Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: proposal for currency symbol for 'bits' (=1/1000000 BTC)
by
Jaymax
on 15/09/2014, 18:58:23 UTC
You are trying to pin down a moving target and give a permanent symbol to a temporary slang name.  

Yes.

Quote
It seems rather silly.

No, I don't think so.

The point is that by fixing a target now, that makes it easier for real-humans and existing software to work with the currency, for now (and a few years), that potentially helps immeasurably with bitcoin adoption and accommodation between now and then.

Right now, satoshis as 'base units' are fairly intrinsic to the protocol - yes, in theory, and undoubtedly eventually in practice as well, another n bits of divisibility can be added - but I understand that to be a non-trivial exercise. So the 'moving target' is not arbitrary for today and not tomorrow, and the question will need to be readdressed later - but 'later' will not be as critical to bitcoin emergence  and adoption as 'now'.

[infact, if it was just for 'now' we'd all be talking mille-bitcoin]

Still you're point is valid - in the bigger picture, this is very much a tactical rather than strategic move. 

And you know that if we go with µB͈̎ people are going to call it you-bitcoin, and write it uB͈̎ and that's just going to make me cringe and want to thump people...