📅 Original date posted:2014-05-02
📝 Original message:[resend - apologies if duplicate]
Microbitcoin is a good-sized unit, workable for everyday transaction
values, with room-to-grow, and a nice relationship to satoshis as 'cents'.
But "bits" has problems as a unit name.
"Bits" will be especially problematic whenever people try to graduate
from informal use to understanding the system internals - that is, when
the real "bits" of key sizes, hash sizes, and storage/bandwidth needs
become important. The "bit" as "binary digit" was important enough that
Satoshi named the system after it; that homage gets lost if the word is
muddied with a new retconned meaning that's quite different.
Some examples of possible problems:
* If "bit" equals "100 satoshis", then the natural-language unpacking of
"bit-coin" is "100 satoshi coin", which runs against all prior usage.
* If people are informed that a "256-bit private key" is what ultimately
controls their balances, it could prompt confusion like, "if each key
has 256-bits, will I need 40 keys to hold 10,000.00 bits?"
* When people learn that there are 8 bits to a byte, they may think,
"OK, my wallet holding my 80,000.00 bits will then take up 10 kilobytes".
* When people naturally extend "bit" into "kilobits" to mean "1000
bits", then the new coinage "kilobits" will mean the exact same amount
(100,000 satoshi) as many have already been calling "millibits".
I believe it'd be best to pick a new made-up single-syllable word as a
synonym for "microbitcoin", and I've laid out the case for "zib" as that
word at <http://zibcoin.org>;.
'Zib' also lends itself to an expressive unicode symbol, 'Ƶ'
(Z-with-stroke), that remains distinctive even if it loses its stroke or
gets case-reversed. (Comparatively, all 'b'-derived symbols for
data-bits, bitcoins, or '100 satoshi bits' risk collision in contexts
where subtleties of casing/stroking are lost.)
(There's summary of more problems with "bit" in the zibcoin.org FAQ at:
<http://zibcoin.org/faq#why-not-bits-to-mean-microbitcoins>;.)
- Gordon
On 5/1/14, 3:35 PM, Aaron Voisine wrote:
> I'm also a big fan of standardizing on microBTC as the standard unit.
> I didn't like the name "bits" at first, but the more I think about it,
> the more I like it. The main thing going for it is the fact that it's
> part of the name bitcoin. If Bitcoin is the protocol and network, bits
> are an obvious choice for the currency unit.
>
> I would like to propose using Unicode character U+0180, lowercase b
> with stroke, as the symbol to represent the microBTC denomination,
> whether we call bits or something else:
> http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0180/index.htm
>
> Another candidate is Unicode character U+2422, the blank symbol, but I
> prefer stroke b.
> http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2422/index.htm
>
> Aaron
>
> There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole
> government working for you -- Will Rodgers
>
>> On Apr 21, 2014 5:41 AM, "Pieter Wuille" <pieter.wuille at gm...> wrote:
>>
>>> On Apr 21, 2014 3:37 AM, "Un Ix" <slashdevnull at ...> wrote:
>>>
>>> Something tells me this would be reduced to a single syllable in common
>>> usage I.e. bit.
>>
>> What units will be called colloquially is not something developers will
>> determine. It will vary, depend on language and culture, and is not
>> relevant to this discussion in my opinion.
>>
>> It may well be that people in some geographic or language area will end up
>> (or for a while) calling 1e-06 BTC "bits". That's fine, but using that as
>> "official" name in software would be very strange and potentially confusing
>> in my opinion. As mentioned by others, that would seem to me like calling
>> dollars "bucks" in bank software. Nobody seems to have a problem with
>> having colloquial names, but "US dollar" or "euro" are far less ambiguous
>> than "bit". I think we need a more distinctive name.
