BitcoinDesign
Guidance for adopting "bitcoin" as a base unit (BIP 177) in applications
There has been lots of discussion & controversy on social media as well as Bitcoin Design Community discord regarding BIP 177 which proposes renaming the base unit (often referred to as 'satoshi' or sats) to bitcoin.
the discord conversation itself has useful references & insights that can be captured in a page that advises projects to adopt this new convention in their applications.
This topic is controversial is some circles, and important challenge for the Guide might be threading the needle being advise, advocacy and partisanship
Additional context
Topics to cover might include:
- rationale
- how to explain change to users
- adopting a default and/or give users choice
- how to help users avoid confusion (e.g. showing fiat amount beside ₿ amount)
- a standardised ₿ symbol
- how to refer to or display original bitcoin (100M base units)
Feel free to make content suggestions or suggest corrections or list other important things to be mentioned.
Content guidelines If you're a contributor looking to tackle the issue, you can preview our content guidelines.
I will put my hand up, feel free to assign ticket to me.
I will take a stab at making a Design Guide page summarizing the rationale and design implications for those wallet builders out there that are interesting in adopting BIP-177. I think it will be useful to have a reference point for those builders, as we are already seeing some wallets adopt this convention (Boardwalk Cash, Bitkit, and some early indications that CashApp & Square will do this as well).
As I just mentioned on Discord, a simple starting point could be an addition to the Units & Symbols page, which is one of the most visited pages in the guide. The page header image basically already looks the part. There's a paragraph on the Satcomma standard already, which also an effort to make units easier to read and work with.
A small addition can be made pretty quickly and be built upon as adoption happens (or doesn't happen).
Satatoshi symbol should make sense...?
- https://x.com/corybates1895/status/1924188695223210324?s=61
Humans are used to using such a division:
- $ + cent (¢)
- £ + pence (p)
- € + euro-cent
Additionaly it's a historical reference to Satoshi.
So, BTC + Sat (Bitcoin + Satoshi) sounds good, right? What do you think...?
NACK (for the purposes of this content addition to the Guide)
The Satoshi symbol is antithetical to the proposal in BIP177.
The core idea in BIP177 is that it is strictly more confusing to have a separate symbol / concept for the base unit, and that these base units be represented with the ₿ symbol.
The entire purpose of this discussion & proposal is to make sure we don't end up in a world with a sats symbol..
On Wed, Jun 18, 2025 at 2:02 PM _oli @.***> wrote:
oli28 left a comment (BitcoinDesign/Guide#1168) https://github.com/BitcoinDesign/Guide/issues/1168#issuecomment-2985678457
Satatoshi symbol should make sense...?
- https://x.com/corybates1895/status/1924188695223210324?s=61
Humans are used to using such a division:
- $ + cent (¢)
- £ + pence (p)
- € + euro-cent
Additionaly it's a historical reference to Satoshi.
So, BTC + Sat (Bitcoin + Satoshi) sounds good, right? What do you think...?
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/BitcoinDesign/Guide/issues/1168#issuecomment-2985678457, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AORAHDYX5IQXXGKQAHGOVED3EHHVLAVCNFSM6AAAAAB6BB4A7SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDSOBVGY3TQNBVG4 . You are receiving this because you were assigned.Message ID: @.***>