Bitcoin denominations and naming conventions

[Aido]

This is a poll based on a discussion started on the "Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion" thread.

Change of mind allowed in poll.

I can add more options to poll if required.

Decimal multiples

[1714824783]

1714824783

[1714824783]

1714824783

[1714824783]

1714824783

[1714824783]

1714824783

[hyphymikey]

I see this one:

"cents" (cBTC) / "mills" (mBTC) / "mics" (µBTC) / "sats (satoshis)" (sBTC)

being slang for this one (kinda like bucks or quids):

"centi-bit" (cBTC) / "milli-bit" (mBTC) / "micro-bit" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)



So I like these two of all the ones discussed so far.

[Tas]

Formal:
"centi-bit" (cBTC) / "milli-bit" (mBTC) / "micro-bit" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)

Slang:
"ceebits" (cBTC) / "embits" (mBTC) / "youbits" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)

But I think the cBTC one is unnecessary. Also, it'd be easier for µBTC to be written as uBTC.

All these denominations could collectively be called "bits". "How many bits would that be? 20 youbits. Here, thanks."

[zimmah]

Formal:
"centi-bit" (cBTC) / "milli-bit" (mBTC) / "micro-bit" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)

Slang:
"ceebits" (cBTC) / "embits" (mBTC) / "youbits" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)

But I think the cBTC one is unnecessary. Also, it'd be easier for µBTC to be written as uBTC.

All these denominations could collectively be called "bits". "How many bits would that be? 20 youbits. Here, thanks."

µ is the official (SI) letter assigned to micro (1*10^-6) just like n is for nano (would be a 1/10th satoshi) and m is for milli, k is for kilo, M (capital for mega, etc......)

u is sometimes used but µ is better.

[Aido]

Yes, formal and informal may be a good idea.

Formal:

"centi-bit" (cBTC) / "milli-bit" (mBTC) / "micro-bit" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)


Informal:

"cents" (cBTC) / "mills" (mBTC) / "mics" (µBTC) / "sats" (sBTC)

or depending on how vote goes

"ceebits" (cBTC) / "embits" (mBTC) / "youbits" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)



centi-bit and nano-bit being academic and would probably not be used in practice.

[bluemoon]

These terms don't exactly trip off the tongue. Surely it's simpler and cleaner to move the decimal point and call the adjusted unit the bitcoin?

Eventually at most only 21 million coins for 6.8 billion people in the world if it really gets huge.

But don't worry, there are another 6 decimal places that aren't shown, for a total of 8 decimal places internally.  It shows 1.00 but internally it's 1.00000000.  If there's massive deflation in the future, the software could show more decimal places.

If it gets tiresome working with small numbers, we could change where the display shows the decimal point.  Same amount of money, just different convention for where the ","'s and "."'s go.  e.g. moving the decimal place 3 places would mean if you had 1.00000 before, now it shows it as 1,000.00.

[hyphymikey]

These terms don't exactly trip off the tongue. Surely it's simpler and cleaner to move the decimal point and call the adjusted unit the bitcoin?

Eventually at most only 21 million coins for 6.8 billion people in the world if it really gets huge.

But don't worry, there are another 6 decimal places that aren't shown, for a total of 8 decimal places internally.  It shows 1.00 but internally it's 1.00000000.  If there's massive deflation in the future, the software could show more decimal places.

If it gets tiresome working with small numbers, we could change where the display shows the decimal point.  Same amount of money, just different convention for where the ","'s and "."'s go.  e.g. moving the decimal place 3 places would mean if you had 1.00000 before, now it shows it as 1,000.00.

Moving the decimal would work if people didn't get confused. If we move the decimal then there will be more than 21 million coins, and then panic would ensue even though we haven't actually increased the number minted. I wouldn't mind moving the decimal 3 spots and seeing ~700,000 coins worth $1.2 each in my wallet and increasing, but it just won't work.

[2_Thumbs_Up]

Oh well, I missed this thread before making my thread.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=351172.0

Anyway OP, this naming convention seem to have some traction on reddit because of its simplicity. Could you mayby add it to the poll?

100 satoshis = 1 bit = 1 millionth of a BTC

[freethink2013]

I wish people would get the fuck over this. It's like you are trying to confuse people.

.1 = point one bitcoin
.01 = point zero one
etc

[2_Thumbs_Up]

I wish people would get the fuck over this. It's like you are trying to confuse people.

.1 = point one bitcoin
.01 = point zero one
etc

A lot of people are being confused by the lack of names for smaller units. I've talked to several people who didn't know you could buy fractions of a bitcoin at all, let alone a 100 millionth of a bitcoin.

