Let Bitcoin Cash Ror!

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4 years ago

Yes, "Ror"... I'll explain.

As probably every cryptocurrency fan I want my favorite cryptocurrency to become the world money.

Theory: In order to stop depending on US Dollars or whatever local or reserve currency people use now, people need to start thinking in terms Bitcoin Cash denominations, not in US dollars and cents.

There's obviously a problem in Bitcoin Cash that prevents this. (There might be more problems, like volatility, but this one is definitely there. )

The problem is with fractional numbers (0.00001) and denominations. "A denomination" is a name for the units of money, like "a dollar", "a cent", "Bitcoin Cash", "satoshi" and "mBCH".

Let's discuss some observations first.

Observation #1: People are having problems with fractional numbers.

You didn't hate fractions in school, but watch any sitcom and there would be an episode where somebody hates fractions as homework and it's hilarious.

In the real world we have 1 US Dollar, 10 US dollars, 10 US cents and 1 US cent. The worst fractional number the regular people encounter is 0.01 - two places and even then it's "one cent" (a whole number).

The same goes for nearly all of the currencies. This is what the normal people are used to, as opposed to programmers and mathematicians.

Mostly, the prices in the real world are as close to whole numbers as possible. That's because as humans we're used to small whole numbers: 1 tree, 2 flowers, 5 houses, 10 family members. We are really starting to have problems when there's too many of something.

1 billion vs 1 million vs even 100'000. It's not easy to imagine 100'000 trees, but whatever you imagine when you try to imagine a billion trees is probably way too little or way too much.

Think you're up for a challenge? Imagine: "a billion trees". Imagine it as a fraction of the Earth's surface in percents.

What percentage of the Earth's surface is one billion trees (at typical tree density)? Try it.

Scroll below to find out.

A million is already pretty confusing. How does $100 look like? How does $1'000'000 look like? How do 100 sugar cubes look like? How do 1'000'000 sugar cubes look like? Do they fill a box? A whole room? A stadium? A city?

Observation #2. The numbers that are easy for the people are generally between 1 and maybe a million.

The opposite (numbers that are too small) is also a problem: regular people are typically OK with 1/100th of something, but even then they usually try to do it in whole numbers. Something like "30 cents."

It's pretty hard for a regular person to understand "1/10th of a cent", and "0.01 of a cent" is very confusing (for regular person).

Observation #3. Usually currencies are divisible into 100 parts and in a number of cases this denomination is called "(something) cent". "US cent." "Euro cent."

"Cent" is often used because it comes from the Latin "centum" meaning "a hundred", so one hundredth is usually named "a cent".

I mean it's often not that hard for programmers to imagine 8 decimal places, just like Satoshi did. But even we have problems with that: 0.0001 vs 0.000001 are 100 times different, did you notice? It would have been obvious had I said 10'000 vs 1'000'000, but wasn't so obvious with 0.0001 and 0.000001. We don't even have a proper system of "ticks" or "spaces" to put in fractional numbers: 0.000'01 or even 0.000 01 - it's just weird.

Observation #4. It's easier to compare whole numbers than fractional numbers.

Also, regular humans like to talk to each other. I know, I know. STUPID HUMANS! HA-HA! CAN'T USE FRACTIONS AND COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY IN CONSONANTS-ONLY, UNLIKE US, ROBOTS, A-W-S-M R-B-T-S!

But it's the truth: if we want money for the whole world, then people will need to be able to communicate the amount. "Five dollars please", "13 yen", "3 euros", "5000 yuan", "5 pounds / 5 quid".

Observation #5. Currencies are pronounceable.

About a billion trees: according to this infographic there are about 400 billion trees and the trees occupy 30% of the Earth's surface. That means that 1 billion trees would occupy 30%/400 = 0.075%. Did you say 1%? Then you were off by a factor of 13.

Had fun? Another challenge with small numbers to do in your head: how bigger or smaller this 0.075% of the Earth's surface relative to the City of New York? (Click to return back if you scrolled.)

The point is: anything that's too big or too small confuses us greatly.

Let's recount what we have so far:

  1. whole numbers are preferable for humans;

  2. preferably in the range of one to one million;

  3. one hundredth of a coin is often called "[something] cent".

