Author: Gordon Mohr 2014-05-03 02:06:11
Published on: 2014-05-03T02:06:11+00:00
The unit of cryptocurrency Microbitcoin is a good size for everyday transactions but the name 'bits' has issues. Bits will cause confusion when people try to understand the system internals, such as key sizes, hash sizes, and storage/bandwidth needs become important. The meaning of "bit" as in binary digit was important enough that Satoshi named the system after it. Some possible problems with 'bits' include natural-language unpacking of "bit-coin" as "100 satoshi coin", which runs against all prior usage. It could also prompt confusion like, "if each key has 256-bits, will I need 40 keys to hold 10,000.00 bits?". If 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". A single-syllable word as a synonym for microbitcoin, is suggested. "Zib" is proposed because it is easy to pronounce, spell and stands out with its expressive Unicode symbol, 'Ƶ'. Aaron Voisine proposed standardized use of microBTC as the standard unit. He suggests using Unicode character U+0180, lowercase b with stroke, or Unicode character U+2422, the blank symbol, to represent the microBTC denomination, whether we call it 'bits' or something else.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T20:01:42.415433+00:00