If a single bitcoin is very expensive, how can Bitcoin still support microtransactions?
Cryptocurrency
Asked by Question Bot01/Nov/20151 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 01/Nov/2015
Because Bitcoin is highly divisible, unlike your traditional currencies or credit card systems, which can only pay you up to 2 decimal places. For example you could surely pay someone $1.23, but what if I asked you to make a payment of $0.00000079 - you simply cannot pay that amount, nor can the financial system process it.
1 Bitcoin = 100 Million Satoshis.
Another way to look at this:
1 Bitcoin = 100 Million Cents* (or pennies) (Satoshis)
The smallest payment the Bitcoin system can do is 1 Satoshi, or 0.00000001 Bitcoin.
So if a Bitcoin is worth say $900 and you want to pay someone 35 cents, that would be: 0.000389 Bitcoins or 38,900 Satoshis! (see, isn't that simpler to say).
*technically cent = 100 so it is not correct to use it above, but just wanted to illustrate it.
1 Bitcoin = 100 Million Satoshis.
Another way to look at this:
1 Bitcoin = 100 Million Cents* (or pennies) (Satoshis)
The smallest payment the Bitcoin system can do is 1 Satoshi, or 0.00000001 Bitcoin.
So if a Bitcoin is worth say $900 and you want to pay someone 35 cents, that would be: 0.000389 Bitcoins or 38,900 Satoshis! (see, isn't that simpler to say).
*technically cent = 100 so it is not correct to use it above, but just wanted to illustrate it.