Bitcoin moves forward, sometimes stumbles, but never fails to intrigue. Today, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Block, challenges a belief carved in stone for 15 years: the place of satoshis. Supported by the controversial BIP 177, he wants to rename the smallest unit of bitcoin and abolish the endless decimal places forever. Goal: to make crypto payments as instinctive as a tap on a smartphone.
The satoshis: Achilles' heel or immutable tradition?
The pioneers saw the 'sat' as the highest tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto. However, in the day-to-day of a merchant, dealing with 0.00004321 BTC feels more like a chemistry exercise than a cash sum. Beginners give up; sellers sigh. The promise of a simple bitcoin dissolves in the commas.
Jack Dorsey states loud and clear: each decimal place is an invisible barrier to adoption. A customer reading '125,000 sats' doesn't know if they are holding an espresso or an electric scooter. This confusion fuels distrust, especially outside the crypto bubble. Dorsey therefore prefers an integer notation: a price displayed in 'clean bitcoins', even if that breaks habits.
