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Topic: 21 million cap - page 2. (Read 21470 times)

legendary
Activity: 1288
Merit: 1080
February 11, 2011, 03:46:56 PM
#13
The average guy on the street has no idea what scientific notation is.

Come on.  He doesn't know what a millimeter is?  He doesn't ever use words such as kiloWatt, kilogram, MegaHertz, GigaOctet, and so on? ...
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1014
February 11, 2011, 03:41:35 PM
#12
Yes, really.  We're not normal, we're geeks.  Like everyone else reading this.

I swear that everyone in school learned this stuff!
newbie
Activity: 20
Merit: 0
February 11, 2011, 03:39:57 PM
#11
The average guy on the street has no idea what scientific notation is.


Really? I learn that in schools like...several time!

Yes, really.  We're not normal, we're geeks.  Like everyone else reading this.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
February 11, 2011, 03:33:40 PM
#10

The average guy on the street has no idea what scientific notation is.

Nor does the average guy know that the calories on your foods' nutrition labels is actually kilocalories. If a pint should ever cost 0.005 BTC, your bartender will ask you for "five mills" or something like that. He won't say "five thousandths of a bitcoin".

But if you're a merchant, you gotta post a price next to your product.  I'd rather there were 10 trillion bitcoins in circulation and I could post a price mostly in integers that my customers would understand.

If you ever have to sell something for millibitcoins, other merchants will probably have to do the same and customers will just come to expect it.

Always include units though.
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1014
February 11, 2011, 03:33:18 PM
#9
The average guy on the street has no idea what scientific notation is.


Really? I learn that in schools like...several time!
newbie
Activity: 20
Merit: 0
February 11, 2011, 03:31:38 PM
#8

It is just as easy to transport 2000 bitcoins than 0.00002 bitcoins.
When money is immaterial it all boils down to notation conventions.
[/quote]

Transportation isn't the issue. I'm talking about the market dynamic between merchant and customer. Average people who think "fractions are hard". Not the engineers and cryptologists that hang around here.
newbie
Activity: 20
Merit: 0
February 11, 2011, 03:27:20 PM
#7
Also, you don't track units, you track available balances which conceptually allows for indefinite division, there's no such thing as a conceptual atomic bitcoin unit.

But if you're a merchant, you gotta post a price next to your product.  I'd rather there were 10 trillion bitcoins in circulation and I could post a price mostly in integers that my customers would understand.
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1007
1davout
February 11, 2011, 03:25:33 PM
#6
You could use scientific notation or perhaps specific decimal point as default.

The average guy on the street has no idea what scientific notation is.

It is just as easy to transport 2000 bitcoins than 0.00002 bitcoins.
When money is immaterial it all boils down to notation conventions.
newbie
Activity: 20
Merit: 0
February 11, 2011, 03:22:53 PM
#5
You could use scientific notation or perhaps specific decimal point as default.

The average guy on the street has no idea what scientific notation is.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
February 11, 2011, 03:22:37 PM
#4
I just become aware of Bitcoin this week watching "Security Now" at Twit.tv. The main question I have about the system is why was 21 million bitcoins selected as the final cap?  Why not something more "round" like 100 million or 1 billion?  And why such a relatively small number?  I understand about the 8 decimal places giving you essentially 2.1 quadrillion tradeable units.  But the general public is not used to dealing with more than 2 decimal places in their currency. If the system took off to even the size of PayPal alone, a single bitcoin is going to be worth some huge number and we're all going to be buying things priced at inconvenient amounts like 0.00023, etc., right?
0.00023 BTC = 0.23 mBTC.
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1007
1davout
February 11, 2011, 03:17:22 PM
#3
I just become aware of Bitcoin this week watching "Security Now" at Twit.tv. The main question I have about the system is why was 21 million bitcoins selected as the final cap?  Why not something more "round" like 100 million or 1 billion?  And why such a relatively small number?  I understand about the 8 decimal places giving you essentially 2.1 quadrillion tradeable units.  But the general public is not used to dealing with more than 2 decimal places in their currency. If the system took off to even the size of PayPal alone, a single bitcoin is going to be worth some huge number and we're all going to be buying things priced at inconvenient amounts like 0.00023, etc., right?

21 million, purely arbitrary.
Also, you don't track units, you track available balances which conceptually allows for indefinite division, there's no such thing as a conceptual atomic bitcoin unit.
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1014
February 11, 2011, 03:15:32 PM
#2
You could use scientific notation or perhaps specific decimal point as default.
newbie
Activity: 20
Merit: 0
February 11, 2011, 03:13:17 PM
#1
I just become aware of Bitcoin this week watching "Security Now" at Twit.tv. The main question I have about the system is why was 21 million bitcoins selected as the final cap?  Why not something more "round" like 100 million or 1 billion?  And why such a relatively small number?  I understand about the 8 decimal places giving you essentially 2.1 quadrillion tradeable units.  But the general public is not used to dealing with more than 2 decimal places in their currency. If the system took off to even the size of PayPal alone, a single bitcoin is going to be worth some huge number and we're all going to be buying things priced at inconvenient amounts like 0.00023, etc., right?

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