[freethink2013]

I wish people would get the fuck over this. It's like you are trying to confuse people.

.1 = point one bitcoin
.01 = point zero one
etc

A lot of people are being confused by the lack of names for smaller units. I've talked to several people who didn't know you could buy fractions of a bitcoin at all, let alone a 100 millionth of a bitcoin.

The only thing I've found people confused about is that is that you don't have to buy a whole bitcoin. No-one give a fuck about the naming convention for what point one of a bitcoin is called apart from people on here.

[Cryddit]

I use "millibitcoin", "microbitcoin", and "nanobitcoin"  (Satoshis are ten nanobitcoin each)  When I'm writing.

When I'm speaking, they're "Millies", "Mikes", "Nans" and "Satoshis"  because the metric prefixes with "bitcoin" are kinda hard to pronounce.

I got no use for Nans and Satoshis though;  They're mostly theoretical.

A few minutes ago somebody sold 2 Kilobitcoins on Bitstamp.  Weirdly enough, the price didn't budge.

[2_Thumbs_Up]

I wish people would get the fuck over this. It's like you are trying to confuse people.

.1 = point one bitcoin
.01 = point zero one
etc

A lot of people are being confused by the lack of names for smaller units. I've talked to several people who didn't know you could buy fractions of a bitcoin at all, let alone a 100 millionth of a bitcoin.

The only thing I've found people confused about is that is that you don't have to buy a whole bitcoin. No-one give a fuck about the naming convention for what point one of a bitcoin is called apart from people on here.

Which they wouldn't be if everyone used a catchy and easy to remember name for the lower denomination of bitcoins. I linked to a suggestion to use the word bits. If everyone were talking about "buying bits" or "buying bits of bitcoin" their confusion would already be answered.

[freethink2013]

I wish people would get the fuck over this. It's like you are trying to confuse people.

.1 = point one bitcoin
.01 = point zero one
etc

A lot of people are being confused by the lack of names for smaller units. I've talked to several people who didn't know you could buy fractions of a bitcoin at all, let alone a 100 millionth of a bitcoin.

The only thing I've found people confused about is that is that you don't have to buy a whole bitcoin. No-one give a fuck about the naming convention for what point one of a bitcoin is called apart from people on here.

Which they wouldn't be if everyone used a catchy and easy to remember name for the lower denomination of bitcoins. I linked to a suggestion to use the word bits. If everyone were talking about "buying bits" or "buying bits of bitcoin" their confusion would already be answered.

In all this conversation, bits seems the best. A bit being .001

[2_Thumbs_Up]

I wish people would get the fuck over this. It's like you are trying to confuse people.

.1 = point one bitcoin
.01 = point zero one
etc

A lot of people are being confused by the lack of names for smaller units. I've talked to several people who didn't know you could buy fractions of a bitcoin at all, let alone a 100 millionth of a bitcoin.

The only thing I've found people confused about is that is that you don't have to buy a whole bitcoin. No-one give a fuck about the naming convention for what point one of a bitcoin is called apart from people on here.

Which they wouldn't be if everyone used a catchy and easy to remember name for the lower denomination of bitcoins. I linked to a suggestion to use the word bits. If everyone were talking about "buying bits" or "buying bits of bitcoin" their confusion would already be answered.

In all this conversation, bits seems the best. A bit being .001

Well the suggestion came from reddit, and the original suggestion was that a bit would be 0.000001 BTC (100 satoshis). I think he makes a pretty good case for that. Basically, if we name it so that 1000 bits=1 USD, it's already somewhat usable today, and it's also low enough so there won't ever be a need for a discussion like this again in the future.

[solomon]

It has to be 'bit'

Counting down in subdivisions of a huge base unit of BTC is not intuitive.
As pointed out in the reddit post, people will make mistakes having to make transactions in this manner.

Imagine being drunk and trying to send someone 12uBTC on your phone. What's the chance they send 12mBTC instead? I'd say the chance is higher than if the amount was 12 bits vs 12 000 bits. If we are using a prefix every thousandth ie (milli, micro) it is going to be a headache. Especially with the volatile nature of bitcoin. Because it isn't tactile, there is no reason to differentiate a uBTC with a mBTC in your mind. It's just straight calculation which is fine sat at your computer, but doesn't really convert well when buying something from someone in meatspace

[freethink2013]

I wish people would get the fuck over this. It's like you are trying to confuse people.

.1 = point one bitcoin
.01 = point zero one
etc

A lot of people are being confused by the lack of names for smaller units. I've talked to several people who didn't know you could buy fractions of a bitcoin at all, let alone a 100 millionth of a bitcoin.

