"Satoshi" or "Bit"? The debate over the basic unit reignites due to the soaring Bitcoin price.

## "Satoshi is difficult to understand"

As the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) exceeds 15 million yen, discussions regarding its basic unit have reignited within the community.

The catalyst for this was the expression of support by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter (now X) and a longtime Bitcoin enthusiast, for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 177, which redefines the basic unit of Bitcoin.

Source: X

This is it. For those who have just started with Bitcoin, Sats (Satoshi) can be very confusing. It's better to use bits of Bitcoin, and simply calling it Bitcoin is the best.

Currently, the smallest unit of Bitcoin is named after its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, and is called "Satoshi" (satoshi = sat), defined as one hundred millionth of 1 BTC (0.00000001 BTC). In other words, 1 BTC equals 100 million Satoshis.

However, with the price of Bitcoin soaring and 1 BTC exceeding $100,000 today, the unit of Satoshi, which deals with 8 decimal places, has raised criticisms that it could cause confusion and become an obstacle as many people use Bitcoin in their daily lives.

The proposal made by software developer John Carvalho is BIP177. Carvalho suggests the following changes regarding the basic unit of Bitcoin (Base Unit=BU).

• Redefinition of units: Previously, 1 Bitcoin = 100 million BU, now 1 Bitcoin is defined as 1 BU.
• Satoshi will be abolished.
• The currency code "BTC" used for transactions is not affected by this change and continues to mean 100 million BU.

Mr. Carvalho proposed the term "bit" as one of the options for the name of a new basic unit to replace Satoshi. It is claimed that by eliminating complex numbers after the decimal point and displaying Bitcoin only in integers, mental calculations become easier, confusion and mistakes are reduced, and the user experience is improved.

Proponents' opinions

Supporters of BIP-177 argue that changing the units will accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin and lead to long-term value increase.

The aforementioned Jack Dorsey cited a discussion on unit changes posted on YouTube last December, claiming, "Satoshi is a misleading term that hinders the general public from acquiring and using Bitcoin." In this video, Stevey Lee from the Bitcoin infrastructure company Spiral pointed out that many people misunderstand Satoshi as being related to other tokens that have nothing to do with Bitcoin.

The developer of BitVM, Robin Linus, quoted Satoshi Nakamoto's statement (February 2010) that "If dealing with small numbers is troublesome, you can change the position of the decimal point for display purposes. The amount remains the same; only the display convention changes." He emphasized that Nakamoto himself was positive about changing the way Bitcoin units are displayed with usability in mind.

opposition opinions

On the other hand, the opposing faction that advocates for the maintenance of Satoshi argues that the current unit system is sufficiently understandable and expresses concerns about the confusion and risks associated with changes.

Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten stated, "Just like cents to the dollar, Satoshis to Bitcoin are easy to understand." Michelle Weekly, Product Director at Byte Federal, remarked, "Since people understand dollars and cents, they can also understand Satoshis in Bitcoin."

While BIP177 does not change the Bitcoin issuance cap of 21 million BTC, there are concerns that redefining the total number of basic units (BU) to 2.1 quadrillion (21,000,000,000,000,000) may lead to misunderstandings regarding the total supply of Bitcoin.

Bram Kanstein, the host of the podcast "Bitcoin for Millennials," criticized, "This proposal completely destroys the understanding of the maximum supply of 21 million. It undermines over 15 years of education that has explained that one hundred millionth of a Bitcoin is called a Satoshi."

Bitcoin consultant Magdalena Grolnowska warns that the unit change could lead to a misunderstanding that "the price of Bitcoin has dropped significantly from $100,000." She also points out the risk of misunderstanding that "the supply has expanded" due to the total number of basic units being an enormous figure of 2.1 quadrillion.

Additionally, the figure of 2.1 trillion was criticized by Osmo Wallet founder Piero Cohen, who stated that it is incompatible with the expression "Bitcoin is the most scarce asset on Earth."

Furthermore, in the Bitcoin community, the term "Satoshi" is widely accepted as a tribute to the founder, and the expression "stacking sats" is also popular. There are concerns that the change in the basic unit may cause confusion among existing users and cultural practices.

Hybrid Plan

Mr. Jonathan from BitTrees Research (X name: Raging BTC) proposed a hybrid model where 1 Bitcoin is equivalent to 1 million bits and 1 bit equals 100 Satoshis (1 bit = 1/1,000,000 BTC). He claims that this model has similarities to existing currency systems and is likely to be more readily accepted.

Famous Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song made a similar proposal (BIP216) in 2017 as an attempt to simplify small transactions. Although this proposal garnered attention at the time, it did not achieve widespread adoption.

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