Source: Lightning Network
Imagine if one day, your 0.001 bitcoin becomes 100,000 bitcoins, how would you feel? This is exactly the change that the BIP-177 proposal hopes to achieve. This proposal, initiated by Synonym CEO John Carvalho, is quietly becoming one of the most controversial topics in the Bitcoin community.
1. Redefine the smallest unit of Bitcoin "satoshi" as "bitcoin"
Current relationship: 1 BTC = 100,000,000 satoshis
Relationship after the proposal: 1 BTC = 100,000,000 bitcoins
2. Use integers instead of decimals
Example: 0.0001 BTC → 10,000 bitcoins
This proposal only proposes to change the way Bitcoin is displayed, and does not change Bitcoin's underlying technology, consensus rules or total supply, and does not require BTC code changes.
When Jack Dorsey, the founder of social platform X, posted a short "BIP-177" tweet on May 18, the discussion quickly heated up, sparking a heated debate among community members.
As the price of Bitcoin soars, the dilemma of real-world use becomes more obvious:
"Good morning, your coffee is 0.00001830 BTC."
Such an expression is not only unintuitive, but also error-prone. What's more, psychologists point out that people are naturally more likely to understand and process integers than decimals. When new users see a price tag of more than $100,000 for Bitcoin, their first reaction is often "This is too expensive for me" rather than "I can buy some Bitcoin."
The core idea of BIP-177 is to remove this cognitive barrier. According to the proposal, today's situation will become:
"Good morning, your coffee is 1,830 bitcoins."
Does it sound more reasonable or weird?
Under the surface changes, BIP-177 reflects a deeper community shift - Bitcoin is transforming from an asset for early technology enthusiasts and investors to a practical currency in daily life.
In fact, this shift has already appeared in the most cutting-edge Bitcoin application ecosystem. For example, in El Salvador, locals have become accustomed to using tiny satoshi units for daily payments; and the number of users of the Lightning Network Wallet of Satoshi has increased by more than 300% in the past year, mainly for small, instant cross-border payments.
Naturally, such a fundamental change has caused a strong reaction. On Reddit, Twitter and Bitcoin forums, the debate quickly heated up.
This is a key step for Bitcoin to move towards mainstream adoption. One hot comment reads: "Imagine how fast adoption would be if every American saw on the news that a bitcoin was only $0.001 instead of $100,000."
This will bring confusion and weaken the cultural foundation of Bitcoin. The comment from user Internet_is_tough received the most approval: "Don't split it, don't change anything. Maybe change the name of satoshi."
Another user, GeeEyeDoe, worried: "If people are confused about the supply limit, decimals, and Bitcoin, imagine the confusion when the price of Bitcoin changes from $103K to 0.001 cents/bitcoin. The supply limit changes from 21 million to 2.1 trillion."
In parallel with the unit debate, there is a heated discussion about the visual identity of satoshi. As second-layer solutions such as the Lightning Network make micropayments feasible, users are increasingly using the satoshi unit directly, which has given rise to the need for a dedicated graphical symbol.
"Not only the unit, but also the symbol is important," a popular tweet wrote, "Imagine a world without the $ symbol for the US dollar and the ¥ symbol for the RMB."
Several popular design schemes include:
Lightning sat symbol: Combines lightning with lowercase "s" to symbolize speed and small value
"丰" glyph design: Simplified from Bitcoin's ₿
Geometric fractal: Represents Bitcoin's divisibility
Improved ₿ symbol: Minor adjustments to ₿ to maintain visual consistency with Bitcoin
Both the proposal to abandon the satoshi name and the selection of a stronger consensus for this unit are hotly debated in the community, reflecting the community's preparation for a larger mainstream adoption of Bitcoin.
This proposal touches on a key question in Bitcoin's development: Should we stick to tradition and keep the term satoshi, a nod to Satoshi Nakamoto, or should we look to the future and make Bitcoin's expression more in line with the public's cognitive habits? This is not only a technical issue, but also a choice of values and development vision. Do you think integer representation (such as 10,000 bitcoins) is more intuitive than decimal representation (such as 0.0001 BTC)? Will abandoning the term "satoshi" harm the cultural heritage of Bitcoin?
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