

Ask HN: What I don't understand about Bitcoin - brenfrow

The units are about the same as $20 USD. Because each coin is some encrypted unit or something it exist as an unbreakable unit of currency. The USD can be broken up into dollars, quarters, nickels and down to pennies which are practically worthless. Which is great because if I goto a coffee shop I don't want to have to pay $20 for an espresso since its my lowest form of currency, I only want to pay $2.50 - $3.00. How does Bitcoin get around this? I would have bought a bunch when they were $7 each, if I had of understood this.
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jerfelix
Right now they subdivide to 8 decimal places. .00000001

With minimal change to the protocol they could subdivide to much smaller
units.

I think "bitcoin" is a confusing name, because it's really more like a group
of account numbers, which can have money with 8 digits of precision to the
right of the decimal point.

Think of a Bitcoin Address(es) as your account number(s), and your Private Key
as your ATM card, PIN, and signature all wrapped in one.

If someone sends me 50 bitcoins, I have it in my "account" in the giant ledger
in the sky. If I want to send 3.5 of them to someone, what might happen is
that I create a transaction that sends 50 bitcoins to two different places...
3.5 to someone, and 46.5 to another account (of mine, my change!) in the giant
ledger in the sky.

Or for simplicity, think of them like rewards points, and don't try to make it
too complicated.

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brenfrow
If one bitcoin is some encrypted id or whatever how can I transfer 0.00000001
of them to someone else?

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speeder
There are no such thing as "one bitcoin".

Bitcoin is a protocol actually, that store numbers in a peer to peer ledger,
what you do is change the values on the ledger, and the encryption is only to
ensure the transaction was not a forgery.

Right now the protocol supports as the smallest one the "satoshi", but a
"satoshi" is too small, so people for day to day use "BTC".

0.00000001 of a BTC is a satoshi.

But if Bitcoin really gets used in the mainstream, BTC might be valued in the
millions, thus the protocol can be more or less easily changed to use a unit
smaller than the satoshi.

~~~
brenfrow
Great... this really helps a lot. Now I finally understand.

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jstanley
They are not indivisible units. I believe the minimum possible denomination is
0.00000001 BTC, or about 0.00002 cents.

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wmf
This is why I don't like the name "Bitcoin". The system does not have any
coins in it (unlike earlier work like Chaumian digital cash).

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gus_massa
The smaller possible exchange unit is 1E-8 bitcoin (0,00000001).

