I don't see a problem with "bit". The only objection I've seen is that it could be confused with informational bits, but those very rarely come up in the same context. British use pound for both currency and weight, and that doesn't seem to be a problem. I think bits is a very marketable name with a real chance to catch on.
mBTC and uBTC are very easy to understand. Or do you think people using Bitcoin dont have idea what SI unit prefixes are ?
have you actually talked with newcomers about bitcoin using the SI-prefixes? They
shouldn't be hard to understand, but they sure seem to be.
I wouldn't personally object to the SI-prefixes, hell I was a proponent for them once. My problem with them is that they doesn't seem to work very well. I've had more than one conversations where the prefixes causes some sort of mental hiccup with people, shifting focus from the point I'm trying to get across. People aren't used to counting money in fractions, and this makes them very skeptical. Also, using too many different units is potentially a big problem as it could cause some huge fuck-ups. A currency needs as few names for different units as possible.
And as I said earlier, I live in a country that uses the metric system. If the SI-prefixes isn't very marketable for currency here, I don't think they are very usable anywhere.
Another user worded it perfectly in another thread.
+1 for 1 million bits in a coin. I feel like that would be perfect when 1 btc is in the ballpark of $10k, therefore a bit is in the ballpark of a cent. Its still workable now but its also looking forward to the future. With a 10k valuation, prices for things won't need decimal points, they'd look like dollar prices do today except without the dot which I think is very intuitive. Bits is easy to say and intuitively derives from bitcoin.
Too many names for things is confusing, especially when they can be confused with each other like milli and microbits. Now we'll have bitcoins for large sums, bits for small sums, and satoshis for the technically inclined (laymen need not worry about this term).
Bits also work if bitcoin ever reaches a valuation of a million $ each, then bits are equivalent to dollars and prices can reintroduce two numbers after a decimal point like we use now.
"Bits" is simple, intuitive, marketable and forward-looking. I really think this is our best bet.