📅 Original date posted:2017-12-15
📝 Original message:>Bitcoin (BTC), Millibitcoin (mBTC) and Microbitcoin (µBTC) is the >correct<
approach. It's tidy, systematic and precise.
The SI system is great, but it's nice if you pick a base unit that is easy
for intuition to comprehend.
It is a fact that I weigh approximately .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,014
Earth masses. If we arrived at rough consensus that this was a cumbersome
way to express the mass of a human, we might then find a group of people
making the superficially sensible proposal that we use SI prefixes and say
I weigh 14 yoctoearths. This would be tidy, systematic and precise, but
that might not be enough to make it the best option. It might be even
better to choose a base unit that human intuition can make sense of, and
THEN add prefixes as needed.
I dislike the name "bits" but I think 100 satoshis does make a nice base
unit. If we cannot crowdsource a more inspiring label we may be stuck with
bits just due to linguistic network effects.
-Ethan
On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 1:27 AM, Marcel Jamin via bitcoin-dev <
bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> I think one could make the argument that the only people who talk
> about and understand 24 bit audio or 256 bit cryptography are the ones
> who can tell the difference very easily.
>
> To me, your example seems to try hard to make the case for a problem
> that won't exist in reality.
>
> Bitcoin (BTC), Millibitcoin (mBTC) and Microbitcoin (µBTC) is the
> >correct< approach. It's tidy, systematic and precise. But that won't
> stop people from using something that's easier to deal with as I just
> had to google the µ character again.
>
> Let's also keep in mind that Coinbase has been using "bits" as the
> default for over 2 years now:
> https://blog.coinbase.com/bits-is-the-new-default-and-
> all-new-users-get-100-bits-for-free-9165f757594b
>
> Just from a linguistic standpoint, chances are we'll end up with bits
> anyway. Why fight it? We don't have a SI prefix educational mandate.
>
> Marcel
>
> On 14 December 2017 at 23:01, Natanael <natanael.l at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Reposting /u/BashCo's post on reddit here, for visibility:
> >
> > ---8<---------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >> Before anyone says 'bits' are too confusing because it's a computer
> >> science term, here's a list of homonyms
> >> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_true_homonyms] that you use
> every
> >> day. Homonyms are fine because our brains are able to interpret language
> >> based on context, so it's a non-argument.
> >
> >
> > This ignores the fact that there exists multiple meanings of bits *within
> > the same context*, and that beginners likely can't tell them apart.
> >
> > Feel free to try it yourself - talk about Bitcoin "bits" of a particular
> > value with somebody who doesn't understand Bitcoin. Then explain that
> the
> > cryptography uses 256 bit keys. I would be surprised if you could find
> > somebody who would not be confused by that.
> >
> > Let's say a website says a song is 24 bits. Was that 24 bit audio
> resolution
> > or 24 bit price? Somebody writes about 256 bit keys, are that their size
> or
> > value?
> >
> > You guys here can probably tell the difference. Can everybody...? Bits
> will
> > cause confusion, because plenty of people will not be able to tell these
> > apart. They will not know WHEN to apply one definition or the other.
