[POLL] End the 'bit' controversy: What to (nick)name 100 Satoshi / 1 µXBT

[zimmah]

Feel free to sell your coins. I am more informed now than I was two years ago and hopefully will be more informed two years from now.  I also believed standardizing pricing mBTC was preferable but I now see that as a temporary measure which would probably need to be repeated again.  My opinions change based on new information and observations, most people call that learning.

wow, are you sure? Since if bitcoin becomes worth as much as $1,000,000 per coin than 1 satoshi would be worth exactly $0.01 and 1µBTC would be exactly $1

Do you really think we need to move even more decimal spaces? What do you think bitcoin will be worth then, a billion?

[1715693965]

1715693965

[1715693965]

1715693965

[1715693965]

1715693965

[DeathAndTaxes]

Feel free to sell your coins. I am more informed now than I was two years ago and hopefully will be more informed two years from now.  I also believed standardizing pricing mBTC was preferable but I now see that as a temporary measure which would probably need to be repeated again.  My opinions change based on new information and observations, most people call that learning.

wow, are you sure? Since if bitcoin becomes worth as much as $1,000,000 per coin than 1 satoshi would be worth exactly $0.01 and 1µBTC would be exactly $1

Do you really think we need to move even more decimal spaces? What do you think bitcoin will be worth then, a billion?

I have no idea how you got that from what I wrote and I suspect you don't either.

[zimmah]

Feel free to sell your coins. I am more informed now than I was two years ago and hopefully will be more informed two years from now.  I also believed standardizing pricing mBTC was preferable but I now see that as a temporary measure which would probably need to be repeated again.  My opinions change based on new information and observations, most people call that learning.

wow, are you sure? Since if bitcoin becomes worth as much as $1,000,000 per coin than 1 satoshi would be worth exactly $0.01 and 1µBTC would be exactly $1

Do you really think we need to move even more decimal spaces? What do you think bitcoin will be worth then, a billion?

I have no idea how you got that from what I wrote and I suspect you don't either.

oh sorry, i though i read µBTC instead of mBTC

Pretty sure people are still going to refer to them as microbits or bits regardless of whatever other names you keep coming up with.  It's hardly a "controversy".  Call them what you like, but don't expect people to agree with you because you think that posting a poll on a forum is going to change peoples' minds.  All the time you're arguing about it, more people are jumping on board with Bitcoin and learning the existing names.  So the longer you take to reach an agreement, the less likely you are to convince everyone to stop using microbits (or bits for short).  I've only been around crypto for half a year or so, and microbits is now firmly and forever burned into my consciousness.

i don't mind microbits, but in what universe is 'bits' short for microbits? That's like saying meters is short for centimeters.

[arnuschky]

An honest poll would have the "bit" option as well, in order to see if your preconception about bit matches the one of the community.

[_biO_]

An honest poll would have the "bit" option as well, in order to see if your preconception about bit matches the one of the community.

But OP already determined that "bit" is bad. So why include it?

[DooMAD]

Pretty sure people are still going to refer to them as microbits or bits regardless of whatever other names you keep coming up with.  It's hardly a "controversy".  Call them what you like, but don't expect people to agree with you because you think that posting a poll on a forum is going to change peoples' minds.  All the time you're arguing about it, more people are jumping on board with Bitcoin and learning the existing names.  So the longer you take to reach an agreement, the less likely you are to convince everyone to stop using microbits (or bits for short).  I've only been around crypto for half a year or so, and microbits is now firmly and forever burned into my consciousness.

i don't mind microbits, but in what universe is 'bits' short for microbits? That's like saying meters is short for centimeters.

Not quite.  If we were discussing 'mits' or 'mets' as the new word for centimeter, then that would be similar argument.  Microbitcoins shortened to bits would be analogous to centimeters shortened to mets.  Bits doesn't mean a whole bitcoin and mets wouldn't mean a whole meter.  But either way, it's probably easier if we just stick with microbits.  It's not exactly difficult to learn, so I don't see why we need to shorten it.

[zimmah]

except newcomers are more likely to shorten a long word like 'microbitcoin' to simply microbit, and thereby automatically imply 1 bit = 1 bitcoin than they are to call it a bit if they have never heard of a bit (as in 1 bit = 1 µBTC) before.

Therefore it would be equivalent to calling a centimeter a meter.

Perhaps a better example would be the kilo. Officially a kilo is a kilogram, but in common everyday use we call it just a kilo. But a 1000th of a kilo is not a microkilo millikilo but a gram (you drop the kilo from the kilogram and you're left with gram).

if you say that a bit is a microbitcoin, and then a kilobit would be a kilomicrobitcoin, that would not make sense. But effectively that is what you are doing when you name a microbitcoin a bit.

/edited typo

[phillipsjk]

Perhaps a better example would be the kilo. Officially a kilo is a kilogram, but in common everyday use we call it just a kilo. But a 1000th of a kilo is not a microkilo but a gram (you drop the kilo from the kilogram and you're left with gram).

You appear to be mis-understanding the metric system (which, incidentally is what prompted that original reddit poster to propose "bit").

