Quote from: scryptographer on May 14, 2014, 11:37:21 PM

Quote from: ranlo on May 14, 2014, 04:52:09 PM

Quote from: jimmothy on May 14, 2014, 08:43:49 AM

Quote from: ranlo on May 14, 2014, 08:35:18 AM

The issue here is the vast majority of people dealing with cryptos don't know what micro and milli mean. I can't count the number of times people look at me dumbfounded because they can't convert between the amounts because they don't know basic conversion. Anyone who has been to elementary school should already know the meaning of micro/milli, but sadly that just isn't the case. "Bit" takes away this "difficulty" people often have with trying to figure out the values.

Anyone who doesn't know metric prefixes will not know what a bit is. Why introduce an arbitrary definition when the metric system or satoshis work perfectly fine? Seems like adding difficulty to me.

Well, people like this idea of what is "easier." The fact that milli and micro are even PART of the word turns people away because it turns into science. At the end of the day we're not going to be able to cater to everyone. For me, I can simply remember that a "bit" is a uBTC. It's not a huge deal for me either way. It does bring up a question, though... would it be like:

Bit (uBTC)
Megabit (mBTC)
Gigabit (BTC)

Or what? *That* is where it gets confusing.

Looks to me like bits would be a wise move, when even long time forum members with 2k+ posts, don't know the metric system..

Bits (uBTC)
KiloBits (mBTC)
MegaBits (BTC)

would be the correct names

Good catch! For some reason I was thinking it'd be bits, then megabits would be million satoshi (and I have no idea how I came up with that being 0.001 BTC when it'd really be 0.01 BTC if we were talking about satoshi) and gigabit being billion satoshi (which would be 10 BTC if we were talking about satoshi instead of bits). This is what happens when you don't think!

I guess it does bring up a point: we need an easier to understand method to run these.

While I think an arbitrary naming system is somewhat bad, it does help in the sense that it gives a *different* name to each. mBTC, uBTC, etc. are all very much alike. Scraps vs Dust vs Starlight, for example, is clearly different.

Either way this is going to be a complex problem since people are on both sides.

Edit: FWIW, I'm from the US, too. We don't use metric here; we use imperial, :p. You should be happy I even know what metric means!