Received: from sog-mx-3.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com ([172.29.43.193] helo=mx.sourceforge.net) by sfs-ml-3.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1Wbqy9-0007wi-8G for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Sun, 20 Apr 2014 12:35:37 +0000 Received-SPF: pass (sog-mx-3.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.192.42 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.192.42; envelope-from=mjgehl@gmail.com; helo=mail-qg0-f42.google.com; Received: from mail-qg0-f42.google.com ([209.85.192.42]) by sog-mx-3.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) (Exim 4.76) id 1Wbqy5-0000jm-To for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Sun, 20 Apr 2014 12:35:37 +0000 Received: by mail-qg0-f42.google.com with SMTP id q107so3192767qgd.29 for ; Sun, 20 Apr 2014 05:35:28 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.140.27.109 with SMTP id 100mr37125389qgw.14.1397997328469; Sun, 20 Apr 2014 05:35:28 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.229.129.3 with HTTP; Sun, 20 Apr 2014 05:35:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Gehl Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 07:35:08 -0500 Message-ID: To: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Spam-Score: -1.6 (-) X-Spam-Report: Spam Filtering performed by mx.sourceforge.net. See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. -0.0 RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE RBL: Sender listed at http://www.dnswl.org/, no trust [209.85.192.42 listed in list.dnswl.org] -1.5 SPF_CHECK_PASS SPF reports sender host as permitted sender for sender-domain 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail provider (mjgehl[at]gmail.com) -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from author's domain 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature X-Headers-End: 1Wbqy5-0000jm-To Subject: [Bitcoin-development] "bits": Unit of account X-BeenThere: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 12:35:37 -0000 The usefulness of a "bitcoin" unit will decrease as the value of the network increases. Today, a majority of transactions are denominated in fractions of a bitcoin. As a consequence, millibitcoin (mBTC) and microbitcoin (uBTC) units have been introduced to alleviate the decimal problem. While SI units are great for people well versed in them, there is a very good reason people aren't asking for 100 micro dollars in change. The average person is not going to be confident that the prefix they are using is the correct one, people WILL send 1000x more or less than intended if we go down this road, and these mistakes will happen frequently. Labeling should be easy enough for kindergarten kids. I propose that users are offered a preference to denominate the Bitcoin currency in a unit called a bit. Where one bitcoin (BTC) equals one million bits (bits) and one bit equals 100 satoshis. For a user discussion on the topic see: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/23flcn/bits_instead_of_%CE%BCbtc/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rmto3/its_bits/