Bitcoin’s complicated decimals might soon be history if a new plan to redefine the base unit as the real “Bitcoin” gets adopted.
Bitcoin (BTC) has always had a little quirk that confuses even longtime users: the way it’s measured. Officially, one Bitcoin equals 100 million “base units” — also called “satoshis” or “sats” — but in the industry, it’s usually discussed in decimals, like 0.0001 BTC or 0.345 BTC. This setup, while familiar, can sometimes be a bit of a mess. And now, there’s a proposal on the table that might just shake things up.
The idea behind BIP-0177
The idea behind BIP-0177, submitted by Synonym.to CEO John Carvalho and Bitcoin developer Mark “Murch” Erhardt, is pretty simple: it wants to flip the whole system on its head by redefining one Bitcoin to actually mean one base unit. That means the smallest indivisible unit of Bitcoin would become the main reference point.
No more decimals, no more fractions — just whole numbers. So what used to be “1 Bitcoin” (or 100 million base units) would become 100 million Bitcoins, and what the industry used to think of as a satoshi would simply be called a Bitcoin.
Decimal mindset
Currently, Bitcoin’s ledger records all transactions in discrete, indivisible units — whole numbers. The decimals commonly used are human-imposed abstractions, comparable to imagining that a dollar consists of a billion tiny cents. According to the proposal, this has fostered a “persistent decimal mindset” that misrepresents how Bitcoin actually works.
In their own words, the current convention “requires dealing with eight simulated decimal places, which can be confusing and foster the misconception that bitcoin is inherently decimal-based.”
So, by redefining the base unit as “one Bitcoin,” BIP-0177 aims to align the displayed values with the underlying structure of the network. This change would eliminate the need to interpret small decimal values, such as 0.000001 BTC, and instead present all amounts as whole numbers.
‘Will reduce clarity’
This switch isn’t mandatory, though. Applications would be able to offer toggles between the old decimal system and the new integral one, easing users into the change. The proposal even suggests using the ₿ symbol optionally to represent the base-unit bitcoin.
Removing the decimal place will be easier for everyday people to understand. However, the name of the base unit should either stay as ‘sats’ or be renamed to a word that is not already being used to describe a sum of BTC. That will reduce clarity rather than enhance it. Whether you call it a“sat” or something else, most new users still need someone to explain what it is and why owning a small piece of Bitcoin/BTC is valuable. That confusion doesn’t go away with a rename.
—Ron Tarter
Cleaner fix
Not everyone agrees with BIP-0177’s approach. An alternative, BIP-176, suggested using “bits” — each bit being one-millionth of a Bitcoin (or 100 satoshis) — to reduce decimal places. But BIP-0177’s authors think that still keeps you stuck in the decimal mindset. Bits just shift the problem around, forcing users to juggle multiple denominations (BTC and bits).
They say the “bits” proposal “does not realign the displayed value with the integral nature of Bitcoin’s ledger,” adding that “it continues to rely on fractional units, masking the fundamental integer-based accounting that Bitcoin employs.” In other words, BIP-0177 sees itself as a cleaner, more durable fix by cutting out fractions altogether.
Ideological shift
The proposal doesn’t ban the word, but it does push for using “Bitcoin” as the sole unit in wallets, exchanges, and documentation to keep things simple and consistent.
This change wouldn’t alter Bitcoin’s blockchain or its consensus rules; it’s purely a shift in how values are displayed. The underlying ledger would continue to operate in base units as it always has. Implementing the new system would require developers to update user interfaces, APIs, and documentation, while adoption would involve a period of adjustment to viewing large whole numbers instead of decimals.