Author: Mike Caldwell 2014-04-21 03:34:55
Published on: 2014-04-21T03:34:55+00:00
In April 2014, the Bitcoin development mailing list discussed possible names for smaller units of bitcoin. Mike Caldwell suggested "bit" because it is short, memorable, and pronounceable by speakers of most languages. However, it was noted that "bit" in French phonetically collides with slang for phallus ("bitte", with a silent "e"), and it means "louse" in Turkish. Justin A proposed "ubit," pronounced "YOU-bit," representing 1e-6 bitcoin, which is easy to say, tied in a visual way to the metric micro, and leaves the required 2 decimal places for the marginally numerate. The discussion also considered using a letter to precede "bit," such as "ebit" or "xbit," the latter of which could still be XBT. Those needing a definition for x could define it as "coin/1000000." In addition, Gavin recommended considering the potential for "XBT" to be 1e-6 BTC on the world stage. Despite these suggestions, some people believed that no term for smaller units had established itself yet, and time would tell.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T20:03:57.052020+00:00