What do we have in Bitcoin Cash?

Typical denominations that are offered to people are: "Bitcoin Cash", "BCH", "mBCH", "µBCH" (micro) or "bits" and "satoshis".

Let's discuss them one-by-one.

Bitcoin Cash / BCH

It's kind of almost OK right now. 1 BCH is $214.

BCH doesn't have "cents", so you have to resort to fractional numbers (bad sign).

What's the beer price? $5 or 0.017857143 BCH. It's "zero point zero one seven eight bee-cee-eich". Fractional numbers (where to even stop?), consonants only, bad sign.

What's the transaction cost in Bitcoin Cash ecosystem? It's about zero point zero zero zero zero zero three BCH.

mBCH

1 BCH = 1000 mBCH. It's better, because it's closer to the normal numbers. 1 mBCH right now is $0.21, so one $5 beer costs 23 mBCH. Much better. Typical car cost? About $20'000, that's about 95000 mBCH. This is definitely within our 1 to 1 million range and both prices are the whole numbers - good sign!

Let's pronounce: "Here's your beer, it'll be 23 em-bee-cee-eich"... Ouch! That's some robot talk for you. "It'll be 23 micro-bitcoin-cash".. Kind of OK, but it's pretty long, you have to admit.

Let's experiment some more:

"- What's the price of a transaction in Bitcoin Cash network? - It's about zero point zero zero three em-bee-cee-eich".

Ouch! The fraction strikes again and badly this time!

"- What amount should I send when I send SLP tokens? It's zero point zero zero five seven six em-bee-cee-eich"

It's just a little too big to talk about smaller things in Bitcoin Cash network.

So... mBCH is not quite good: the pronunciation, fractions.

There is one more problem though, that adds even more confusion...

µBCH / bits

You see where this is going, right? The dreaded "µ" vs "m" - "micro" vs "milli".

µBCH is 1/1'000'000th of a Bitcoin Cash, sometimes also called "a bit". Which is almost a cool name. If it didn't have another meaning already (1/8th of a byte, something that can be either one or zero). Also, sometimes it's used as a denomination for 1/1'000'000th of Bitcoin (BTC) too. So, "1 bit" can either mean "1/1'000'000th of Bitcoin Cash" or "1/1'000'000th of Bitcoin BTC", which adds to the confusion.

"Two mu-bee-cee-eich-es" is slightly better, but is a consonant soup. "Two micro-Bitcoin Cash" is again pretty long and also anything that ends with "cash" adds a confusion of how exactly to say "I have only two micro Bitcoin Cash" (ehmm...plural?).. so.. "I have only two micro Bitcoin cashes" (yuck!).. More confusion.

Let's run a few tests about "bits".

One beer $5 ~ "23300 bits". Sounds great, plural, good number within range. Though, again: a "bit" has a very specific meaning, but what's worse for regular people - could also mean a part of Bitcoin (BTC), which is very confusing.

Second check: a car. $21'000 is 98 million bits, out of range... Ouch! We have to resort to BCH again, and we've already discussed that above.

Transaction price? "About 3 bits". Minimum amount to send in Bitcoin Cash network aka 'dust'? "About 5 bits". These are pretty perfect. We don't even need to go into cents here.

What's my verdict on µBCH/bits? It's not quite good: the pronunciation of µBCH/micro-Bitcoin Cash is not easy, there's confusion with bits from Bitcoin (BTC), pluralization is questionable and the prices go out of 1 million range pretty fast: 1 million bits = $214 - that's the biggest number in our one to one million range.

Satoshis

"Satoshis" are good to pronounce, easy to pluralize ("two satoshis"), but go out of range way too fast (1 million satoshis is $2.14 - that's the biggest number in the normal people's range). Also, again source of confusion with BTC, since 1/100'000'000th of Bitcoin BTC is also called "a satoshi".

Can we do better?

I think we can.

I don't have a name for this denomination yet...

...but I think I have a good number.

What's the smallest amount that you can send in Bitcoin Cash network? It's called "dust". Dust limit is set at 546 satoshis in Bitcoin Cash. If you try to send something smaller - you shouldn't even be able to even send anything under that limit, but I guess if you know the right miner...

