Let Bitcoin Cash Ror!

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Written by
Talking head of read.cash
5 days ago (Last updated: 3 days ago)
Topics: Bitcoin Cash

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.


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.


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" 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.


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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Avatar for Read.Cash
Written by
Talking head of read.cash
5 days ago (Last updated: 3 days ago)
Topics: Bitcoin Cash
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