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

If BIP 177 passes, your 1 BTC will become 100,000,000 bitcoin?

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

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

In addition, Satoshi Nakamoto also mentioned in the early days 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, which seeks to redefine the accounting unit and display method of Bitcoin. The core idea of IP 177 is to make the amount of Bitcoin more intuitive and understandable by eliminating the decimal point display, thereby lowering the entry barrier 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, when 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 been formally adopted; community discussions are 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 result in any substantive changes to the consensus rules of Bitcoin (BTC), the total 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 address the confusion caused by the current unit display method.

• Eliminate the complexity brought by decimal points: 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, displaying amounts as integers (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 a "divisible decimal currency."
• Lowering the entry barrier for new users: Many people are unfamiliar with the term "satoshi" and find it difficult to understand the conversion of 1 BTC = 100 million satoshis. By redefining "bitcoin" as the smallest unit, BIP 177 aims to make it easier for average users to understand and accept Bitcoin, especially against a backdrop of high prices.

What are the pros and cons of BIP 177?

potential advantages

• Simplified user experience: Displaying amounts as 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 is expected to drive 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 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, requiring no hard fork or upgrade of miner nodes, only wallet and exchange UI adjustments. This means lower implementation costs and reduced risks.
• Expanding the user base: By lowering psychological and cognitive barriers, BIP 177 may attract more ordinary users into the Bitcoin ecosystem, especially among populations in developing countries or those unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies.

potential disadvantages and challenges

• Challenge of Community Acceptance: The Bitcoin community has a deep-rooted perception of "Bitcoin" as the standard unit, and changing the unit name may provoke controversy. Some users believe that "sats" is already a community consensus, and redefining "bitcoin" may be seen as an unnecessary complication.
• Transitional chaos: During the initial 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 may cause confusion among users and even be maliciously exploited.
• Cultural inertia: The popular "smart" culture and terminology in the community may be influenced.
• Limited practical impact: Some critics argue that the change in unit display has a limited role in 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 approved, how will it be handled?

If the BIP 177 proposal is adopted, the overall conversion rules will remain unchanged for the Bitcoin ledger and consensus rules. The BTC currency code will remain unchanged. Implementations adopting the new standard must multiply the original bitcoin value by 100 million and convert it to integer form. Specifically:

• Unit Redefinition: 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, documents, 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 cites 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 required, or ₿34,500,000 or 34,500,000 bitcoins

For developers, if BIP 177 is adopted, the interface, API, and documentation need to be updated to display the base unit in integer form, while retaining BTC as the major unit. For users, the actual value of assets will not change, and applications can assist in the transition through dual display, prompt tools, etc. (e.g., displaying "0.0001 BTC = 10,000 Bitcoins" simultaneously).

It is worth mentioning that regarding the "bits" proposal (1 bit = 100 satoshis) put forward by BIP 176, the proposer of BIP 177 believes that BIP 176 still relies on decimal thinking, requiring users to switch units, and has not resolved 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 a one-time solution.

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 barrier for new users, aligning with protocol logic, and facilitating the adoption of micropayments, while the main challenges include community acceptance, transitional confusion, 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 increasing its 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, who has always advocated for Bitcoin as a tool for daily payments, also supports BIP 177 and states that "Satoshi" is absolutely the wrong term, as it prevents ordinary people from obtaining and consuming Bitcoin.

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

It is worth mentioning that BIP-177 does not change the core economic parameters such as the total supply of BTC, the issuance mechanism, and transaction fees, but only adjusts the display method, and the direct impact on the BTC price is almost zero (the actual value held by users will not change due to the redefinition of the unit), however, if BIP 177 is adopted, the unit price of 1 bitcoin will be proportionally reduced to 1/100,000,000 of the unit price of 1 BTC, but the actual value of the asset remains unchanged. For example, if 1 BTC = $100,000, then under the new definition, 1 bitcoin = $0.001. The indirect impact of BIP-177 on the BTC price depends on market sentiment and mass user adoption, among other things. If user adoption and micropayment adoption are promoted, it may indirectly benefit prices 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 contemplation 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 proposition of cryptocurrency popularization.

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