1,000,000 bits = 1 bitcoin. Future-proofing Bitcoin for common usage? VOTE

[solex]

21 million bitcoins FOREVER!

Satoshi recognized that 21 million currency units are not enough for a global currency. His solution was to support eight decimal places on amounts, which also allows the reward halving process to continue for about 140 years. Internally the Bitcoin software recognizes 2,100 million million currency units (now known as satoshis) but they are divided by 100 million before presentation to users. So the block reward is currently 2,500 million satoshis or 25 bitcoins. Bitcoin units were fine for the first few years, but during the last 12 months the question keeps arising "Is another unit best for common usage?"

Inertia of existing systems

All modern fiat currencies have a major currency unit which has 100 minor units: e.g. $1 = 100 cents.
Everyone is used to this system from childhood. Many people are not comfortable with scientific notation or with small decimals such as 0.001234 which will be seen more and more often as the unit value of 1 bitcoin rises. Most people are happier dealing with 100,000 than 0.00001

Further, 99.99% of the world's financial and accounting systems do not support more than 2 decimal places on currencies, let alone as many as eight. It is arguable that Bitcoin has a very real handicap upon its growth by disregarding modern conventions in currencies.

Enter the "bit"

1 bitcoin = 1,000,000 bits
1 bit = 100 satoshis

User 101111 on reddit recommended this mock-up wallet. The current Bitcoin Core wallet does allow the selection of millibitcoins and microbitcoins but not with such a user friendly presentation, and not by default.

Is it time to consider using "bits" as standard? All balances become 1 million times larger, the block reward as 25 million bits, the exchange rate as 0.04 cents to a bit, a cup of coffee as 7000 bits instead of 0.007 BTC
Is this an improvement?  If the bitcoin value increases into the thousands of dollars which unit is easiest to use for pricing goods and services?

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[Arghhh]

Agreed.

The negative psychology of owning fractions of a bitcoin is a real adoption barrier that needs addressing. It is one of the issues that dogecoin have successfully addressed.

Bit by default is the best way of dealing with scalability in the foreseeable future.

[blatchcorn]

Agreed.

Bits are not perfect but are better than using bitcoin

[Mike Christ]

I really like bits.  For one, you can have a conversation with bits.  mBTC and uBTC is awkward; mBTC is worse as it doesn't roll off the tongue well, uBTC isn't as bad.  But bits is 1 syllable, rather than 4.  It's also easier to type, as it's all lowercase.  And you get two decimal spots, which everyone's already accustomed to.  Not that we'd need them anytime soon but perhaps someday.

Perhaps we could make a lowercase bitcoin symbol to represent bits.

[solex]

I really like bits.  For one, you can have a conversation with bits.  mBTC and uBTC is awkward; mBTC is worse as it doesn't roll off the tongue well, uBTC isn't as bad.  But bits is 1 syllable, rather than 4.  It's also easier to type, as it's all lowercase.  And you get two decimal spots, which everyone's already accustomed to.  Not that we'd need them anytime soon but perhaps someday.

Perhaps we could make a lowercase bitcoin symbol to represent bits.

Great! You are a guru artist so I would like to see your conception of such a symbol.

[BigBoy89]

interesting idea 
this will be easier for us to read the unit, some people not easy with decimal unit
even we can use newly proposed BTC symbol as bits, such as Ƀ
so 1 BTC = 1,000,000 Ƀ  

but whether this will reduce the exclusive value of bitcoin?
some people think bitcoin is exclusive or rare, because 1 BTC = hundred USD

[Peter R]

I really like bits.  For one, you can have a conversation with bits.  mBTC and uBTC is awkward; mBTC is worse as it doesn't roll off the tongue well, uBTC isn't as bad.  But bits is 1 syllable, rather than 4.  It's also easier to type, as it's all lowercase.  And you get two decimal spots, which everyone's already accustomed to.  Not that we'd need them anytime soon but perhaps someday.

Perhaps we could make a lowercase bitcoin symbol to represent bits.

Great! You are a guru artist so I would like to see your conception of such a symbol.

To represent bits (one millionth of a bitcoin), we could just use unicode character 0x0180 which produces the symbol ƀ.

