and only use "bitmill"... like "That wooden chair is 200 bitmill"

[Bitcoinm]

I could see myself getting used to this.

[Matthew N. Wright]

What's wrong with using "Bitcents"? There's not really anything of value purchasable for less than 0.01 BTC right now, and I don't think disguising the fact that bitcoin is divisible will have the psychological effect people think it will. It's much more likely that people will be amazed that they can afford to buy something of value with only 10 bitcents.