Source: Cointelegraph
Original: “The Debate Between 'Sats' and 'Bits' Reignites in Bitcoin Base Unit Change Proposal”
A recent proposal aimed at changing the basic unit of Bitcoin to make it easier to understand as a payment tool has faced opposition, with critics arguing that Bitcoin's "sats" are no more confusing than the "cents" of the dollar.
Bitcoin developer John Carvalho proposed Bitcoin Improvement Proposal-177 (BIP-177) on April 23, which seeks to eliminate the concept of "sats" (1 Bitcoin equals 100 million sats), effectively splitting Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million into 21 trillion units.
This proposal continues the idea put forth by Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song in 2017 to create "bits," which represent one-millionth of a Bitcoin. However, Carvalho stated that Song's approach still requires Bitcoin users to consider decimal points, which "only shifts the complexity rather than eliminating it."
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block Inc., is one of the supporters of this change. In a post on the X platform on May 18, he stated that sats are too confusing for newcomers.
"The bit unit of Bitcoin is better, and using just Bitcoin is the best choice," Dorsey said.
Dorsey pointed to a discussion in December 2024, when Stevie Lee, product lead at Bitcoin infrastructure company Spiral, believed that not enough people understand or care about what sats are.
"Everyone knows Bitcoin, but no one knows sats. People just want to send and receive Bitcoin," Lee recalled, noting that in past conversations, people thought sats were a brand new token unrelated to Bitcoin.
He added that the Bitcoin community should not be overly concerned about this change, as they know the fundamental economics of Bitcoin will remain unchanged.
Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, and Michelle Weekley, product director at Byte Federal, both opposed this change.
Weekley stated on the X platform, "People understand cents in a dollar, and they will also understand sats in a Bitcoin."
Self-proclaimed Bitcoin consultant Magdalena Gronowska claimed that this change might lead some to believe that Bitcoin's current price of around $100,000 has suddenly plummeted and that its "supply has significantly inflated."
Robin Linus, creator of the Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BitVM), emphasized that even Bitcoin's anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was open to changing the way Bitcoin units are displayed to enhance usability.
"If using small numbers becomes tedious, we can change the position of the decimal point," Nakamoto stated in a post in February 2010, after which he disappeared the following year.
"The amount is the same, just the way of representation is different," Nakamoto added.
Since the Taproot upgrade in November 2021 (aimed at improving Bitcoin's speed, efficiency, and privacy), the Bitcoin network has not implemented any improvement proposals.
Related: Metaplanet makes another significant purchase of 1,004 Bitcoins (BTC), setting the second-largest single increase record in history.
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