The solution is obvious

[bitcats]

The main reason why Bitcoin is not yet breaking through: BTC is much to expensive! When I tell people about Bitcoin, and when they hear how much 1 btc costs, their jaws drop down and there's nothing more to be say. People dont want to pay 1$ or 1€ to get 0.00something. Nobody is interested in Millis, Satoshis, etc, they want to get Bitcoins!
Thats one reason why Dogecoin gains that much popularity, it's cheap!

The solution: we just have to shift the decimal point, that's all. Once people get not less than 1 BTC for 1$, we will immediately witness an increasing demand, and the new ATMs will be drained dry

[vlees]

No. Just no.

[adamas]

People dont want to pay 1$ or 1€ to get 0.00something.

THIS

Once people get not less than 1 BTC for 1$, we will immediately witness an increasing demand, and the new ATMs will be drained dry

Agreed!

No. Just no.

You should think twice before giving a laconic answer.

[Ibian]

Nobody has ever suggested this before. Evar.

[Tjopper]

Just display your prices in mBTC.
This will result in the price 0.46 EUR / mBTC (at this moment)

I think some of the exchanges already did this.

[bitcats]

Just display your prices in mBTC.
This will result in the price 0.46 EUR / mBTC (at this moment)

People dont want to pay 1$ or 1€ to get 0.00something. Nobody is interested in Millis, Satoshis, etc, they want to get Bitcoins!

[Tjopper]

I know . However what you are suggesting is cutting the price of a bitcoin by around 500 back to 1 again.
or moving the decimal seperator by 1. Which is just the same as mine suggestion only 3 times less effective. 

[the_poet]

It's human nature: people feel much happier buying whole things, instead of tiny fractions of a large unit. Also, most people (including me before joining the community) are not even aware that submultiples of Bitcoin can be bought, because coins are perceived as indivisible units.

[TopherB]

My first instinct was that this was a ridiculous idea. Then I remembered that these are the same masses that perceive $4.99 to be a dollar less than $5.00. So if education is not possible, perhaps simple mind games are the way to go.

[MPOE-PR]

My first instinct was that this was a ridiculous idea. Then I remembered that these are the same masses that perceive $4.99 to be a dollar less than $5.00. So if education is not possible, perhaps simple mind games are the way to go.

How 'bout if education is not possible, neither is having something good?

[Tjopper]

My first instinct was that this was a ridiculous idea. Then I remembered that these are the same masses that perceive $4.99 to be a dollar less than $5.00. So if education is not possible, perhaps simple mind games are the way to go.

People should not invest in BTC because it's cheap. They should invest because It's a new way of thinking.
If you want to earn some money quick and dirty just use the USD daytrader ponzi scheme.

[odolvlobo]

You have come up with a solution to a non-problem. Bitcoin has no need for more investors, speculators, or hoarders. It needs more infrastructure and more users.

In fact, your solution would just make things worse. These people that won't buy bitcoins because the exchange rate is over $1 are not the kind of people that should be investing in a currency (or anything really).

[5thStreetResearch]

This is a non-trivial problem.  I have a friend who uses bitcoin to sports bet and will still call me every now and then when placing a bet to make sure he is betting the amount of money that he actually thinks it is. Using mBTC would be beneficial for the network.

[ryanmnercer]

The main reason why Bitcoin is not yet breaking through: BTC is much to expensive! When I tell people about Bitcoin, and when they hear how much 1 btc costs, their jaws drop down and there's nothing more to be say.

That's why we need to move the decimal places to the right several spaces.

[Bonam]

Maybe just propagating the convention of pricing things in mBTC on exchanges and other sites would be a good place to start.

[Pente]

Think of the media value if Bitcoin announced a 1000 to 1 split...yes, it would be meaningless from a mathematical point of view...but most people would just eat it up.

Most people can't figure out that 10% off of $2 is $1.80. My last boss used a calculator once to figure out $3.10 times 10. Think about how many times you make a small purchase like say for $.77, you hand the cashier $1.02, she looks at you like you are an idiot, hands you back the two pennies, then proceeds to give you $.23 change.

But just like the average person is incompetent in the field of mathematics, I would guess the average Bitcoin developer is ignorant of how really bad the average person is at math.

Nothing will change with Bitcoin.

But don't despair, eventually we will all just start pricing everything in satoshis.

[bitcats]

Think of the media value if Bitcoin announced a 1000 to 1 split...yes, it would be meaningless from a mathematical point of view...but most people would just eat it up.
...
But just like the average person is incompetent in the field of mathematics, I would guess the average Bitcoin developer is ignorant of how really bad the average person is at math.

You've got the point! By shifting the decimal separator, Bitcoin doesn't lose in value, it gains attraction!
In fact, all we have to do is to shift the currency unit, i.e. 1µBTC -> 1mBTC -> 1BTC, i.e. for 1$ Joe will get ~1.60BTC instead of just 0.0016BTC (1.6mBTC). It only takes a simple client update. The bitcoin amounts in the wallets will automatically be adjusted so that the (fiat) value stays the same.

But you're probably right, most of the Bitcoin devs are strong in math, but have no idea of market mechanisms and consumer behavior.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/market-mechanisms.html

[Ibian]

This is a non-trivial problem.  I have a friend who uses bitcoin to sports bet and will still call me every now and then when placing a bet to make sure he is betting the amount of money that he actually thinks it is. Using mBTC would be beneficial for the network.

Your friend is an idiot.

[teukon]

The main reason why Bitcoin is not yet breaking through: BTC is much to expensive!

If that's true, then it's probably best that Bitcoin does not "break through".  The masses would only hurt themselves.

[sblade]

The problem is that bitcoin is a deflationary currency, there is an exact number to divide among all. Considering that some bitcoins will always be lost daily due to private key loss, the other acquire more value, unless there is a crash.