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

[Razick]

Bitcoin is known by many but owned by few.

Most of my friends know about Bitcoin. There are few exceptions. News coverage recently has been phenomenal.

But I can't say the same about their opinion of Bitcoin. One pointed out, "who would spend hundreds of dollars on that thing?". Another replied, "yeah, the price is way too high".

For perfectly rational human beings, the price is not an important factor. After all, a single bitcoin can be divided into 100000000 units—this is so large a number that the satoshi, worth 0.00000001 BTC, is worth a third that of the lowest physical denomination of currency: the Uzbekistani tiyin.

But rational and human together form an oxymoron. Whereas my friends were easily corrected on the ability to purchase fewer than one bitcoin, the psychological barrier cannot be ignored. People do not consider using something unless they have at least one of them. Nobody buys half a car, or 0.25 houses. We can't eat 0.03 apples, and we would reject a gift of 0.007 trees.

These comparisons obviously do not apply to bitcoins, as they are effectively divisible anywhere. But because Bitcoin is abstract, we tend to compare a bitcoin to something physical. As a result, we balk at not being able to own a single bitcoin.

This also hurts the economy. Most are so accustomed to spending dollars, quarters, etc. that the thought of spending 0.007 BTC is awkward. Even worse, some merchants reject Bitcoin because they feel that 0.05 BTC is unfair compensation for the products they offer.

What if we used mBTC by default? Then merchants would get payed 50 mBTC. The "dollar" store would offer products for 1 mBTC. Et cetera.

For those living in countries with a currency valued at or higher than the US dollar, also recall that most countries have lower-valued currencies. The mBTC, among currencies, would be right in the middle of the pack.

For all these reasons, I will begin to use mBTC. It just makes sense. And I hope we could demonstrate the power of the decentralized system of governance, and band together to do so. I aspire to transact with others only in mBTC by the end of May. And I hope you will too.

+1. We are beginning to see huge support for this lately. http://www.coindesk.com/june-2-m-day-promotes-millibitcoin-as-unit-of-choice/

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[jaywaka2713]

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.

You are incorrect here as we can actually break bitcoin infinitely smaller fractions. Just needs a software patch

[HorseRider]

so suddenly we become millionares

[jaywaka2713]

so suddenly we become millionares

No this is just discussion about moving a decimal point. It's better to pay in 500 uBTC than 0.0005 BTC

[scooter]

I hate comparing bitcoin to gold, but when the price of gold shot up. People still quoted it in the per troy ounce gram, yet still understood that they could own a couple grams of gold and that it would have value even if they could not afford an entire ounce.

[talnted]

I think this is a good post.  I hope this continues

[Razick]

I don't understand what's wrong with "millibitcoin".

Are USians so afraid of the metric system? 

No, we're not (although for most things, but not Bitcoin, I prefer Standard), millibitcoins is just a mouthfull. I use em-bits in real life conversation, and mBTC in text.

[Razick]

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.

What? 2.1 quadrillion not enough? You're crazy: That's 300,000 satoshis for every single person on earth.

[ScaryHash]

I tend to agree.

But, as long as you're redefining stuff...

Why stop there?

Redefine the regular BTC as the HectoBTC, and redefine the .01 BTC as the regular BTC.

Presto ! Now there will be 210 million BTC in the world !

[tutkarz]

we need to change naming of bitcoin but to be honest im getting confused. there is many threads and many propositions, is there any chance someone will create a consolidated thread maybe with poll with all options. i know it was somewhere too but dont know if it included all options.

to me best idea would be to use 100satoshi = 1XBT since that would be most natural to people who are already using nomination of $1.99 for example, in btc it would be 1.99XBT (100 satoshi).

btw could we somehow convince mtgox and others to change their denomination also, for example:

1.00000000 btc = $130
10,000.00 XBT = $1.3

its psychological difference and much better to read.

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

Bitcoin is known by many but owned by few.

Most of my friends know about Bitcoin. There are few exceptions. News coverage recently has been phenomenal.

But I can't say the same about their opinion of Bitcoin. One pointed out, "who would spend hundreds of dollars on that thing?". Another replied, "yeah, the price is way too high".

