When bitcoin was first launched, the client only showed two decimal places, not 8. Many users at the time did not know it was further subdivisible.
Here's another post from satoshi which might interest you: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.267
Here's another post from satoshi which might interest you: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.267
Thank you so much for your research! I find it really respectable that you went digging and came across a statement by Satoshi!
Eventually at most only 21 million coins for 6.8 billion people in the world if it really gets huge.
But don't worry, there are another 6 decimal places that aren't shown, for a total of 8 decimal places internally. It shows 1.00 but internally it's 1.00000000. If there's massive deflation in the future, the software could show more decimal places.
If it gets tiresome working with small numbers, we could change where the display shows the decimal point. Same amount of money, just different convention for where the ","'s and "."'s go. e.g. moving the decimal place 3 places would mean if you had 1.00000 before, now it shows it as 1,000.00.
But don't worry, there are another 6 decimal places that aren't shown, for a total of 8 decimal places internally. It shows 1.00 but internally it's 1.00000000. If there's massive deflation in the future, the software could show more decimal places.
If it gets tiresome working with small numbers, we could change where the display shows the decimal point. Same amount of money, just different convention for where the ","'s and "."'s go. e.g. moving the decimal place 3 places would mean if you had 1.00000 before, now it shows it as 1,000.00.
So it was Satoshi's original intention to use a currency with 2 decimal digits (like all other currencies).
But above all, he explains very well that the larger the money supply, the greater the need to shift the main unit by 3 digits.
Finally, 13 years after his post, the main unit would have to be shifted by 6 digits.
In fact, it doesn't matter how this unit will be called (bit, nakamoto or whatever), what's important is to respect the original idea and adapt to reality so that using Bitcoin is as simple as possible for the general public.
And yes, of course, technicians like you, the original enthusiasts, would continue to speak with satoshis (that's what I suggested in my diagram, the satoshi is for technical purposes: https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/08/17/MAJM1.jpeg).