However, you'll see a lot of 546 satoshi outputs on Bitcoin Cash blockchain, especially since it's the exact amount you need to move to send the SLP token (for the same reason of being above the "dust" limit).

So, 546 satoshis is the "smallest amount of Bitcoin Cash you can move".

What's the smallest amount of US dollars you can move? 1 US cent.

What's the smallest amount of Euros you can move? 1 Euro cent.

You get where I'm going with this, right?...

What if we could rename 546 satoshis to 1 something cent?

Frankly, I'd love to leave it at "something", but I need some concrete pronounceable example word here.

So, I'll name it "Ror" for no good reason, other than that: 1) it's pronounceable (ok, maybe not in Japan); 2) it doesn't have any equivalent in BTC; 3) I need a name to continue; 4) sounds powerful! and 5) the domain ror.cash was free and we took it just for fun ;-) ror.com was also available, but for at least $10'000... Pass!

Note: I'll reveal what "Ror" really is at the end of the article.

Let's name "546 satoshis" to be "1 Ror cent" and "100 Ror cents" would be "1 Ror". (Just to be clear: "Ror" is not a token, not a ticker, not a cryptocurrency, it's still Bitcoin Cash, just another example name for the amount of "54'600 satoshis")

Let us check the prices in this new denomination.

The prices

"- What's the smallest amount you can send in Bitcoin Cash network? - It's exactly 1 Ror cent"

"- What's the transaction price in Bitcoin Cash network - It's less than a Ror cent, about one half" - ok, this borders with being a problem, but frankly "transaction price" is not well defined anyway. It could be 220 satoshis, it could be 500 satoshis, it could be thousands of satoshis. (It's actually the place where "satoshis" are perfect.) So, a general feeling that it's "less than 1 Ror cent" should be enough. I haven't found any other examples where you'd need to use anything less than "1 Ror cent".

(Also note how comparing "1 Ror cent" to "about half a Ror cent" is much easier than comparing 0.00546 mBCH to 0.003 mBCH)

"- How much do you need to send to move an SLP token? - Exactly 1 Ror cent"

Ok, back to beer and cars.

"- One beer! - 42 Rors, please"

"- One car, please! - That'll be 174 000 Rors" - well within our range.

How it sounds

It feels and sounds kind of natural too.

How much do transactions cost in BCH?

Less than 1 Ror cent. That's cheap! You'd think that, even if you had no idea what Ror cent was...

Contrast it with "300 satoshis for one transaction". 300 of something for a transaction sounds like much, especially if you are a newcomer and just trying to learn about Bitcoin Cash.

How much does a beer cost? About 42 Rors. Could a beer cost 42 of something? It sounds a bit foreign, but well within reason. 42 is not a big number.

How much does a car cost? 174'000 Rors. Again, few hundred thousands here sounds OK, maybe again a bit foreign, but it's a big number and a car is a big expense.

Is "Ror" a great word for this? Maybe yes, maybe not, so propose your ideas here in the comments of what would you name it (pronounceable, short, doesn't immediately conflict with other named things, like "bits" or "satoshis", CoinMarketCap shouldn't have anything with that name yet to avoid confusion).

Let's go crazy! "Bitcoin" wasn't a real word, when it was created :) It sounded exactly as alien as a "Ror".

Personally, I feel that a denomination of "1 dust limit" (minimal amount to send in the digital world) = "1 something cent" (minimal amount to send in the read world) is ideal, because it allows us to talk about things as small as SLP transactions and things as big as buying a car.

Even if BCH reaches $10'000 someday... The beer would cost 92 Ror cents, and the car would cost about 3'800 Ror. A beer price still sounds like it's not a lot and the car price is still a big number.

Rent

To depress you a little, here's another example.

When we started this site, 1 BCH was $280, right now it's about $214. The change doesn't sound like much. I mean if your rent is about $1000/month, that was 3.57 BCH before and 4.67 BCH now.

3.57 of anything doesn't sound like a reasonable price for "rent". It's a small number. It can't be the rent.

