Seeing a balance of ⚡ 502 000 implies that all the funds are spendable on Lightning, even if they're not (which's the case for wallets like Bitkit that also support on-chain balances). Lightning might not be the main method for transacting bitcoin in the future, so associating "sats" so closely with it is limiting.
You could make the UX better by treating onchain and LN balances as a unified balance and allow spending from both.
That doesn't solve the overarching problem. What about wallets that don't have Lightning?
But I'm sure this symbol is the bigger UX problem affecting users of Bitcoin /s
The lack of a sats symbol is certainly not the "bigger UX problem affecting user of Bitcoin". We don't believe that. There are many problems to be solved, and we can work on solving all of them!
Small UTXOs are becoming dust due to high fees. But we need another symbol to represent those units which are now unspendable /s
There are many problems to be solved in Bitcoin, and a sats symbol is not the only one or the main one, but it's one of them. Many Bitcoiners are working on solving different, independent issues. That's the beauty of decentralization. There's no Bitcoin Foundation dictating which issue of the roadmap should be prioritized!
Seeing a balance of ⚡ 502 000 implies that all the funds are spendable on Lightning
I think that won't matter in the long run.1 A lot of words we use don't really make sense but words change their meaning all the time.
Most people won't even know about lightning. They'll just use the symbol without thinking about it. And if anyone asks why we use a lightning bolt as the currency symbol, we'll just respond with: "For historical reasons."
Footnotes
I don't even think it implies that. It's already just a symbol for sats for me. ↩
Another issue is that the ⚡ Unicode symbol gets rendered as an emoji when typed. A currency symbol that is an emoji will never be taken seriously. We could use ϟ instead, but it looks Harry Potter's scar reversed. There's ↯ as well, but it's too bearish.
Bitkit will be here for a long time, no plans to add USDT anytime soon, and it'll never go full shitcoinery. We're working hard to build a great Bitcoin wallet and hope you're open to giving Bitkit another chance!
Seeing a balance of ⚡ 502 000 implies that all the funds are spendable on Lightning, even if they're not (which's the case for wallets like Bitkit that also support on-chain balances).
The kebab was introduced in 2021, yet today it's only used by a handful of products (Envoy/Passport, Lightspark, LNMarkets, Thunderhub). There isn't even consensus around it among bitcoiners, so there's almost zero chance of it ever becoming a Unicode symbol, which puts it on a death spiral it has been in the past years (no unicode symbol > no adoption > no unicode). On top of that, the kebab resembles the ETH symbol (Ξ).
Yeah, I've never been a fan. Confused the fuck out of me when I saw it on Thunderhub the first time. Just wanted to clarify bc I've never thought the lightning bolt represented sats... just LN in general.
I think eventually the $ could work, but there's going to be a long period of time with both in the system and it won't fly culturally or technically, as the books all record dollars with $.
Why associate sats with a symbol that today represents fiat? We're trying to build a new monetary system, not a new version of what already exists! Wouldn't it be more symbolic to let $ become a relic from the past? Something that our grandgrandkids learn about on museums?
but still, the meaning it carries today is not only that of its origin but of what it became
and today, $ doesn't mean good things 🤷♂️
besides, sats and other currencies that use $ in their symbols will coexist for a long time (possibly for long after we're dead). the moment when it's time to migrate from "sats" to $ won't be well-defined. $ will remain ambiguous for many people around the world. the turkish lira, argentine peso, and nigerian naira are still being used today despite, in practice, being dead!
is $1000 = 1000 sats? 1000 NZD? 1000 MXN? As we approach sat:usd parity, this will get more blurry!
SAT, USD - same length.
However, as a UI designer, I understand the need have a symbol taking up just one character. Not always there is a space for "SAT"
Indeed. And even when there's enough space, $ looks better than USD on pretty much every screen. The same will go for an SAT symbol compared to "SAT"...
"Dollars" is dumb. It should use USD, AUD, CAD, etc. because there are many "dollars" with different exchange rates.
There are only sats. Whats a worse UI? Using a symbol nobody has seen before? And is difficult to type on a standard keyboard? Or writing 4 letters that are instantly understood?
Money symbols are a relic of pen and paper when number of penstokes needed to be optimized. These days we optimize for keystrokes.
If I need to use a new symbol for "sats", here's how I'd do it 90% of the time:
Google the phrase "sats symbol", Then Copy paste. What an UX improvement! /s
Even the $ is not universally understood to mean a single currency. Its always context dependant. Making a new symbol does nothing to provide context and certainly will not be universally understood.
"Sats" gives context and is not ambiguous
But you're free to confuse users with a new symbol if you want.
All your points are super valid, and you're right about the importance of UX! We definitely don't want to confuse users, and rest assured we've considered them when making this new symbol. Thanks for your comments, and hope to continue this discussion in 7 days! 🤝
Why not just use the metric system to represent fractions of Bitcoin?
1μ₿ = 100sats.
1m₿ = 100,000sats
I liked when milliBitcoins and "bits" were a trend.
Using Satoshis as fractions is confusing because it is neither a microBitcoin not nanoBitcoin but something in between.
To add more confusion to the mix milliSats is now a thing too. So maybe we should just say 100MegaSats instead of 1BTC and drop the bitcoin as a unit altogether?
What is the "logical" denomination will change over time. At one point a car cost a million bitcoin, now it costs one. So likewise we will go through denominations of sats.
I like kSats as a denomination because I think it's logical, not too big, and it sounds like a radio station!
I also like the idea of a cultural standard for a "zap", like 10 sats. But that might be confusing.
What is the "logical" denomination will change over time. At one point a car cost a million bitcoin, now it costs one. So likewise we will go through denominations of sats.
That's the point of the metric system. It can adapt.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! In practice, people would likely use the ⚡ similar to what we use in Bitkit today since it looks similar and is already available as an unicode/emoji:
I brought this up on Nostr last year. It's a little weird because it could become the mainstream currency, but at the same time, it's too small for people to bother with a symbol for most purposes. When I was a kid, we actually used the "cents" symbol for stuff. Now I don't even think people know what that symbol is.
It's a little weird because it could become the mainstream currency, but at the same time, it's too small for people to bother with a symbol for most purposes.
True! And if there's a time when we can settle on a symbol, that time is now. It'll only get harder as more people come onboard...
Announcement of the announcement. Of an unnecessary change.
Well done on getting our attention
😂 it'll sound more necessary and well deserving of your attention soon™
Yes! And this is the free market figuring it out! There's no Bitcoin Foundation forcing anyone to adopt this upcoming sats symbol, it's entirely voluntary!
Footnotes