The only way forward is to split it.

[rpietila]

It is important that bitcoins can be bought in a secure and functional way.

It is important that their storage can be so easy that people with lower and lower IQ can without stress handle it.

But it is more important than most of us early-adopter-high-IQ-intellectual-fat-fucks(sorry Mark!) can comprehend, that the price of 1 unit of currency seems cheap, if we want increasing numbers of people to buy into it.

At present the active Bitcoin usage is trailing far behind the ownership. We have 1 million+ owners, but, in my estimation, perhaps only 50,000 people make transactions regularly. To get new active users, we must get new owners.

But many of the prospective owners feel that the price is high at $440. If they only want to dip in with small money, they might (unconsciously) feel that buying a fraction of 1 bitcoin is either not allowed, or not even possible, or that the "train has left the station". There would not be any problem in buying 200+ coins at $0.44 a piece though, for a person who is considering a purchase worth $100.

It is not a question of "if" but "when". There is less than 2mBTC per person in the world, which means that a worldwide realistic distribution leads to situation where the majority has less than 200µBTC (median is way smaller than average). People are unwilling to start using a currency that would make their entire net worth start with a 0.00xxx. Fixing it does not cost anything.

Bitcoin is broadcast to the masses via popular media. If there is to be any realistic chance to make the media use the split unit instead of the basic unit, we should make this decision as a community and make every Bitcoin business adhere to the decision. Only then will the outsiders make the switch.

Do you consider that the matter is of high enough importance that any community decision is warranted, or should we continue on a voluntary basis, likely resulting in media reporting bitcoin price in $100s per BTC instead of $1s or $10s per mBTC?

I am all for making crisp names for the units. This poll is not about how we should name them, it is about the correct location of the decimal point.

[gagalady]

Most likely mbtc, mbtc sounds like a dollar for me. But how does It make any difference if we call the sum in mbtc, ubtc or other? The value is still the same?

[1Referee]

Some of the people that I know say "I'm not buying Bitcoin at this price"
And I kinda can understand that, paying 450$ per 1BTC is very difficult for some people when they know the price at a certain time was like 5$ per 1BTC.

[durrrr]

yeah mbtc should be the unit of btc from now on. its like a dollar and its more easy to say 100mbtc  ten .1 btc and easier to now make mistakes

[yenom]

At present the active Bitcoin usage is trailing far behind the ownership. We have 1 million+ owners, but, in my estimation, perhaps only 50,000 people make transactions regularly. To get new active users, we must get new owners.

I disagree, that is not an incentive. To get new active users, they must benefit significantly more than they do currently. I am a bitcoin owner and I shop at an online store that accepts bitcoin. I will not be spending my bitcoin there, because I have to pay a 9% premium to do so. Yes, you read that correctly.

See excited, then depressed, post here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=584134.0;all

[leopard2]

At present the active Bitcoin usage is trailing far behind the ownership. We have 1 million+ owners, but, in my estimation, perhaps only 50,000 people make transactions regularly. To get new active users, we must get new owners.

I disagree, that is not an incentive. To get new active users, they must benefit significantly more than they do currently. I am a bitcoin owner and I shop at an online store that accepts bitcoin. I will not be spending my bitcoin there, because I have to pay a 9% premium to do so. Yes, you read that correctly.

See excited, then depressed, post here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=584134.0;all

I would use it - if those places that accept Painpal would simply accept BTC.

EVEN COINWARZ DOES NOT ACCEPT BTC, DUH!!!

[RUEHL]

leave it be.

round numbers are only helpful for humans & will mean nothing to the automated bots that will control us.

[cbeast]

I disagree with the OP. Bitcoins will not be widely adopted as currency, ever. So there is no need to worry about it. The only quantity of bitcoins we need to be concerned about naming are the minimum dust size amounts, which is currently BTC0.00054. We should have a name for that. That quantity will be the transaction unit for Mastercoin, Colored Coin, and other derivative coins that meet the formal definitions of currency. Then these Bitcoin derivatives will be adopted and drag the value of Bitcoin up. The minimum dust size will float, so it can't be locked to a specific amount. Future derivative coins will be based on smaller dust transactions. This trend will continue all the way down to the Satoshi level, but the derivative coins will be worth much more.