In Rors that would be: 6500 Rors/month about two months ago. That number (6500) sounds like a much more reasonable number for monthly rent, rather than 3.57 BCH. The depressing part: at $214/BCH it would cost you now 8550 Rors/month.

So, two months ago your rent was 6500 Rors, it's now 8500 Rors. That's volatility!

Frankly, until I've started this mental experiment with "Ror", I haven't even thought about how much the price changes.

$280/BCH to $214/BCH... Doesn't sound like a big change.

The rent changes from 3.57 BCH to 4.67 BCH. I can handle it, doesn't sound like a big change.

The rent changes from 6500 Rors to 8500 Rors.. Wow! Did we have an hyperinflation or something?

That's where I felt the power of using the good denomination.You can really get the feeling of the prices in BCH with something like Ror:

Prices in New York City in the proposed denomination at $214 per Bitcoin Cash

Monthly salary in New York for comparison: 42 000 Rors.

The wallets

If all the wallets could show the similar example prices in this denomination - suddenly you wouldn't have to switch to US dollars constantly. You would get used to it. You're coming to a bar and a bartender offers you a beer for 50 Rors. (Looking at the image above) Well, it's OK I guess, maybe a bit pricey. I didn't have to bring my calculator out, just a glance at my wallet.

An added benefit

When a person searches for Bitcoin Cash - all he/she finds is about splits, fights, consensus, hard-forks, all non-human terms and the result of the war with BTC.

On the other hand a new term might be a good new beginning.

What is a Ror? A Ror is unit of digital money that can't be taken away from you by government. You can transfer billions of Rors exactly as easy as 1 Ror cent and nobody can stop you from doing it! It's protected from a fraud by millions of machines all around the globe. It is powered by the whole power of Bitcoin Cash network.

The real name

Like I said, I don't have a good name for this denomination.

Actually, the name Ror in ror.cash domain is the name of the wallet that we plan to create: "RorCash". But we've had a few fun discussions using the "Ror" denomination too. After some time you start to get the feeling you understand the current prices at this denomination, they just feel natural.

Do you have a name for this denomination? (pronounceable, short, doesn't immediately conflict with other named things, like "bits" or "satoshis", CoinMarketCap doesn't have anything with that name yet to avoid confusion)?

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4 years ago

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I have another idea.

Bit'Coin'Cash'Satoshi'/ Bit=0.01BCH (10-2)/ Coin=0.0001BCH (10-4)/ Cash=0.000001BCH (10-6)/ Satoshi=0.00000001BCH (10-8)/

It's very easy to remember and hard to get confused.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Why not call 500 Satoshi = 5 cent?

Aka : The Latin root word “cent” which means “one hundred”

So: 500 Satoshi = 5 x 100 Satoshi (Cent Satoshi) = 5 cent(s)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Well, it has the same problems - the word "cent" already has a meaning in the world and it's therefore exactly as confusing as "cash", "bits" and "satoshis", because it's not clear what you refer to. "Send me 50 cents please" "Uhmm... you mean like Dollar cents or like Bitcoin Cash cents" "Bitcoin Cash cents" is going to be the dialog every time :) Doesn't make it easier.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

$1000... "you mean 🇭🇰Hong Kong Dollars, 🇳🇿New Zealand or 🇺🇸 USD?"

Namespace conflict in currency is not unique, without precedent or insurmountable.

In fact - I would argue way lower (insert-to-society-here) treshold than minting new terminology.

Rescribing 'cents' is going to be way lower barrier to monetary entry than minting a new term, be it 'Rors' 'Séchets' or 'Vins'

Cents plays well with Sats.

Edit: I like the invitation to dialogue on this topic. Being of a different view is only in response to the genesis of this entire train of thought for which I am grateful to you and thoroughly enjoyed thinking about. Cents is the lex parsimoniae IMHO.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I actually like "Vins" :) Séchets not so much due to umlaut or whatever that apostrophe is called :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Yes, but the problem is that if I'm in Singapore and paying with Singapore Dollars - nobody expects any other dollars in this context. Yet, when I'm in a bar, which accepts both US Dollars and Bitcoin Cash, it also would accept both "US cents" and "Bitcoin Cash cents", so "cent" becomes ambiguous here. That's my problem with it.

