mBTC over BTC or Satoshis

in cryptocurrency •  5 years ago 


bitcoin-3024279_640.jpg

I was reading an article today that suggests that it is time there was a symbol for the smallest, indivisible unit of Bitcoin, a Satoshi.

The argument is not new; it has been made every since I've got into Bitcoin. It is also not one I completely disagree with.

As I wrote in a previous post, in the next bull market it will start making sense to start thinking of Bitcoin in a smaller unit. As the dollar price of Bitcoin goes up, it starts to get tendency to deal in fractions of Bitcoins when transactionibg everyday amounts.

However I think it will be too soon to start thinking in Satoshis.

For me, greater use of mBTC (milliBitcoin) would be the first step. A mBTC is one thousandth of a Bitcoin. Or $10 at today's prices.

So much of retail investing hinges on psychology.

In that regard picking up handfuls of mBTC over time with a view to accumulating 1000 (thus 1 Bitcoin) registers as an easier task than picking up several one thousandths of a bitcoin to achieve the same end.

Also it will get people thinking in terms of the mBTC they hold rather than the dollar price. Right now it would easier to say you hold $10s worth of bitcoin than 0.001 bitcoin. Saying you hold 1 or 2 mBTC OR 350 mBTC is easier to conceptualise..

I'm not too worry about the prices of sandwich being priced in BTC, mBTC or Satoshis anytime soon. We are a long way away from BTC being a widely adopted medium of exchange.

However as a store of value, the Bitcoin use case is strong. And to that end, it is far easier to keep track of wealth in whole units than fractions.


Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

I'm afraid Bitcoin will hardly ever be adopted as a medium of exchange. Why? It's too slow and expensive to pay for everyday stuff. And that's completely fine. Bitcoin is a non-correlated asset that is beginning to take on the role of digital gold. There are many other coins much better at being used as everyday payment systems. One such system could be STEEM, or rather, SBD. Steem is a DPoS chain and thus vastly more scalable than any PoW chain. Less secure, sure, but good enough for paying for your coffee. Powering up a multi-sig account controlled by a smart contract that prevents taking back upvotes would enable one to even pay for a hamburger with an upvote!

yea makes sense, i guess mBTC should be especially useful and can make things easier when price spikes again.

Posted using Partiko iOS

I think it would just add to a lot of peoples confusion so imo leave it as it is...

I see that argument too. The market will ultimately choose the approach that works best.

What sounds better, 1 milliBTC or 100 kilosats? One bitcoin is 100 megasats. The max supply of BTC is 2.1 petasats.

  ·  5 years ago (edited)

I think it will keep this status and a safe haven asset. But I agree with you, whatever happens, if the dollar keeps moving like this BTC will go up.