Topic: Solution: How to shift the decimal - page 6. (Read 17610 times)
That's a good plan.
There's some discussion about the decimal shift that will be needed soon, if we don't want to pay for things that cost 0.000234 BTC. All the proposals I read were flawed so here's how I would like to see it done.
(I wrote this under the assumtion that a shift of 6 places is needed, but my strategy would also work for 3 places or whatever)
First of all, don't do it all at once, this looks like a scam. You can do it in gradual steps that are some time apart from each other, like this:
0. Fix the client display
The client should display your balance as "1.00 BTC", not just "1.00"! DON'T make it display "1.00 Bitcoin", it HAS to be "1.00 BTC".
1. uBTC as an option
Now, add a little check box to the standard client that says "display as uBTC" and a very large info box that said "1 BTC = 1000000 uBTC". The check box and the info box need to be instantly visible when you open the client. Don't bury it in a sub menu! Selecting the checkbox obviously changes how the money in your wallet is displayed to "uBTC" and it also changes the amount of money you typed into the "amount" field.
The info box should be always visible, you must not have to click anywhere to see it. The idea is that even people who hate the idea of moving the decimal place will see this giant info.
This update will make everyone aware of what a uBTC is and it's easy to remember, since u is just the metric symbol for 1/1000000.
2. uBTC as default
When people start talking about paying for stuff in uBTC ("I payed 1300 uBTC" is easier than "I payed 0.0013 BTC") change the client so that the checkbox is on by default and hide the check box in an options menu or something. Also, please adopt the habit of thinking "Bitcoin is this system where you pay with uBTC" and tell your friends that Bitcoin is about transfering uBTC easily. Don't mention BTC.
3. remove BTC
When it becomes the norm that all prices are quoted in uBTC, remove the BTC option from the client completely. By this time, people might already be using the word "Bitcoin" for 1 uBTC instead of meaning 1 BTC. For example, they might be saying "A miner gets 50000000 Bitcoins!" meaning "A miner gets 50000000 uBTC".
4. remove the u
When everyone talks about uBTC and nobody cares about "BTC" you can drop the u and call it BTC.
Explanation: the word "Bitcoin"
The idea here is, to gradually change the meaning of the words "Bitcoin" and "BTC", without confusing/scaring anybody.
At the moment, "Bitcoin" means "1 BTC".
When uBTC gets adopted, "One Bitcoin" can has two different meanings, just like "One Euro coin" could mean a 2 EUR coin or a 1 EUR coin. When "Bitcoin" can refer to two different "coins", people start to talk about BTC and uBTC to clarify which coin they mean.
When the value of 1 BTC rises, you will hear "uBTC" more often than "BTC". uBTC will become the default and people might say "Bitcoin" to mean 1 uBTC. When you remove "BTC" from the client and nobody talks about BTC any more, dropping the u will not cause any problems.
If you found this interesting please comment and read my other forum articles that you can find in my signature.
(I wrote this under the assumtion that a shift of 6 places is needed, but my strategy would also work for 3 places or whatever)
First of all, don't do it all at once, this looks like a scam. You can do it in gradual steps that are some time apart from each other, like this:
0. Fix the client display
The client should display your balance as "1.00 BTC", not just "1.00"! DON'T make it display "1.00 Bitcoin", it HAS to be "1.00 BTC".
1. uBTC as an option
Now, add a little check box to the standard client that says "display as uBTC" and a very large info box that said "1 BTC = 1000000 uBTC". The check box and the info box need to be instantly visible when you open the client. Don't bury it in a sub menu! Selecting the checkbox obviously changes how the money in your wallet is displayed to "uBTC" and it also changes the amount of money you typed into the "amount" field.
The info box should be always visible, you must not have to click anywhere to see it. The idea is that even people who hate the idea of moving the decimal place will see this giant info.
This update will make everyone aware of what a uBTC is and it's easy to remember, since u is just the metric symbol for 1/1000000.
2. uBTC as default
When people start talking about paying for stuff in uBTC ("I payed 1300 uBTC" is easier than "I payed 0.0013 BTC") change the client so that the checkbox is on by default and hide the check box in an options menu or something. Also, please adopt the habit of thinking "Bitcoin is this system where you pay with uBTC" and tell your friends that Bitcoin is about transfering uBTC easily. Don't mention BTC.
3. remove BTC
When it becomes the norm that all prices are quoted in uBTC, remove the BTC option from the client completely. By this time, people might already be using the word "Bitcoin" for 1 uBTC instead of meaning 1 BTC. For example, they might be saying "A miner gets 50000000 Bitcoins!" meaning "A miner gets 50000000 uBTC".
4. remove the u
When everyone talks about uBTC and nobody cares about "BTC" you can drop the u and call it BTC.
Explanation: the word "Bitcoin"
The idea here is, to gradually change the meaning of the words "Bitcoin" and "BTC", without confusing/scaring anybody.
At the moment, "Bitcoin" means "1 BTC".
When uBTC gets adopted, "One Bitcoin" can has two different meanings, just like "One Euro coin" could mean a 2 EUR coin or a 1 EUR coin. When "Bitcoin" can refer to two different "coins", people start to talk about BTC and uBTC to clarify which coin they mean.
When the value of 1 BTC rises, you will hear "uBTC" more often than "BTC". uBTC will become the default and people might say "Bitcoin" to mean 1 uBTC. When you remove "BTC" from the client and nobody talks about BTC any more, dropping the u will not cause any problems.
If you found this interesting please comment and read my other forum articles that you can find in my signature.
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