From: Aaron Voisine <voisine@gmail•com>
To: Drak <drak@zikula•org>
Cc: Bitcoin Development <bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] "bits": Unit of account
Date: Sat, 3 May 2014 23:15:55 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CACq0ZD7SP==2cMCHnYPiHwh-MWwuWCKVX5T8+3P7xMAG+5i91g@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CANAnSg1=ap03K-Rxhje0RP-nxt8eWzWiURzXrMBe3Au-bBUBpQ@mail.gmail.com>
Bit by bit, it's become clear that it's a bit much to worry even a
little bit that overloading the word "bit" would be every bit as bad
as a two bit horse with the bit between it's teeth that bit the hand
that feeds it, or a drill bit broken to bits after just a bit of use.
Aaron
There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole
government working for you -- Will Rodgers
On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 10:18 PM, Drak <drak@zikula•org> wrote:
> +1
>
> On 4 May 2014 02:06, "Chris Pacia" <ctpacia@gmail•com> wrote:
>>
>> Absent a concerted effort to move to something else other than 'bits', I
>> would be willing to bet the nomenclature moves in that direction anyway.
>> 'Bits' is just a shorten word for 'millibits' (or microbits, if you
>> will). It's easier to say and my guess is people would tend to use it
>> naturally own their own. Kind of like 'bucks' for dollars.
>>
>> The other synergies are:
>> -bit is part of the word Bitcoin. The currency unit bit is part of a
>> whole bitcoin.
>> -bit symbolically represents the tech nature of the bitcoin.
>> -bit used to be a unit of money way back when. This largely reclaims it.
>> -when used as money bit when in references to a precession metal coin.
>> The name 'bitcoin' references that as well as the mimicking of the gold
>> standard in the protocol rules.
>>
>> All around I don't think there is a better fit. I doubt people will get
>> confused by it. The context it's used in will distinguish it from other
>> uses of the word.
>>
>> On 05/03/2014 12:27 PM, Mike Caldwell wrote:
>> > I agree with the sentiment that most people don't understand either
>> > computer science or Bitcoin. The goal of getting people to understand
>> > enough about Bitcoin to use it is achievable and a goal that is "in scope"
>> > of our efforts. Getting them to understand computer science at large at the
>> > same time, less so.
>> >
>> > The fact that people routinely confuse RAM and hard drive sizes has much
>> > to do with the fact that the average lay person has little need to
>> > prioritize this as something to keep in the forefront. They don't get
>> > "horribly" confused, they just simply don't get worked up over what looks to
>> > them like a rounding error, much to the dismay of anyone who believes that
>> > everyone should be an expert at computer science. The average joe may
>> > assess (accurately from his perspective) that the distinction isn't
>> > important enough to merit significant mental resources and he is justified
>> > in not expending them that way even if someone else thinks he should.
>> >
>> > Poor understanding is precisely what a proper effort to name this would
>> > be to avoid. It is not frill or aesthetics, it is a planned targeting of
>> > language to achieve the clearest communication to the widest possible target
>> > audience using the language most likely to be understood by them in light of
>> > our objectives. It's marketing.
>> >
>> > Mike
>> >
>> > Sent from my iPhone
>> >
>> >> On May 3, 2014, at 9:49 AM, "Christophe Biocca"
>> >> <christophe.biocca@gmail•com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Context as a disambiguator works fine when the interlocutors
>> >> understand the topics they're talking about.
>> >> Not a day goes by without me seeing "neurotypical people" get horribly
>> >> confused between RAM and Hard Drive sizes, because they share the same
>> >> units (not that that can be helped, as the units are supposed to be
>> >> the same, base 1000 vs 1024 notwithstanding).
>> >>
>> >> Bit (as a unit) is already really confusing for anyone who doesn't
>> >> deal with it on a regular basis. I think people who don't see an issue
>> >> are making an assumption based on their own lack of confusion. We
>> >> understand computer science AND Bitcoin. Most people have zero
>> >> understanding of either.
