Sort of like what microsoft did
- snip -
Basically your bitcoins will double with each split while the price is maintained at comfortable prices
This has already happened. Three times.
Instead of a 2 to 1 split, they did a 1000 to 1 split, so instead your bitcoins doubling, each person got 1000 times their original bitcoins, and instead of the value being divided by two, the value was divided by 1000. To avoid confusion with those (like yourself) that were unaware of the split, they gave the bitcoins after the split a new name. They called them
millibitcoins (just like how a
millimeter is a meter divided into 1000 pieces). Then they worked the protocol so that any wallet that hadn't been updated to work with the millibitcoins yet would just use 1000 millibitcoins whenever the wallet attempted to send 1 BTC. There are already several wallets that will now let you choose to see your balance in the new millibitcoin increments.
Then, since that worked so well...
Instead of a 2 to 1 split, they did
another 1000 to 1 split, so instead your millibitcoins doubling, each person got 1000 times their original millibitcoins, and instead of the value of each millibitcoin being divided by two, the value was divided by 1000. To avoid confusion with those that were unaware of the split, they gave the millibitcoins after the split a new name. They called them
microbitcoins (just like how a
micrometer is a millimeter divided into 1000 pieces). Then they worked the protocol so that any wallet that hadn't been updated to work with the microbitcoins yet would just use 1000000 microbitcoins whenever the wallet attempted to send 1 BTC, and 1000 microbitcoins whenever the wallet attempted to send 1 millibitcoins. There are already some wallets that will now let you choose to see your balance in the new microbitcoin increments.
Then, since that worked so well 2 times...
Instead of a 2 to 1 split, or a 1000 to 1 split, they did a 100 to 1 split, so instead your microbitcoins doubling, each person got 100 times their original microbitcoins, and instead of the value of each microbitcoin being divided by two, the value was divided by 100. To avoid confusion with those that were unaware of the split, they gave the microbitcoins after the split a new name. They called them "satoshi" (named in honor of the person, or people, that created the bitcoin concept). Then they worked the protocol so that any wallet that hadn't been updated to work with "satoshi" yet would just use 100000000 satoshi whenever the wallet attempted to send 1 BTC, and 100000 satoshi whenever the wallet attempted to send 1 millibitcoins, and 100 microbitcoins whenever the wallet attempted to send 1 microbitcoin.
So, just like with the Microsoft split, if the current bitcoin exchange rate is $230, then:
- You can buy in increments of the new millibitcoin designation for $0.23 per millibitcoin
- You can buy in increments of the new microbitcoin designation for $0.00023 per microbitcoin
- You can buy in increments of the new satoshi designation for $0000023 per satoshi
If the online exchange that you are using only lets you buy and sell in increments of bitcoin, then they have not yet updated their software to handle the split amounts. That's okay though, as long as the exchange allows you to handle portions of bitcoin, you can just buy 0.001 BTC for each millibitcoin that you want and 0.000001 BTC for each microbitcoin that you want. When you send the small portions of a bitcoin from the exchange to a wallet that has been updated to handle the new split amounts, the protocol will automatically handle the split for you. So if you buy 0.013 BTC and send them to a wallet that is configured for the new microbitcoin split, your wallet will automatically receive 13000 microbitcoin.
/snark
Honestly, all these splits were handled by the original creation before bitcoin was ever even released to the public. At the technical level (in the transactions and blockchain), the value is never represented in terms of bitcoins.
It has always been represented as satoshi. The wallets that handle the technical aspects for the users just implemented a fake "reverse split" when showing you your balance. So if you you are holding 123400000 satoshi, then the wallet does a pretend reverse split and shows you 1.234 and calls this fake amount "1.234 bitcoins". It's a bit like if the base (smallest) unit of currency was a penny, and you had an account that showed you that you had 1.234 rock. The wallet adds up all the base units (pennies or satoshi), and then gives the larger increment a nickname (like "rock" or "bitcoin").
There is no need to split the base unit any more than it already is until the exchange rate of 1 satoshi is greater than the smallest spendable unit of currency in a country. So, for example if 1 BTC was worth more than $1000000 (That's $1 million), then 1 satoshi would be worth more than $0.01 If inflation hadn't yet made $0.01 unspendable, then there might be a need to split the satoshi value in the protocol into smaller units.