{"id":129512,"date":"2025-05-19T06:15:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T06:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129512"},"modified":"2025-05-19T06:15:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T06:15:31","slug":"sats-vs-bits-debate-reignites-amid-proposal-to-change-bitcoin-base-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129512","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sats\u2019 vs \u2018bits\u2019 debate reignites amid proposal to change Bitcoin base unit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsA recent proposal that aims to change Bitcoin\u2019s base unit to make it easier to understand as a payment tool has run into opposition, with critics saying Bitcoin\u2019s satoshis are no more confusing than the dollar\u2019s cents.<br \/>\nBitcoin developer John Carvalho introduced Bitcoin Improvement Proposal-177 on April 23, which seeks to eliminate the concept of satoshis, of which there are 100,000,000 in 1 Bitcoin (BTC), and effectively split Bitcoin\u2019s fixed supply of 21 million into 21 quadrillion units.<br \/>\nIt follows a 2017 proposal from Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song to create \u201cbits,\u201d representing one-millionth of 1 Bitcoin. However, Carvalho said Song\u2019s approach would still require Bitcoin users to think about decimals and \u201cshifts complexity rather than eliminating it.\u201d<br \/>\nBlock Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey is among those calling for the change, saying in a May 18 X post that satoshis, or sats, are too confusing for newcomers.<br \/>\n\u201cBits of Bitcoin is better, and just Bitcoin is best,\u201d Dorsey said.<br \/>\nDorsey pointed to a December 2024 discussion on the topic where Stevie Lee, product lead of Bitcoin infrastructure firm Spiral, argued that not enough people know or care about what satoshis are.<br \/>\n\u201cEveryone knows Bitcoin, no one knows sats, people just want to send and receive Bitcoin,\u201d Lee said, recalling past conversations where people thought satoshis were an entirely new token, unrelated to Bitcoin.<br \/>\nHe added that the Bitcoin community shouldn\u2019t be too concerned with the change, as they know the underlying economics of Bitcoin would remain intact.<br \/>\nRelated: DOJ charges 12 more gamer-turned $263M Bitcoin robbers<br \/>\nSwan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten and Byte Federal director of product Michelle Weekley were among those who opposed the change.<br \/>\n\u201cPeople understand cents in a dollar, they will understand sats in a Bitcoin,\u201d Weekley said on X.<br \/>\nMagdalena Gronowska, a self-described Bitcoin consultant, claimed that the change could make some people think that Bitcoin abruptly crashed from its current price of around $100,000 and that its \u201csupply has massively inflated.\u201d<br \/>\nZaprite business development lead Parker Lewis argued that sats were easier to understand. Source: Parker LewisBitcoin creator was open to the idea<br \/>\nRobin Linus, the creator of the Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BitVM), highlighted that even Bitcoin\u2019s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was open to changing how Bitcoin\u2019s units are displayed for the purpose of usability.<br \/>\n\u201cIf it gets tiresome working with small numbers, we could change where the display shows the decimal point,\u201d Satoshi said in a February 2010 post before vanishing the following year.<br \/>\n\u201cSame amount of money, just different convention,\u201d Satoshi added.<br \/>\nComment from Satoshi Nakamoto about changing Bitcoin\u2019s unit base in February 2010. Source: BitcointalkThe Bitcoin network hasn&#8217;t implemented any improvement proposals since the Taproot upgrade in November 2021, which aimed to improve Bitcoin\u2019s speed, efficiency and privacy.<br \/>\nMagazine: Danger signs for Bitcoin as retail abandons it to institutions: Sky Wee<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/sats-vs-bits-debate-bitcoin-adoption-amid-base-unit-change-bip?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsA recent proposal that aims to change Bitcoin\u2019s base unit to make it easier to understand as a payment tool has run into opposition, with critics saying Bitcoin\u2019s&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129512"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}