Killing Satoshi Nakamoto's "Satoshi", BIP-177 starts a bitcoin unit war

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author|Golem (@web3_golem).

On the evening of May 18, Jack Dorsey, founder of the social platform X (formerly Twitter), posted a mention of "bip 177", a mysterious string that attracted widespread attention. It is reported that BIP is the abbreviation of "Bitcoin Improvement Proposal", which translates to Bitcoin Improvement Proposal; Jack is not posting some mysterious meme symbol, but a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal numbered 177.

BIP-177: Making Bitcoin "Long"

BIP-177 was proposed by John Carvalho, CEO of Synonym, and is intended to redefine the basic units and representations of Bitcoin without any changes to the core consensus protocol. The key takeaways of the proposal are as follows:

• Changing the base unit of Bitcoin from "satoshi" to "bitcoin", with either satoshi or sat being deprecated;

• The currency code "BTC" is not affected by the change and can continue to be used, 1 BTC = 100, 000, 000 bitcoins;

• The base unit bitcoin can be represented by the "₿" symbol, 0.345 BTC= 34, 500, 000 bitcoins=₿ 34, 500, 000 ;

• The application should allow users to switch between the traditional BTC format and the new integer format.

In simple terms, the BIP-177 proposal aims to make everyone's bitcoins "more" in terms of display and format, and the total amount of bitcoins has changed from 2,100 trillion bitcoins in terms of display, but it does not really change the supply of bitcoins.

While the benefits of BIP-177

are only display and format changes, John agrees that BIP-177 will have a clear benefit:

• reduced cognitive load

Because of the appreciation of Bitcoin, whether it is daily payment or on-chain use, Bitcoin often appears in the form of decimals, and by redefining and displaying the basic unit of Bitcoin (BTC) as "one bitcoin", the cognitive burden on users can be reduced. An integer-only interface simplifies mental arithmetic and reduces potential confusion or user error. For example, instead of spending 0.00002 BTC, it is more recognizable to spend 2000 BTC.

• Eliminate the fear of units

At present, the price of one bitcoin is about $104,000, which is easy to trigger people's unit fear, thinking that the price is too expensive, but it is a bit embarrassing to say that they can only afford 0.1 bitcoins. At the same time, for newcomers who are new to Bitcoin, the unit price is too high in simple perception and is easy to trigger "ceiling anxiety", thinking that the price is too expensive and it is too difficult to continue to rise.

In the new format, one bitcoin is only $0.00104, which is more likely to rise than the price of a bitcoin of 100,000, eliminating the fear of units.

• Simplifying the user experience

: Deprecating the original base unit satoshi simplifies the user experience and removes the artificial decimal format, which also enables users to understand that the Bitcoin protocol is essentially counting discrete units. Satoshi is a secondary unit of currency relative to Bitcoin, which adds to the complexity of Bitcoin counting, making understanding Bitcoin and Satoshi two issues, and not conducive to the easier spread of Bitcoin.

Objections

, of course, in the case of BIP-177, there are objections in the community.

• Destroying the "Satoshi Culture"

The strongest objection to the BIP-177 proposal is its proposal to deprecate the satoshi, the basic unit named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the "creator god of Bitcoin", which creates a cultural barrier.

• Confusion is

easy for users who are used to BTC as a unit, especially in the process of verbal expression. At the same time, it is also a challenge for Chinese translation, if BTC and the base unit bitcoin are translated into bitcoin, then there will be serious confusion in the expression process, affecting consensus.

• impact on Bitcoin's brand perception

is a huge contradiction, and in essence, the reason why Bitcoin can attract attention and get out of the circle is that it is getting more and more expensive. However, if the new format is used, the price of one bitcoin will become "inexpensive" in perception, which will easily affect the brand perception of bitcoin by newcomers.

How does the "platoon" work in a bull market?

In fact, in a bull market, as the price and purchasing power of Bitcoin increases, people start to talk about the base unit of Bitcoin.

In December 2017, when the price of Bitcoin topped $10,000, a community member proposed BIP-176, proposing the introduction of a new Bitcoin unit bits, which is converted to 1 bits= 100 satoshis=0.000001 BTC. The rationale for the proposal was the same as BIP-177, which was to reduce cognitive load, facilitate everyday use, etc. (no wonder the two proposals were put together), but it was not adopted.

Today, the price of one bitcoin has exceeded $100,000, which is 10 times more expensive than it was 8 years ago, and the purchasing power of bitcoin has increased dramatically again. In the United States, one bitcoin can buy a Tesla Model S Plaid, in China, one bitcoin can easily buy a Xiaomi SU 7 Ultra, and in El Salvador, one bitcoin can buy an entire villa.

These purchases are already a luxury for the average person, so it's no surprise that people are refocusing on the basic units of Bitcoin and how they are represented. But in essence, these upgrades have no practical effect on the Bitcoin network, and are more like people doing "face-up" work in a bull market. If it falls into a bear market again, the value of bitcoin will fall, and people may be less concerned about it.

According to the projected implementation timeline of BIP-177, even if the proposal is approved, the total process is expected to take 2 years from the introduction of the concept in Phase 1, to the default display of integer only formats in Phase 2, to the adoption of integer-only formats in Phase 2, and finally to the adoption of integer format representation as a standard in Phase 3. However, the enthusiasm for the implementation of this proposal may also change with market changes.

Interestingly, the Bitcoin Pizza Festival is just around the corner. Fifteen years ago, someone bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC and it was worth just $41 at the time, and now those 10,000 BTC are worth more than $1 billion. Now, if BIP-177 passes, people will still have to pay 35,000 bitcoins for these two pizzas, so isn't it another kind of reincarnation?

If it doesn't improve my life, change the unit of indicator.