This would keep all the people who like BTC happy, and make all the people who wanted to switch to Ƀ happy too.  

[findftp]

I really like bits.  For one, you can have a conversation with bits.  mBTC and uBTC is awkward; mBTC is worse as it doesn't roll off the tongue well, uBTC isn't as bad.  But bits is 1 syllable, rather than 4.  It's also easier to type, as it's all lowercase.  And you get two decimal spots, which everyone's already accustomed to.  Not that we'd need them anytime soon but perhaps someday.

Perhaps we could make a lowercase bitcoin symbol to represent bits.

Great! You are a guru artist so I would like to see your conception of such a symbol.

To represent bits (one millionth of a bitcoin), we could just use unicode character 0x0180 which produces the symbol ƀ.

This would keep all the people who like BTC happy, and make all the people who wanted to switch to Ƀ happy too.  

I disagreed with everything untill I saw your post +1
Very good suggestion

[1Referee]

For me 1BTC as 1,000,000,00 bits is OK, that will make it easier for people.

[Zebra]

For me 1BTC as 1,000,000,00 bits is OK, that will make it easier for people.

We already have 1 BTC = 100 000 000 satoshi.

[bananaControl]

For me 1BTC as 1,000,000,00 bits is OK, that will make it easier for people.

We already have 1 BTC = 100 000 000 satoshi.

He meant to say "1,000,000.00", and not "1,000,000,00"


But yes, bits is IMHO the best way to go about it. Does anyone know what the opinions in the development community are?

[gagalady]

Why would we call it bits , i personally use mbtc as the most common unit, are you talking about the future IF bitcoin price hits $10000 or more? Because now It's fine using mbtc.

[Zebra]

For me 1BTC as 1,000,000,00 bits is OK, that will make it easier for people.

We already have 1 BTC = 100 000 000 satoshi.

He meant to say "1,000,000.00", and not "1,000,000,00"

I see. It was my bad to misunderstand it

[bananaControl]

Why would we call it bits , i personally use mbtc as the most common unit, are you talking about the future IF bitcoin price hits $10000 or more? Because now It's fine using mbtc.

No, people are talking about fixing this before all the infrastructure is in place and it gets a lot harder to fix. Also, it is easier to understand for people who are used to only handle fiat so it will help with adoption if it is fixed now.

[1Referee]

For me 1BTC as 1,000,000,00 bits is OK, that will make it easier for people.

We already have 1 BTC = 100 000 000 satoshi.

He meant to say "1,000,000.00", and not "1,000,000,00"

I see. It was my bad to misunderstand it

Yeah was a typo, I wanted to say 1,000,000.00

[niothor]

I really like bits.  For one, you can have a conversation with bits.  mBTC and uBTC is awkward; mBTC is worse as it doesn't roll off the tongue well, uBTC isn't as bad.  But bits is 1 syllable, rather than 4.  It's also easier to type, as it's all lowercase.  And you get two decimal spots, which everyone's already accustomed to.  Not that we'd need them anytime soon but perhaps someday.

Perhaps we could make a lowercase bitcoin symbol to represent bits.

Totally agree with you on this one.
It seems that the few attempts so far to change to mBTC have not been that successful , let's see if we try and switch to this "bits" how will end up.

The only issue with this that  I see right now is that the value of a "bit" will be that low it will create a few problems. Plus the prices will look a bit hilarious =12 612 651 bits?  A bit like the Zimbabwe dollar.
And i'm sure we can get a cool symbol for it , w8

[franky1]

although i do believe we should skip the mBTC and uBTC and go for the satoshi/bit idea.. due to the facts of miners fee's and satoshi dust limits no one can actually just spend 1 bit right now, so it is definitely a thing for the future

[MegaHustlr]

1 bit should equal 0.001 so 1000 bits is 1 bitcoin.

[franky1]

1 bit should equal 0.001 so 1000 bits is 1 bitcoin.

no, as thats known as mBTC or it has slang names lile bitmill or millibit.

a bit from the consensus of several topics now is that a bit is 100 satoshi's (0.00000100)

[Dalmar]

Bits obviously..

It would get rid of this annoying bitcoin is ´too expensive´ argument