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Has anyone worked out the math on the divisibility of bitcoin? Here are some questions: Bitcoin gets world wide adoption. It's used in transactions by ~3

Has anyone worked out the math on the divisibility of bitcoin? Here are some questions: Bitcoin gets world wide adoption. It's used in transactions by ~3 billion people (right now). * What's the expected value of a bitcoin? (how much BTC for a stick of gum?) * What is the average permanent loss rate of bitcoins now? (when a bitcoin wallet is accidentally deleted, the coins are lost forever) What about in the future? Would it go up or down? * accounting for human growth, how many people will there be? (50 years down the road? 100?) Answering all these questions, then the big one. * How long can bitcoin last until it the satoshi (the minimum divisible unit of currency) is greater than a stick of gum? That's how long bitcoin could functionally last in society. It DOES have a limit. I just want to know if it's an unreasonable huge limit. Will it last a century? A Millennium? Until Sol becomes a red giant?

makira 14y ago
The bitcoin protocol can be changed to add as many decimal points as needed. It's not static. Whether a change is adopted depends on each person running a node: it's decentralized.
mahyarm 14y ago
I think Bitcoin can change it's implementation in a later version to make bitcoins even more divisible.
neilk 14y ago
I don't think your test is meaningful. There are already lots of items which cost much less than a penny. Individual squares of toilet paper, use of a cafe wi-fi for a few minutes, that sort of thing. You just buy these items in bulk or make them free with other transactions. Right now I just "paid" for these items by buying some expensive bottled water in a café. It seems sort of crazy when you think about it - I paid for the thing that falls from the sky in large quantities in the Pacific Northwest, in order to obtain a manufactured good and access to advanced technology. Also, the expected value of a bitcoin isn't dependent only on the number in circulation. Basically, it's related to "demand" and that depends on how many people are hoarding, how convenient it is relative to other currencies, and who knows, there may even be competing cryptocurrencies in the near future.
stevenrace 14y ago
* How long can bitcoin last until it the satoshi (the minimum divisible unit of currency) is greater than a stick of gum? Let's use a hypothetical 'nfc->btc' enabled gumball dispenser. And keep with $0.25 market rate. A 'satoshi' is .00000001 btc. You'd need btc to equal $25,000,000 - or 250,000 trillions of dollar in market cap (assuming 100 million current coins) for a gumball to be priced at 1 satoshi. Even being able to 'move the zero' in code later, we'll be fine for sometime...

makira 14y ago

The bitcoin protocol can be changed to add as many decimal points as needed. It's not static. Whether a change is adopted depends on each person running a node: it's decentralized.

mahyarm 14y ago

I think Bitcoin can change it's implementation in a later version to make bitcoins even more divisible.

neilk 14y ago

I don't think your test is meaningful. There are already lots of items which cost much less than a penny. Individual squares of toilet paper, use of a cafe wi-fi for a few minutes, that sort of thing. You just buy these items in bulk or make them free with other transactions. Right now I just "paid" for these items by buying some expensive bottled water in a café. It seems sort of crazy when you think about it - I paid for the thing that falls from the sky in large quantities in the Pacific Northwest, in order to obtain a manufactured good and access to advanced technology. Also, the expected value of a bitcoin isn't dependent only on the number in circulation. Basically, it's related to "demand" and that depends on how many people are hoarding, how convenient it is relative to other currencies, and who knows, there may even be competing cryptocurrencies in the near future.

stevenrace 14y ago

* How long can bitcoin last until it the satoshi (the minimum divisible unit of currency) is greater than a stick of gum? Let's use a hypothetical 'nfc->btc' enabled gumball dispenser. And keep with $0.25 market rate. A 'satoshi' is .00000001 btc. You'd need btc to equal $25,000,000 - or 250,000 trillions of dollar in market cap (assuming 100 million current coins) for a gumball to be priced at 1 satoshi. Even being able to 'move the zero' in code later, we'll be fine for sometime...