>>
>> --
>> Pieter
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Gordon Mohr [ARCHIVE] /
npub1sg…vpuky
2023-06-07 15:20:35
in reply to nevent1q…lg4q
Author Public Key
npub1sg8ck6fmhc9u7qw0wugg6fktrjmgyfqm9l42rnkwxzpaaf55z8pquvpukyPublished at
2023-06-07 15:20:35Event JSON
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"content": "📅 Original date posted:2014-05-02\n📝 Original message:[resend - apologies if duplicate]\n\nMicrobitcoin is a good-sized unit, workable for everyday transaction \nvalues, with room-to-grow, and a nice relationship to satoshis as 'cents'.\n\nBut \"bits\" has problems as a unit name.\n\n\"Bits\" will be especially problematic whenever people try to graduate \nfrom informal use to understanding the system internals - that is, when \nthe real \"bits\" of key sizes, hash sizes, and storage/bandwidth needs \nbecome important. The \"bit\" as \"binary digit\" was important enough that \nSatoshi named the system after it; that homage gets lost if the word is \nmuddied with a new retconned meaning that's quite different.\n\nSome examples of possible problems:\n\n* If \"bit\" equals \"100 satoshis\", then the natural-language unpacking of \n\"bit-coin\" is \"100 satoshi coin\", which runs against all prior usage.\n\n* If people are informed that a \"256-bit private key\" is what ultimately \ncontrols their balances, it could prompt confusion like, \"if each key \nhas 256-bits, will I need 40 keys to hold 10,000.00 bits?\"\n\n* When people learn that there are 8 bits to a byte, they may think, \n\"OK, my wallet holding my 80,000.00 bits will then take up 10 kilobytes\".\n\n* When people naturally extend \"bit\" into \"kilobits\" to mean \"1000 \nbits\", then the new coinage \"kilobits\" will mean the exact same amount \n(100,000 satoshi) as many have already been calling \"millibits\".\n\nI believe it'd be best to pick a new made-up single-syllable word as a \nsynonym for \"microbitcoin\", and I've laid out the case for \"zib\" as that \nword at \u003chttp://zibcoin.org\u003e.\n\n'Zib' also lends itself to an expressive unicode symbol, 'Ƶ' \n(Z-with-stroke), that remains distinctive even if it loses its stroke or \ngets case-reversed. (Comparatively, all 'b'-derived symbols for \ndata-bits, bitcoins, or '100 satoshi bits' risk collision in contexts \nwhere subtleties of casing/stroking are lost.)\n\n(There's summary of more problems with \"bit\" in the zibcoin.org FAQ at: \n\u003chttp://zibcoin.org/faq#why-not-bits-to-mean-microbitcoins\u003e.)\n\n- Gordon\n\nOn 5/1/14, 3:35 PM, Aaron Voisine wrote:\n\u003e I'm also a big fan of standardizing on microBTC as the standard unit.\n\u003e I didn't like the name \"bits\" at first, but the more I think about it,\n\u003e the more I like it. The main thing going for it is the fact that it's\n\u003e part of the name bitcoin. If Bitcoin is the protocol and network, bits\n\u003e are an obvious choice for the currency unit.\n\u003e\n\u003e I would like to propose using Unicode character U+0180, lowercase b\n\u003e with stroke, as the symbol to represent the microBTC denomination,\n\u003e whether we call bits or something else:\n\u003e http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0180/index.htm\n\u003e\n\u003e Another candidate is Unicode character U+2422, the blank symbol, but I\n\u003e prefer stroke b.\n\u003e http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2422/index.htm\n\u003e\n\u003e Aaron\n\u003e\n\u003e There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole\n\u003e government working for you -- Will Rodgers\n\u003e\n\u003e\u003e On Apr 21, 2014 5:41 AM, \"Pieter Wuille\" \u003cpieter.wuille at gm...\u003e wrote:\n\u003e\u003e\n\u003e\u003e\u003e On Apr 21, 2014 3:37 AM, \"Un Ix\" \u003cslashdevnull at ...\u003e wrote:\n\u003e\u003e\u003e\n\u003e\u003e\u003e Something tells me this would be reduced to a single syllable in common\n\u003e\u003e\u003e usage I.e. bit.\n\u003e\u003e\n\u003e\u003e What units will be called colloquially is not something developers will\n\u003e\u003e determine. It will vary, depend on language and culture, and is not\n\u003e\u003e relevant to this discussion in my opinion.\n\u003e\u003e\n\u003e\u003e It may well be that people in some geographic or language area will end up\n\u003e\u003e (or for a while) calling 1e-06 BTC \"bits\". That's fine, but using that as\n\u003e\u003e \"official\" name in software would be very strange and potentially confusing\n\u003e\u003e in my opinion. As mentioned by others, that would seem to me like calling\n\u003e\u003e dollars \"bucks\" in bank software. Nobody seems to have a problem with\n\u003e\u003e having colloquial names, but \"US dollar\" or \"euro\" are far less ambiguous\n\u003e\u003e than \"bit\". I think we need a more distinctive name.\n\u003e\u003e\n\u003e\u003e --\n\u003e\u003e Pieter\n\u003e\n\u003e ------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\u003e \"Accelerate Dev Cycles with Automated Cross-Browser Testing - For FREE\n\u003e Instantly run your Selenium tests across 300+ browser/OS combos. Get\n\u003e unparalleled scalability from the best Selenium testing platform available.\n\u003e Simple to use. Nothing to install. Get started now for free.\"\n\u003e http://p.sf.net/sfu/SauceLabs\n\u003e _______________________________________________\n\u003e Bitcoin-development mailing list\n\u003e Bitcoin-development at lists.sourceforge.net\n\u003e https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development\n\u003e",
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