[sclaggett]

I have discussed this at recent conferences about the challenge of the price per coin and maybe why dogecoin has had some recent success.

Corporations splits of stocks for the reason all the time.  McDonalds used to always split the stock to keep the price between $25 and $50 so their "Customers" could feel they could afford to buy the stock.

Here we have the price challenge for some for broader general adoption.  Do you really want to say to your friend he I just bought .01 Bitcon!  It is why during the growth cycle in startups we usually do splits of 10-1.  So you can tell your team they own 10,000 shares  not 2 shares even though they have the same value.  We also don't own .01 dollars.

This is classic market research.

[SlipperySlope]

mBTC pronounced embee.

Easy to say in any tongue.

[pandacoin]

I definitely agree to rpietila. We should implement that mBTC everywhere. More people buy, value raise to higher levels. We need to do something, so let's start from here.

[hello_good_sir]

1. We have been having these threads for years now.  Everyone who is clued in is in complete agreement that the price per bitcoin is holding back adoption.  The problem is that we're nobodies.  This kind of change has to come from the top.

2. Metric is never going to catch on.  Never.  Just give it up.  If people wanted a metric currency then the Euro would be metric.  No one talks about centieuros or kiloeuros and no one is ever going to talk about millibitcoins.

3.  Real-world splits do not change the name of the currency unit, at least not permanently.  In 1993 Mexico shifted the decimal place on their currency three places.  One new peso was equal to 1000 old pesos.  For three years the new unit was referred to as the "new peso", not millipeso.  After three years they want back to calling it a "peso".  What if we did the same thing with bitcoin?  What if one bitcoin became equal to 100000 "new bitcoins".  Then after three years we went back to simply calling them "bitcoins"?  With stock splits there is no transition period.  Master Card split its shares 1 to 10.  Their stock symbol did not change from MA to dMA because the name of the stock did not change from MasterCard to deciMasterCard.

So there are the facts.  I don't really have any recommendations, because there is no point.

[RUEHL]

2. Metric is never going to catch on.  Never.  Just give it up.  


So there are the facts.

These are not facts.  Yankees think they're the center of the universe.  The U.S. is one of the last outposts for imperial units of measure.

[saddambitcoin]

I voted for µB so we just move it once and hope we don't have to do it again for awhile.

[ChuckBuck]

I voted for mBTC.  EMBEE or Millibits just sound easiest to incorporate and use on a daily basis.

[Bitcoin Magazine]

i automatically integrate it in my conversation.  if i'm talking about kitteh coins i say 0.0000010 BTC.  for LTC i say 3 uBTC

[subcoin]

2. Metric is never going to catch on.  Never.

Double face-palm.

[ArticMine]

I voted for satoshi. mBTC is an ok interim measure, but realistically will also have the same problem. Micro BTC (µB) is not a bad choice; however given that we already have satoshi a factor of 100 away with a memorable name, it is not worth the trouble to focus on µB.

[hello_good_sir]

The U.S. is one of the last outposts for imperial units of measure.

No currency in the entire world is metric.  The Euro was recently created and could have been created as a metric currency.  It wasn't.  How do you explain that?

[DeathAndTaxes]

1. We have been having these threads for years now.  Everyone who is clued in is in complete agreement that the price per bitcoin is holding back adoption.  The problem is that we're nobodies.  This kind of change has to come from the top.

Well then you have a problem.  There is no "top".  Bitcoin is a consensus system.  Blocks from a forked protocol which has more coins than current nodes expect will simply be seen as invalid.  Miners mining those blocks will be wasting hashpower. 

It is very likely Bitcoin will never have a "split.