> >
> > https://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin/comments/24m3nb/_/ch8gua7
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>
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Moral Agent [ARCHIVE] /
npub1gh…gc6pd
2023-06-07 18:08:44
in reply to nevent1q…dyzn
Author Public Key
npub1ghl954l59wm5pnv8j2y0ymmp6dt70kx2037e06wavfut7gjh68hqdgc6pdPublished at
2023-06-07 18:08:44Event JSON
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"content": "📅 Original date posted:2017-12-15\n📝 Original message:\u003eBitcoin (BTC), Millibitcoin (mBTC) and Microbitcoin (µBTC) is the \u003ecorrect\u003c\napproach. It's tidy, systematic and precise.\n\nThe SI system is great, but it's nice if you pick a base unit that is easy\nfor intuition to comprehend.\n\nIt is a fact that I weigh approximately .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,014\nEarth masses. If we arrived at rough consensus that this was a cumbersome\nway to express the mass of a human, we might then find a group of people\nmaking the superficially sensible proposal that we use SI prefixes and say\nI weigh 14 yoctoearths. This would be tidy, systematic and precise, but\nthat might not be enough to make it the best option. It might be even\nbetter to choose a base unit that human intuition can make sense of, and\nTHEN add prefixes as needed.\n\nI dislike the name \"bits\" but I think 100 satoshis does make a nice base\nunit. If we cannot crowdsource a more inspiring label we may be stuck with\nbits just due to linguistic network effects.\n\n-Ethan\n\n\n\nOn Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 1:27 AM, Marcel Jamin via bitcoin-dev \u003c\nbitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org\u003e wrote:\n\n\u003e I think one could make the argument that the only people who talk\n\u003e about and understand 24 bit audio or 256 bit cryptography are the ones\n\u003e who can tell the difference very easily.\n\u003e\n\u003e To me, your example seems to try hard to make the case for a problem\n\u003e that won't exist in reality.\n\u003e\n\u003e Bitcoin (BTC), Millibitcoin (mBTC) and Microbitcoin (µBTC) is the\n\u003e \u003ecorrect\u003c approach. It's tidy, systematic and precise. But that won't\n\u003e stop people from using something that's easier to deal with as I just\n\u003e had to google the µ character again.\n\u003e\n\u003e Let's also keep in mind that Coinbase has been using \"bits\" as the\n\u003e default for over 2 years now:\n\u003e https://blog.coinbase.com/bits-is-the-new-default-and-\n\u003e all-new-users-get-100-bits-for-free-9165f757594b\n\u003e\n\u003e Just from a linguistic standpoint, chances are we'll end up with bits\n\u003e anyway. Why fight it? We don't have a SI prefix educational mandate.\n\u003e\n\u003e Marcel\n\u003e\n\u003e On 14 December 2017 at 23:01, Natanael \u003cnatanael.l at gmail.com\u003e wrote:\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e Reposting /u/BashCo's post on reddit here, for visibility:\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e ---8\u003c---------------------------------------------------------------\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e\u003e Before anyone says 'bits' are too confusing because it's a computer\n\u003e \u003e\u003e science term, here's a list of homonyms\n\u003e \u003e\u003e [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_true_homonyms] that you use\n\u003e every\n\u003e \u003e\u003e day. Homonyms are fine because our brains are able to interpret language\n\u003e \u003e\u003e based on context, so it's a non-argument.\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e This ignores the fact that there exists multiple meanings of bits *within\n\u003e \u003e the same context*, and that beginners likely can't tell them apart.\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e Feel free to try it yourself - talk about Bitcoin \"bits\" of a particular\n\u003e \u003e value with somebody who doesn't understand Bitcoin. Then explain that\n\u003e the\n\u003e \u003e cryptography uses 256 bit keys. I would be surprised if you could find\n\u003e \u003e somebody who would not be confused by that.\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e Let's say a website says a song is 24 bits. Was that 24 bit audio\n\u003e resolution\n\u003e \u003e or 24 bit price? Somebody writes about 256 bit keys, are that their size\n\u003e or\n\u003e \u003e value?\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e You guys here can probably tell the difference. Can everybody...? Bits\n\u003e will\n\u003e \u003e cause confusion, because plenty of people will not be able to tell these\n\u003e \u003e apart. They will not know WHEN to apply one definition or the other.\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e https://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin/comments/24m3nb/_/ch8gua7\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e \u003e\n\u003e _______________________________________________\n\u003e bitcoin-dev mailing list\n\u003e bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org\n\u003e https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev\n\u003e\n-------------- next part --------------\nAn HTML attachment was scrubbed...\nURL: \u003chttp://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20171215/491a9809/attachment.html\u003e",
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