For perfectly rational human beings, the price is not an important factor. After all, a single bitcoin can be divided into 100000000 units—this is so large a number that the satoshi, worth 0.00000001 BTC, is worth a third that of the lowest physical denomination of currency: the Uzbekistani tiyin.

But rational and human together form an oxymoron. Whereas my friends were easily corrected on the ability to purchase fewer than one bitcoin, the psychological barrier cannot be ignored. People do not consider using something unless they have at least one of them. Nobody buys half a car, or 0.25 houses. We can't eat 0.03 apples, and we would reject a gift of 0.007 trees.

These comparisons obviously do not apply to bitcoins, as they are effectively divisible anywhere. But because Bitcoin is abstract, we tend to compare a bitcoin to something physical. As a result, we balk at not being able to own a single bitcoin.

This also hurts the economy. Most are so accustomed to spending dollars, quarters, etc. that the thought of spending 0.007 BTC is awkward. Even worse, some merchants reject Bitcoin because they feel that 0.05 BTC is unfair compensation for the products they offer.

What if we used mBTC by default? Then merchants would get payed 50 mBTC. The "dollar" store would offer products for 1 mBTC. Et cetera.

For those living in countries with a currency valued at or higher than the US dollar, also recall that most countries have lower-valued currencies. The mBTC, among currencies, would be right in the middle of the pack.

For all these reasons, I will begin to use mBTC. It just makes sense. And I hope we could demonstrate the power of the decentralized system of governance, and band together to do so. I aspire to transact with others only in mBTC by the end of May. And I hope you will too.

Completely agreed.

However it will be difficult for me (and many people) to switch, as I am used to BTC. But I will try to adapt.

[nobbynobbynoob]

The transition will have to take place and develop itself organically. People's psychological thresholds may differ. For me, I'd still rather think and operate primarily in full bitcoins until the exchange passes 250 USD or so. After that, mBTC makes a lot of sense.

[tutkarz]

The transition will have to take place and develop itself organically. People's psychological thresholds may differ. For me, I'd still rather think and operate primarily in full bitcoins until the exchange passes 250 USD or so. After that, mBTC makes a lot of sense.

the problem with micro and milli is that its one letter. 50mBTC and 50uBTC can be misspelled and you have two different values here. with XBT (as 100 satoshi) its not that simple.

[nubbins]

1.234

1 coin
23 cents
4 bits

1 usb block erupter: 2 coins
1 dozen beer: 20 cents
1 bag of candy: 8 bits

Nobody's going to ever say the word "millibitcoin" in conversation. Even "millibits" is cumbersome: three full syllables.

There's a reason why people call dollars "bucks".

[nubbins]

the problem with micro and milli is that its one letter. 50mBTC and 50uBTC can be misspelled and you have two different values here. with XBT (as 100 satoshi) its not that simple.

The other problem is that the average person will be very confused when you tell them that m = milli and u = micro.

[Pumpkin]

Nobody's going to ever say the word "millibitcoin" in conversation. Even "millibits" is cumbersome: three full syllables.

Same way no one says "I bought 1 kg [kilogram] of sugar"?

[nubbins]

Same way no one says "I bought 1 kg [kilogram] of sugar"?

As one of the metric system's "lost boys" (I'm canadian), I buy sugar by the pound.

If I had to use metric weights, I guess I'd say I bought "a kay" of sugar.

I likely wouldn't say I bought "eight ems worth" of candy

[Pumpkin]

Just because you are not used to it, doesn't mean no one will be able grasp it. Millions of people use the word kilogram in every day's talk and are happy with it as a very convenient unit.

[nubbins]

Just because you are not used to it, doesn't mean no one will be able grasp it. Millions of people use the word kilogram in every day's talk and are happy with it as a very convenient unit.

Too true. It's not like "buck" is an official term for the dollar, either. 

[amincd]

Two things are necessary for the switch to mBTC to happen I think:

The Bitcoin-QT client needs to make mBTC the default unit and MtGox needs to price bitcoin in terms of mBTC.

Regarding the latter, ideally a smaller exchange would switch to mBTC first, so MtGox can see how it affects trading volumes, and if there are no adverse effects, it can make the change itself.