>> >>
>> >> Bitcoin already has a ton of issues with terrible names for things:
>> >>
>> >> - Mining (for transaction validation).
>> >> - Addresses (which are meant to be one-time use, and don't even really
>> >> exist at the network level).
>> >> - Wallets (which don't hold your bitcoins, can be copied, and all
>> >> backups can be stolen from equally).
>> >>
>> >> I end up having to make the distinctions obvious every time I explain
>> >> Bitcoin to someone new to it. There's an acceptable tradeoff here,
>> >> because there were arguably no better words to assign to these
>> >> concepts (although I'd argue mining is a really awful metaphor, and is
>> >> the one that prompts the most questions from people). Then add to the
>> >> pile a bunch of third parties naming themselves after parts of the
>> >> protocol (Coinbase,Blockchain.info). Not blaming them for it, but I've
>> >> definitiely seen average people get confused between "the blockchain"
>> >> and "blockchain.info" (not so much Coinbase, because that name doesn't
>> >> come up in beginner explanations).
>> >>
>> >> It seems downright masochistic to add
>> >> yet-another-word-that-doesn't-mean-what-you-think-it-means to the pile
>> >> for no reason other than aesthetics. Are we actively trying to confuse
>> >> people?
>> >
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>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Bitcoin-development mailing list
>> > Bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge.net
>> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
>> >
>>
>>
>>
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>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
>
>
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> unparalleled scalability from the best Selenium testing platform available.
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2014-05-04 6:16 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 56+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2014-05-01 22:35 Aaron Voisine
2014-05-03 2:06 ` Gordon Mohr
2014-05-03 5:41 ` Aaron Voisine
2014-05-03 15:48 ` Christophe Biocca
2014-05-03 16:02 ` slush
2014-05-03 16:10 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-05-03 16:27 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-05-04 1:04 ` Chris Pacia
2014-05-04 5:18 ` Drak
2014-05-04 6:15 ` Aaron Voisine [this message]
2014-05-04 6:23 ` Un Ix
2014-05-04 6:27 ` Wladimir
2014-05-04 6:36 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-05-04 6:59 ` Wladimir
2014-05-04 14:42 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-05-05 22:33 ` Gordon Mohr
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2014-04-20 12:35 Mike Gehl
2014-04-20 13:15 ` Rob Golding
2014-04-20 14:28 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-04-20 14:52 ` Christophe Biocca
2014-04-21 8:52 ` Thomas Voegtlin
2014-04-21 9:34 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-04-22 14:55 ` Natanael
2014-04-20 14:53 ` Pieter Wuille
2014-04-20 15:05 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-04-20 15:50 ` Alan Reiner
2014-04-20 16:19 ` Chris Pacia
2014-04-20 16:27 ` Wladimir
2014-04-20 16:30 ` Chris Pacia
2014-04-22 13:51 ` Aaron Axvig
2014-04-23 9:44 ` Danny Hamilton
2014-04-23 9:56 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-04-23 11:48 ` Chris D'Costa
2014-04-20 16:23 ` Erik Garrison
2014-04-20 16:30 ` Alan Reiner
2014-04-20 16:56 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-04-20 17:47 ` Jannis Froese
2014-04-20 18:10 ` Pavol Rusnak
2014-04-20 17:42 ` Arne Brutschy
2014-04-20 18:11 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-04-20 18:22 ` Arne Brutschy
2014-04-20 18:34 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-04-20 18:43 ` Oliver Egginger
2014-04-20 19:19 ` Christophe Biocca
2014-04-20 19:32 ` Gmail
2014-04-20 20:28 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-04-21 0:16 ` Justin A
2014-04-21 1:18 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-04-21 1:33 ` Un Ix
2014-04-21 3:34 ` Mike Caldwell
2014-04-21 4:08 ` Christopher Paika
2014-04-21 5:41 ` Pieter Wuille
2014-04-21 5:51 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-04-21 6:21 ` Tamas Blummer
2014-04-21 12:14 ` Un Ix
2014-04-21 12:24 ` Tamas Blummer
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