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You can subdivide gold and other scarce resources. A gold bar you might trade with is 12.4kg, or at current market rate, about $700,000. But you wouldn't carry
by just2n 14y ago
You can subdivide gold and other scarce resources. A gold bar you might trade with is 12.4kg, or at current market rate, about $700,000. But you wouldn't carry that to your local market to buy some toothpaste and a toothbrush, which might be valued at $5. But you can remove a small portion of the gold so that the trade is fair.
Can you give someone one tenth of a bitcoin?
- MichaelGG 14y agoYes, Bitcoin is divisible down to extremely small fractions.
- warfangle 14y agoTo clarify; the smallest division is the Satoshi, at .00000001 bitcoins.
- quesera 14y agoYes. Bitcoin division is dramatically simpler and more precise than that of any physical material.
- HarryHirsch 14y ago> But you can remove a small portion of the gold so that the trade is fair. You wouldn't do that. If you had a good coin and cut a piece to pay for a small amount you'd lose value - you can't immediately the fineness of unminted gold, and your merchant knows it, and you'd end up with a bad coin, the weight of which is not immediately clear. This is why most all cultures evolved to use coins. There was also a flourishing credit economy, because the smallest coin that a merchant would take was something like the weekly wages of a labourer, and this credit economy was what smoothed out fluctuations in this otherwise deflationary environment. I guess that's what Bitcoin is missing.