The way the metric system works, values are expressed in the following format:
<Conveniently sized number><Prefix (optional)><unit>

Using the same prefix or multiple prefixes is formally not allowed: since it would obviously lead to confusion. (sometimes is happens with really common prefixes though. The SI system formally defines its base-unit for mass as the kilogram)

In the kilogram example, the kilo (meaning x10³) is actually the prefix. The "gram" is actually the base-unit. Thus it does not make sense to say 1/1000th of a kilo.

Common prefixes:

• Mega M(x10⁶)
  
• kilo k(x10³)
  
• (none) (x10⁰)
  
• milli m(x10^-3)
  
• micro µ(x10^-6)
  

Since one µg is 1,000,000,000 times smaller than 1kg, I am not sure why you would expect dividing a kilo by 1000 would give you a microkilo. Maybe  millikilo.

Incidentally, the proposed "mike" short-hand for 100 satoshies does the same thing: (mostly) keep the prefix, but drop the unit (which is implied by context).

[zimmah]

I know how the metric system works, but i was just pointing out how ridiculous it is to use a bit to mean anything other than a whole bitcoin.

My two favorite names are also mike and ubit (for much the same reasons, both use the 'micro' prefix in some way)

also, i meant to say millikilo

[Pente]

An honest poll would have the "bit" option as well, in order to see if your preconception about bit matches the one of the community.

He knew that an honest poll would select "bit = millionth of a bitcoin" as we can see in this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=592691.0


In fact, right now it has a supermajority at 78%

[zimmah]

in fact, that's not an honest poll either, as there's not even any other option than 'bit'. Also the maker of that poll admits it's not a poll for naming the unit.

Here's an honest poll (although it's a bit old and not very many votes) where 'bit' actually lost.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=349579.0

so bit was already dead and seems to have been revived a few weeks ago.

[jc01480]

Wish I had a BTC for every one of these polls.

[teukon]

... microbits (or bits for short).

Fail!

It should be crystal clear by now that, as an abbreviation for microbitcoin, "bit" is an appauling suggestion.  Ask any linguist person.

I believe the bedrock of the argument in favour of "bit" is as a wholly new term representing 0.000 001 BTC of wealth.  While I resist this and consider the notion misguided, there is some milage to the approach.

I am interested to see how "bit" fares over the coming couple of years.  Terrible ideas can last a long time (proportional mining anyone), and where there's a network effect involved, they can persist indefinitely (qwerty keyboard layout; possibly Litecoin).

[zimmah]

... microbits (or bits for short).

Fail!

It should be crystal clear by now that, as an abbreviation for microbitcoin, "bit" is an appauling suggestion.  Ask any linguist person.

I believe the bedrock of the argument in favour of "bit" is as a wholly new term representing 0.000 001 BTC of wealth.  While I resist this and consider the notion misguided, there is some milage to the approach.

I am interested to see how "bit" fares over the coming couple of years.  Terrible ideas can last a long time (proportional mining anyone), and where there's a network effect involved, they can persist indefinitely (qwerty keyboard layout; possibly Litecoin).

finally a person who understands, this is exactly why i am on a 'crusade' to prevent a bad idea from spreading like the plague.

[tertius993]

... microbits (or bits for short).

Fail!

It should be crystal clear by now that, as an abbreviation for microbitcoin, "bit" is an appauling suggestion.  Ask any linguist person.

I believe the bedrock of the argument in favour of "bit" is as a wholly new term representing 0.000 001 BTC of wealth.  While I resist this and consider the notion misguided, there is some milage to the approach.

I am interested to see how "bit" fares over the coming couple of years.  Terrible ideas can last a long time (proportional mining anyone), and where there's a network effect involved, they can persist indefinitely (qwerty keyboard layout; possibly Litecoin).

finally a person who understands, this is exactly why i am on a 'crusade' to prevent a bad idea from spreading like the plague.

I don't (really) have a problem with that, though I guess I'm rather ambivalent as to how "bad" it would really be.

However, if your campaign is to be successful I do think you need to come up with an alternative that is objectively and subjectively better and, in my opinion, none of the alternatives currently offered are.

[phillipsjk]

One suggestion brought up in 2011 is "oros", derived from the Esperanto word for "golden".

[zimmah]

One suggestion brought up in 2011 is "oros", derived from the Esperanto word for "golden".

added it

[Arghhh]

Why don't you add "bit" like multiple people have asked?

The only reason you would not is that you know it would win the vote. Prove me wrong.

+1

Awful choices, awful poll.

[scatha]

We are writing the year 2020.

Customer buys some vegetables.
Cashier "That's 15 mikes and 38 satoshis, please."
Customer "Here." *beep*

Customer is talking to bank clerk
Customer "I've got a 25 mils I'd like to invest for a few months. Can you help me there, please ?"

Good naming?
Of course, I'm assuming here, 1BTC = 1000 mils = 1000000 mikes and 1 mike = 100 satoshi.

[Gimpeline]

100 satoshi.
Don't need a new name for every decimal