Bitcoin Unit Reform Controversy: Can BIP 177 End the 'Satoshi' Culture?

Author: KarenZ, Foresight News

Original title: 1 BTC = 100 million bitcoin? What exactly is the hotly debated BIP 177?

In the Bitcoin ecosystem, the BIP 177 proposal is sparking a discussion about the accounting unit of Bitcoin, its display method, and the essence of user experience. This improvement proposal aims to fundamentally restructure the way we perceive and use Bitcoin.

In addition, Satoshi Nakamoto also mentioned early on that if Bitcoin were to experience large-scale deflation in the future, the software might display more decimal places. BIP 177 echoes this idea.

What is BIP 177?

BIP 177 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 177) is a proposal aimed at improving Bitcoin, designed to redefine the accounting unit and display method of Bitcoin. The core idea of BIP 177 is to make the amount of Bitcoin more intuitive and comprehensible by eliminating the decimal display, thereby lowering the barriers to entry for new users and promoting the adoption of Bitcoin in everyday payments.

The relevant proposal was first put forward by Bitcoin enthusiast and Synonym CEO John Carvalho (@BitcoinErrorLog) on December 10, 2024. At that time, it was hosted in the BitcoinAndLightningLayerSpecs/balls repository on GitHub and had not yet been assigned a BIP number. On May 8, the draft of BIP 177 was officially merged and added to the Bitcoin BIP list. Currently, BIP-0177 is still in the draft stage and has not yet been formally adopted, with community discussions ongoing.

Specifically, BIP 177 proposes to redefine the smallest indivisible unit of Bitcoin (1 BTC = 100,000,000 satoshis) as "1 bitcoin", thereby making the current 1 BTC equal to 100 million new "bitcoins". This change only involves the way the UI displays the information and will not have any substantive effect on the consensus rules of Bitcoin (BTC), the total supply limit of 21 million coins, or the underlying logic of the blockchain ledger.

What is the purpose of BIP 177 proposal?

The main purpose of BIP 177 is to simplify the user experience of Bitcoin and to address the confusion caused by the current unit display method.

• Eliminate the complexity introduced by decimals: Currently, the price of Bitcoin is usually displayed in BTC. Small transactions (like buying a cup of coffee) may involve numbers like 0.0001 BTC, and eight decimal places can confuse new users. BIP 177 proposes using the smallest indivisible unit as the base unit, allowing amounts to be displayed as whole numbers (like 100 bitcoin instead of 0.000001 BTC), which aligns better with the intuition of everyday currency usage.
• Educational Value: Newcomers can directly understand Bitcoin as a discrete unit, rather than as a "divisible decimal currency."
• Lower the barrier to entry for new users: Many people are unfamiliar with the term "satoshi" and have difficulty understanding the conversion relationship between 1 BTC = 100 million satoshis. By redefining "bitcoin" as the smallest unit, BIP 177 hopes to make it easier for ordinary users to understand and accept bitcoin, especially in the context of high prices.

What are the pros and cons of BIP 177?

Potential Advantages

• Simplified user experience: displaying amounts in integers (e.g., 100 bitcoin instead of 0.000001 BTC) is more intuitive and reduces confusion for new users caused by decimal points.
• Promote the daily use of Bitcoin: By making small transactions easier to understand, BIP 177 aims to advance the application of Bitcoin in the micropayment sector, enhancing its practicality as a currency. This can also encourage more merchants to accept Bitcoin, creating a circular economy.
• Consistent with protocol logic: The proposal makes the UI display closer to the integer arithmetic method of the Bitcoin protocol, reducing the complexity of human conventions and enhancing technical transparency.
• Low-risk adjustment: BIP 177 does not involve changes to consensus rules, no hard fork or upgrade of miner nodes is required, only adjustments to wallets and exchange UI are needed. This means lower implementation costs and reduced risks.
• Expand user base: By lowering psychological and cognitive barriers, BIP 177 may attract more ordinary users into the Bitcoin ecosystem, especially among groups in developing countries or those unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies.

Potential Disadvantages and Challenges

• Challenges of Community Acceptance: The Bitcoin community has a deep-rooted recognition of "Bitcoin" as the standard unit, and changing the unit name may spark controversy. Some users believe that "sats" has already become a consensus within the community, and redefining "bitcoin" might be seen as an unnecessary complication.
• Transition Period Chaos: In the early implementation of BIP 177, different wallets and platforms may adopt different unit display methods (some using new bitcoin, while others continue to use BTC or sats), which could lead to user confusion and even malicious exploitation.
• Cultural inertia: The popular "smart" culture and terminology within the community may be influenced.
• Limited practical impact: Some critics argue that the change in unit display has a limited effect on promoting the adoption of Bitcoin. The bottlenecks in user experience may stem more from transaction fees, confirmation times, or the usability of wallets, rather than the unit name.

