Quote from: DrBitcoin on May 04, 2014, 07:02:10 PM

Why can't 1 bit = 1 Satoshi?

It "can" however there are some advantages of using uBTC instead.

The first is that it reduces the number of excessive zeroes to the right of the significant digit by two. 12,500 bits vs 1,2500,000 satoshis.

The second is that the idea that people hate decimals is a falsehood. Most currency systems used today have two to four decimal places. $1.24 for example. It actually helps the mind distinguish between the high value and low value numbers. For example someone can say yeah that GPU is $500 that is insane and nobody is confused by the absence of the cents. On the other hand if the USD system used cents as its base unit it would be more like that GPU is 50,000 cents. Having a decimal place allows short hand in common usage and language. How much was your cruise. Oh about $1,400 (vs 140,000 cents) while still allowing smaller pricing where it matters. The components we need are $1.87 ea if purchased in 100 or more units.

Lastly (and this is the big one for me) there is a LOT of legacy financial software and they have limits on the scope of values that can be entered, including exchange rates. Most accounting software can't handle exchange rates for Bitcoins either in Satoshis or in whole Bitcoins. Given the other two factors uBTC is a good place to start. As Bitcoin gets larger and attracts more merchants these will be people who are not diehard "believers" but rather using Bitcoin because it is an effective tool. If it can't easily integrated with their existing tools then it isn't as effective and they may simply not adopt it.

From a technical perspective either would work (and so would using whole Bitcoins).