It’s Time to Admit It – There Are Only 2.1 Quadrillion Bitcoins

If the above statement offends you, you probably haven’t read the Bitcoin source code.

Of course, I’m sure you’ve heard that there are 21 million Bitcoins – and that’s true, the Bitcoin protocol only allows for the creation of “21 million Bitcoins”, however these larger categories can be divided into 100 million sub-categories. units for each.

Call them what you want, there are only 2.1 quadrillion monetary units in the protocol.

This difference in dollars and cents has long been a topic of debate — in the time of Satoshi, Bitcoin’s creator, dual agreements, in which Bitcoin has a large denomination and a smaller one, were not much of a concern. There have been questions about whether the program will work at all, and Bitcoin It was worthlessSelling them in bulk was the only rational option.

Rephrasing this debate is Pep 21Qa proposal for Bitcoin users by John Carvalho, founder and creator of Synonym Pubky social media platforma consistent contributor whose work dates back to the days of the influential Bitcoin asset group.

In short, BIP proposes that the actors in the network – different wallets and exchanges – change how Bitcoin denominations are displayed, renaming the smallest unit in the protocol to “bitcoins”, instead of “bitcoins”.Satoshi“, as they are usually called.

Below are the details of the BIP:

Redefining the unit:

• Internally, the smallest indivisible unit remains unchanged.
• Historically, 1 BTC = 100,000,000 base units. Under this proposal, “1 Bitcoin” is equal to that smaller unit.
• What was previously referred to as “1 BTC” now corresponds to 100 million Bitcoins under the new definition.

Terms:

• The informal terms “satoshi” or “sat” have been deprecated.
• All references, interfaces and documentation must refer to the basic integer unit simply as “Bitcoin”.

Display and format:

• Applications should display values ​​as whole integers without decimals.
• example:
• Old offer: 0.00010000 BTC
• New offer: 10,000 BTC (or ₿10,000)

Unsurprisingly, the debate over the IIP has been hostile. First, it is not a technical BIP, although this is not a requirement of the BIP process. Suffice it to say, this is perhaps the most general BIP proposed under the BIP process to date, as it deals primarily with market agreements and user onboarding logic, rather than any changes to program rules.

However, I must say that I find this suggestion convincing. Nick Hoffman, our news editor, prefers not to, preferring to stick with a positive market.

However, I think the proposal raises related questions: Why should new users calculate their Bitcoin balances using only decimals? This certainly has the negative side effect of making trading difficult – it simply contradicts the way people think and act today.

Also, in terms of savings, at $100,000 worth of Bitcoin, it’s not entirely convincing to think that you could spend an entire year earning a single Bitcoin, although that may be the case.

In fact, there have been various discussions of all kinds of units – mBTC, uBTC – manipulating the dollar-cent convention, but here Carvalho wisely skips to the end, preferring to just rip off the band-aid. One dollar would buy 1,000 bitcoins under his proposal.

What do you like here, and I argued this during Logano Discussion on this topic in 2023is that it holds both the larger denomination of BTC and the smaller unit, now bitcoins. Both are important, and serve different functions.

My argument then was that having a larger denomination like BTC (100 million bitcoins) was important. If there were no “BTC unit,” the press and financial media would be faced with the belief that “1 Bitcoin” would still be worth less than 1 cent.

How much mainstream coverage and attention do we think there will be? I bet not much.

In this way, BIP 21Q is the best of both worlds approach.

The financial world, press and media can continue to support the massive rise in BTC value, while ordinary users can ditch the decimals and complex calculations, and trade the only real unit of Bitcoin that is guaranteed to exist forever.

This article is a takes. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.