If passed, how will it be handled?

If the BIP 177 proposal is adopted, the overall conversion rule will be that the Bitcoin ledger and consensus rules remain unchanged. The currency code BTC remains unchanged. The implementation of the new standard must multiply the original bitcoin value by 100 million, converting it to integer form. Specifically:

• Unit Redefined: The base unit remains unchanged. Originally, 1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 base units; under the new definition, 1 bitcoin = 1 base unit.
• Terminology change: satoshi or sat (聪) will be deprecated. All interfaces, documentation, and displays should directly refer to the base unit as "bitcoin." "BTC" is unaffected and still represents 100 million base units.
• Display and format changes: The application should allow users to switch between the traditional format (1 BTC = 100 million base units) and the new format (1 bitcoin = 1 base unit). The symbol '₿' may be used to represent the bitcoin in base units (₿ is optional).
• Regarding satoshi and sat: they have cultural value, but official documents and interfaces should uniformly use "bitcoin" as the sole unit name.

The BIP 177 proposal draft document provides the following examples:

• Old display: 0.00010000 bitcoin → New display: ₿10,000 or 10,000 bitcoins or 0.00010000 BTC
• Old display: 10.23486 bitcoin → New display: ₿1,023,486,000 or 1,023,486,000 bitcoins or 10.23486 BTC
• Old display: 0.345 BTC → New display: No change needed, or ₿34,500,000 or 34,500,000 bitcoins

For developers, if BIP 177 is adopted, they will need to update the interface, API, and documentation to display the base unit in integer form, while keeping BTC as the larger unit. For users, the actual value of the assets will not change; applications can help with the transition through dual display, prompt tools, etc. (for example, displaying "0.0001 BTC = 10,000 Bitcoin" simultaneously).

It is worth mentioning that regarding the "bits" proposal (1 bit = 100 Satoshis) put forward by BIP 176, the proponents of BIP 177 believe that BIP 176 still relies on decimal thinking, requiring users to switch units, and it does not resolve the contradiction between the integer nature of the protocol and the display of decimals. In contrast, the integer solution of BIP 177 is more thorough and permanent.

Summary

BIP 177 aims to simplify the user experience and promote the use of Bitcoin in everyday transactions by redefining the basic unit. Its core advantages lie in lowering the threshold for new users, aligning with protocol logic, and advancing the adoption of micropayments, while the main challenges are community acceptance, transitional chaos, and educational costs.

As a result, the proposal BIP 177 has sparked widespread discussion, with both supporting and opposing voices. Supporters believe that BIP-177 can significantly improve the user experience of Bitcoin, especially in promoting micro-payments and widespread usage. Moreover, redefining the accounting unit and display method of Bitcoin can make users feel like they "own more bitcoin," enhancing their sense of participation. Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and a long-time advocate for Bitcoin as a daily payment tool, also supports BIP 177 and states that "Satoshi" is absolutely the wrong term, as it hinders ordinary people from acquiring and consuming Bitcoin.

Opponents argue that BIP-177 could cause confusion and even undermine Bitcoin's consensus and market perception, potentially leading users to mistakenly believe that the supply is inflating, thereby shaking their trust in Bitcoin's scarcity.

It is worth mentioning that BIP-177 does not change the total supply, issuance mechanism, transaction fees, or other core economic parameters of BTC; it only adjusts the display method, and its direct impact on BTC price is almost zero (the actual value held by users will not change due to the redefinition of units). However, if BIP-177 is adopted, the price of 1 bitcoin will be proportionally reduced to 1/100,000,000 of the price of 1 BTC, but the actual value of the asset will remain unchanged. For example, if 1 BTC = 100,000 USD, then under the new definition, 1 bitcoin = 0.001 USD. The indirect impact of BIP-177 on the BTC price depends on market sentiment and large-scale user adoption. If user adoption and micro-payments are promoted, it may indirectly benefit the price through increased demand.

As a proposal that does not involve a consensus change, the implementation of BIP 177 is relatively simple, but its success depends on the consensus of the community and the support of wallet developers. In the future, the Bitcoin community needs to weigh its pros and cons and decide whether to adopt it through public discussion. BIP 177 represents an important consideration in the evolution of Bitcoin: how to optimize user experience while maintaining protocol stability. This discussion about "how Bitcoin should be understood and used by ordinary people" has significance that transcends the technical level and touches on the core issue of cryptocurrency adoption.