Thanks! I do hope people start to think about this problem more even if we don't find a good name yet. Perhaps in a few years it'll come up again :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Do you have a name for this denomination?

shortest name is probably 'Rory', plural 'Rories'. Not sure if that's a good name at all. It could mean anything including some bad words, in other languages.

$ 0.00
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4 years ago

Yeah, I meant like a totally different word :) Maybe bitlles or cashty or wowies, Wosh (world+cash), IDK. Our creative genius ended at "Ror" :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Second check: a car. $21'000 is 98 million bits, out of range... Ouch! We have to resort to BCH again, and we've already discussed that above.

taif(s) (opposite of fiat)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Great idea! I would like to have also a symbol to represent it like an striked 'R' or something like that. Oh, also, my theory is that coin value will stabilize as soon as people start making long-term deals that fix values (like paying 2000Ror/month for a streaming service, for example) just a passing thought.

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Yeah, I think you're right here!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I think this is an important subject, and your suggestion of using the dust limit is interesting. Unfortunately, I don't know what the best solution would be. For now, I prefer to think in terms of BCH, but I agree that it's not easy for people to calculate the price of a beer that way. How about we think of it another way? At what point would it ideal to think of in satoshis? If 1 BCH = $100,000, then a 'ror' cent would be worth 54 cents. If 1 BCH = $1,000,000 then a 'ror' cent would be worth $5.46, which I would think is too big, but maybe at that point we'd be able to send less than 546 satoshis in a single transaction.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Yeah, I'm thinking if 1 BCH is $1'000'000 we're going to have to do a lot more than change the denomination. First of all - the minimal transaction cost would be $3! Minimum amount to send $5.46 - can't send anything smaller, since it's the "dust" limit. So, a major overhaul of all rules would be in order and probably by that time 'satoshis' would become much more appropriate again, because 1 satoshi would be around 1 US cent. But I think it's the endgame.

I'm not sure it's even possible. 21 million BCH as $1'000'000 is 4 times more than there was money in the whole world in 2009.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Came back here just to say that I use Ror as unit to show how much cash I have in my Xiaomi Mi Band 3 because as line width is 8 characters, with Ror I can represent up to 54,59 BCH, on higher values it shows BCH instead

$ 0.10
4 years ago

This is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I did like it! Awesome job!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I don't like this idea at all. I like BCH and Satoshis. 1 BCH are currently about $200, 1 million Satoshis are $2, 10000 Satoshis are $0.02. It's easy to remember.

The fiat value of BCH is volatile, but that's no problem. I have set the display in my bitcoin.com wallet to BCH. If I have just spent nothing, I always see the same amount there. The value in fiat does not matter to me.

BTC can only send Satoshis reasonably in Lightning Network, therefore I have a suggestion that BTC renames Satoshis to Lightnings, then there will be no danger of confusion.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I kept BCH and Satoshi. Just use "Bit","coin","cash" to name the value between BCH and Satoshi.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

BTC renames Satoshis to Lightnings

Nice! :) Though not going to happen (and Rors, too)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I think you're missing something here. If your wallet was showing you "Ror" (or whatever the name) - you'd see 100 Rors today and 100 Rors tomorrow even if US Dollar hyperinflated in the meantime. It's not a conversion to fiat, just a denomination. Though 100 Rors today after a hyperinflations would be good for 2000 beers tomorrow :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I really like this idea! It moves us away from a denomination based on the 10 base order of magnitude towards a denomination based on the actual functionality of the chain.

I agree the name for the unit needs some work. Here are some suggestions:

  1. Finney
  2. Linx
  3. Clix

I like #3 the best. It's based on the sound your wallet makes when you receive a payment, it's one syllable and is relatively easy to pronounce.

"That'll be 42 clix"

"Can you send me a hundred clix? I'm going out tonight and I'm a little short"

"Look buddy, at 200 clix this backpack is a bargain. Good luck finding it for less than 300 clix anywhere else"

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Nice! Personally I'd go with Finney, like Ethereum.

$ 0.00
4 years ago