Can bitcoin protocol be altered to support sub-satoshi accuracy?

[helixone]

I understand it would take some wildly low probability events for it to be needed, but could we double the precision if needed? (Just trying to figure out if it actually could be a significant global currency).

e.g. - There are $1.19 trillion of US dollars in circulation. Assuming that USD cap = BTC cap, and assuming 21 million coins, that means that each coin would be worth $56666.6666667

Taking it a step further we assume today that we can do at least to the penny, but many times one tenth or one one hundredth of a penny.

At this point $1 would equal = 0.00001764705882 btc.
So, 1 penny would = 0.0000001764705882
1/10 of a penny would = 0.00000001764705882
1/100th of a penny would = 0.000000001764705882

See the issue? If bitcoin become a viable currency, we'd need to carve and carve in ever smaller pieces to the point a satoshi is equal to or greater than a real world currency unit.

-helixone

P.S. - Of course I realize that btc would fail in many other ways before it could handle the volume of transactions the USD does. (Not related to precision).

[grue]

Yes, but it would be a hard fork. Also, since "coins" are stored as integers, all existing coins will effectively increase in count. For example, if it was altered to support 8 more decimal places, present day "satoshi" will be 10^8 units.

[empoweoqwj]

I understand it would take some wildly low probability events for it to be needed, but could we double the precision if needed? (Just trying to figure out if it actually could be a significant global currency).

e.g. - There are $1.19 trillion of US dollars in circulation. Assuming that USD cap = BTC cap, and assuming 21 million coins, that means that each coin would be worth $56666.6666667

Taking it a step further we assume today that we can do at least to the penny, but many times one tenth or one one hundredth of a penny.

At this point $1 would equal = 0.00001764705882 btc.
So, 1 penny would = 0.0000001764705882
1/10 of a penny would = 0.00000001764705882
1/100th of a penny would = 0.000000001764705882

See the issue? If bitcoin become a viable currency, we'd need to carve and carve in ever smaller pieces to the point a satoshi is equal to or greater than a real world currency unit.

-helixone

P.S. - Of course I realize that btc would fail in many other ways before it could handle the volume of transactions the USD does. (Not related to precision).

You've already demonstrated that even today one Satoshi is "small enough" to be converted to other currencies. I don't think we will be needing to worry about 1/10 of a penny or 1/100 of a penny in the future. What can you buy with 1/10 of a penny now? (And FIAT currencies being inflationary of course)

The granularity of bitcoin was carefully thought out, and for my btc, "bang on". Let's worry about other stuff, like the 99.99999% of the world that currently doesn't use bitcoins  

[helixone]

I understand it would take some wildly low probability events for it to be needed, but could we double the precision if needed? (Just trying to figure out if it actually could be a significant global currency).

e.g. - There are $1.19 trillion of US dollars in circulation. Assuming that USD cap = BTC cap, and assuming 21 million coins, that means that each coin would be worth $56666.6666667

Taking it a step further we assume today that we can do at least to the penny, but many times one tenth or one one hundredth of a penny.

At this point $1 would equal = 0.00001764705882 btc.
So, 1 penny would = 0.0000001764705882
1/10 of a penny would = 0.00000001764705882
1/100th of a penny would = 0.000000001764705882

See the issue? If bitcoin become a viable currency, we'd need to carve and carve in ever smaller pieces to the point a satoshi is equal to or greater than a real world currency unit.

-helixone

P.S. - Of course I realize that btc would fail in many other ways before it could handle the volume of transactions the USD does. (Not related to precision).

You've already demonstrated that even today one Satoshi is "small enough" to be converted to other currencies. I don't think we will be needing to worry about 1/10 of a penny or 1/100 of a penny in the future. What can you buy with 1/10 of a penny now? (And FIAT currencies being inflationary of course)

The granularity of bitcoin was carefully thought out, and for my btc, "bang on". Let's worry about other stuff, like the 99.99999% of the world that currently doesn't use bitcoins  

Not losing sleep over this issue. I just wanted a counterpoint to the deflationary story. I think grue's answer was very helpful, as it led me to this page: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardfork_Wishlist

-helixone