Jack Dorsey Backs Proposal to Abandon Satoshi as Bitcoin’s Base Unit

Block CEO Jack Dorsey has joined the ranks of experts advocating for the removal of satoshis as the base unit of digital gold.

this

sats are so confusing to people just getting into bitcoin.

bits of bitcoin is better, and just bitcoin is best. https://t.co/DjF77wecwD

— jack (@jack) May 18, 2025

Dorsey was responding to BIP-177 by developer John Carvalho. The proposal suggests eliminating the concept of a “satoshi”—one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin.

In 2017, Jimmy Song proposed the creation of so-called “bits”—one millionth of a bitcoin. According to Carvalho, this approach would still require users to think in decimals and “would likely increase complexity rather than eliminate it.”

“Satoshis confuse those just getting into the first cryptocurrency. Bits are better, and ideally, just bitcoin,” wrote Dorsey.

In this context, the entrepreneur referred to a discussion on this topic in December on David King’s podcast. In it, one participant, Spiral’s Head of Product Stevie Lee, lamented that not enough people know or care about what satoshis are.

“Everyone knows bitcoin. No one knows satoshis. Users just want to send and receive digital gold,” the specialist noted at the time.

The expert reminded that some perceived the smallest unit as an entirely new token, unrelated to the first cryptocurrency.

According to Lee, the community should not be overly concerned about this change, as it knows the underlying bitcoin economy will remain the same.

Byte Federal’s Director of Product Michelle Weekley opposed the changes.

People understand cents in a dollar, they will understand sats in a bitcoin.

Goodnight.

— Michelle Weekley (@michelleweekley) May 17, 2025

“People understand cents, they will understand sats in bitcoin,” she wrote.

Zaprite’s Head of Business Development Parker Lewis supported a similar view. He is convinced that satoshis are easier to understand.

A.
1 bitcoin = $103,000
There are only 21 million bitcoin
1 bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 sats
$1 = 970 sats

Or

B.
1 bitcoin = $0.001
There are only 2.1 quadrillion bitcoin
1 bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 bitcoins
$1 = 970 bitcoins

Easy A. Sats standard

— Parker Lewis (@parkeralewis) May 17, 2025

BitVM creator Robin Linus emphasized that even Satoshi Nakamoto was open to changing the way bitcoin units are displayed for convenience. The specialist referred to a message from the creator of the first cryptocurrency from 2010.

Billions know Bitcoin. Almost no one knows “sats.”

Satoshi cared about usability. He didn’t invent obscure units—he proposed shifting the decimal point.

Better UX. Smarter branding. And people will panic-buy those “cheap” Bitcoins once exchanges adapt. pic.twitter.com/oz3JgkN8Jx

— яobin linus (@robin_linus) May 17, 2025

“Nakamoto didn’t invent obscure units. He proposed shifting the decimal point. Better user experience. Smarter branding. People will panic-buy these ‘cheap’ bitcoins once exchanges adapt,” he explained.

Back in April, the community saw the escalation of the “OP_RETURN war”. Bitcoin developer Peter Todd created a pull request to change the Bitcoin Core code, which would remove restrictions on storing arbitrary data in the blockchain.