Satoshi's speculation

[jubalix]

It seems [to me] that Satoshi was thinking of 1c = 1 satoshi

so 1 BTC = 1 Million.

[1714889989]

1714889989

[1714889989]

1714889989

[counter]

Hmm seems like a bit of a reach to say but that is what speculation is all about right?  Obviously I can neither confirm nor deny this is true of fact so I'll just give my thoughts which is that it is very likely he had that thought and your on to something. 

[notbatman]

1$ = 1 Satoshi

[herzmeister]

nah, merely technical reasons.

The field size to store in a computer's memory an amount of Bitcoin is 16 decimal places. Typical variable size. 8 places before the decimal point (as the maximum amount a transaction can be is 21 million), and 8 places after.

Satoshi merely and probably pretty arbitrarily placed a decimal point in the middle, for convenience, thinking that this will roughly do in the foreseeable time.

[zimmah]

if this become true in future,many btc talk member will happy then 

I think 1 million is a realistic long term goal, probably by 2017-2018 or so

[Enigma81]

nah, merely technical reasons.

The field size to store in a computer's memory an amount of Bitcoin is 16 decimal places. Typical variable size. 8 places before the decimal point (as the maximum amount a transaction can be is 21 million), and 8 places after.

Satoshi merely and probably pretty arbitrarily placed a decimal point in the middle, for convenience, thinking that this will roughly do in the foreseeable time.

Although I agree there was probably a technical reason for the 8 figures of precision, it had nothing to do with "8 places before and 8 places after".  Even if we were talking about typical variables, you're probably thinking of, for instance, 8 BITS before and 8 BITS after, not 8 figures in base 10.

The output variable in bitcoin transactions is an 8 Byte variable where each unit represents 1/100,000,000 of a bitcoin.
Thus, the minimum transaction is
(0x0000000000000001 / 100000000) = 0.00000001 BTC (Aka 1 Satoshi)
and the maximum transaction is
(0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF / 100000000) = 184,467,440,737 BTC

Why exactly 8 bytes were used when 7 would have been able to create a transaction that still contains more BTC than will ever exist (720,575,940.379 to be exact), I can't be sure.  It seems to me like a gigantic waste of a byte in the blockchain for every transaction.

Enigma

[gagalady]

if this become true in future,many btc talk member will happy then 

I think 1 million is a realistic long term goal, probably by 2017-2018 or so

So someone who own 1000 Bitcoins would have 1 Billion dollars after 2-3 years? sound crazy.. 

[bitcoinsrus]

if this become true in future,many btc talk member will happy then 

I think 1 million is a realistic long term goal, probably by 2017-2018 or so

So someone who own 1000 Bitcoins would have 1 Billion dollars after 2-3 years? sound crazy.. 

[yayayo]

OMG! He looks like a zombie on that picture!   Was it edited to add red-eye effect?


On topic: No I don't think that Satoshi had any value comparison to US$ in mind. US$ or other fiat are not reliable stores of value. They are not suitable as a benchmark.

ya.ya.yo!

[sgbett]

nah, merely technical reasons.

The field size to store in a computer's memory an amount of Bitcoin is 16 decimal places. Typical variable size. 8 places before the decimal point (as the maximum amount a transaction can be is 21 million), and 8 places after.

Satoshi merely and probably pretty arbitrarily placed a decimal point in the middle, for convenience, thinking that this will roughly do in the foreseeable time.

Although I agree there was probably a technical reason for the 8 figures of precision, it had nothing to do with "8 places before and 8 places after".  Even if we were talking about typical variables, you're probably thinking of, for instance, 8 BITS before and 8 BITS after, not 8 figures in base 10.

The output variable in bitcoin transactions is an 8 Byte variable where each unit represents 1/100,000,000 of a bitcoin.
Thus, the minimum transaction is
(0x0000000000000001 / 100000000) = 0.00000001 BTC (Aka 1 Satoshi)
and the maximum transaction is
(0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF / 100000000) = 184,467,440,737 BTC

Why exactly 8 bytes were used when 7 would have been able to create a transaction that still contains more BTC than will ever exist (720,575,940.379 to be exact), I can't be sure.  It seems to me like a gigantic waste of a byte in the blockchain for every transaction.

Enigma

Its so the fed can print more!

[zimmah]

if this become true in future,many btc talk member will happy then 

I think 1 million is a realistic long term goal, probably by 2017-2018 or so

So someone who own 1000 Bitcoins would have 1 Billion dollars after 2-3 years? sound crazy.. 

I don't think that's too crazy, Mark Zuckerburg made billions with facebook in a couple of years.

A billion dollar is not exceptional anymore, and there aren't many persons who own 1000+ bitcoins. In fact there's only a pretty small number of people who even hold more then 1 bitcoin.