The only thing I've found people confused about is that is that you don't have to buy a whole bitcoin. No-one give a fuck about the naming convention for what point one of a bitcoin is called apart from people on here.

Which they wouldn't be if everyone used a catchy and easy to remember name for the lower denomination of bitcoins. I linked to a suggestion to use the word bits. If everyone were talking about "buying bits" or "buying bits of bitcoin" their confusion would already be answered.

In all this conversation, bits seems the best. A bit being .001

Well the suggestion came from reddit, and the original suggestion was that a bit would be 0.000001 BTC (100 satoshis). I think he makes a pretty good case for that. Basically, if we name it so that 1000 bits=1 USD, it's already somewhat usable today, and it's also low enough so there won't ever be a need for a discussion like this again in the future.

so a million bits = a bitcoin. I'm sold.

[sangaman]

+1 for 1 million bits in a coin. I feel like that would be perfect when 1 btc is in the ballpark of $10k, therefore a bit is in the ballpark of a cent. Its still workable now but its also looking forward to the future. With a 10k valuation, prices for things won't need decimal points, they'd look like dollar prices do today except without the dot which I think is very intuitive. Bits is easy to say and intuitively derives from bitcoin.

Too many names for things is confusing, especially when they can be confused with each other like milli and microbits. Now we'll have bitcoins for large sums, bits for small sums, and satoshis for the technically inclined (laymen need not worry about this term).

Bits also work if bitcoin ever reaches a valuation of a million $ each, then bits are equivalent to dollars and prices can reintroduce two numbers after a decimal point like we use now.

[TiagoTiago]

Hm, how about:
"centbis" (cBTC) / "millibis" (mBTC) / "micbis" (µBTC) / "satoshi" (sBTC)

(drop the "s"s for singular)

for casual, and follow SI standard for formal?




ps: of course, not discarding "bitcoins" for BTC

[RTonietto]

I think it's better adopting integers and cents instead of fractions, as suggested by the user ronwan in another topic (quoted below). Personally, I don't care if those integers are called Naks, Satoshis, microbitcoins, mikes, coins, republic credits, bananas, or anything else. We need a notation more on pair with common people's understanding if bitcoins are to be adopted worldwide. There's also the possibility of hyperinflation if regular people don't fully understand the real value of their money, as occurred here in Brazil during the 80's and early 90's.

We had a sequence of bad economical plans every 2-4 years, each of then cutting 3 zeros from our currency, and even changing it's name from Cruzeiro to Cruzado, then to Cruzado Novo, back to Cruzeiro, then to Cruzeiro Real. It was only in 93, when our then Minister of Finance Fernando Henrique Cardoso (a sociologist! - after that elected President for 2 mandates) decided to hire a group of economists to create a definitive economic stabilization plan, that our inflation was finally tamed. They created an indexer, called URV, initially paired to the dollar, by which the prices of goods were adjusted on a daily basis. That way, our former currency, Cruzeiro Real, continued to be depreciated during the period of a year, while the new currency got stronger in people's minds. After this year passed, the government printed the new paper currency, called Real, which replaced the URV and got the "respect" of the population, ending almost 15 years of hyperinflation. During the first years it even surpassed the dollar in value. Today, 20 years later, after all sorts of economic turbulences, one of them caused by the fear that a socialist party (PT) would win the 2002 presidential election and ruin our economy (in fact, they won that election and the next 2 and actually almost ruined it!), we may not have the strongest currency in the world, but inflation is still under control.

In short, the stability of a currency is much more influenced by people's notion of it's value than most other factors. And how are we expecting to give then this notion if the majority of the world's population doesn't even understand the concept of fractions? Can we imagine making them understand SI prefixes or negative powers of 10? If we want bitcoin to be adopted worldwide, we can't have a currency which value is only understood by programmers, engineers and mathematicians!

These are pretty good for names but I would simply say.

1 BTC is one Barter Token or Bitcoin.
0.00000001 is a Satoshi
100 Satoshi is a Nakamoto or a Nak (pronounced "Knock") 0.00000100 BTC
A bitcoin is 1 million Naks.
It is 4/23/2013 and $1.00 gets you 7143 Naks. Some people are afraid to buy at $140 per Bitcoin because the number scares them.  The Nak could calm people down.

Think of a movie of the Zimbabwe economy or the Weimar Republic RUNNING BACKWARDS.
Play money in 2009 is now a substantial global currency.

Some day the Nak will reach parity with the Dollar as the penny and Satoshi head toward each other in value.

Ron.