John Carvalho, CEO of Bitcoin software company Synonym, has stirred up the Bitcoin community with a controversial proposal: a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) that seeks to eliminate the term “satoshis” (or “sats”) and instead directly call the smallest unit of Bitcoin a “bitcoin.” This radical idea, if adopted, would fundamentally change how users perceive and transact with the cryptocurrency.
The Problem with Sats
Currently, one bitcoin (BTC) is divisible into 100 million smaller units, commonly known as satoshis (a nod to Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto). As Bitcoin’s price continues to soar—particularly as it approaches six figures and beyond—the vast majority of investors cannot afford a whole bitcoin. Consequently, sats have become the de facto unit for everyday transactions and pricing. However, Carvalho argues that this two-tier naming creates unnecessary cognitive overhead: users must constantly convert between sats and bitcoin in their minds, adding friction to payments, accounting, and general understanding.
In his BIP draft, Carvalho proposes redefining the smallest indivisible unit (1 satoshi) as “one bitcoin.” This means that what was previously 1 BTC would now be represented as 100,000,000 bitcoin. “By redefining the smallest unit as ‘one bitcoin,’ this BIP aligns user perception with the protocol’s true nature,” Carvalho writes. “It reduces cognitive overhead, ensures users understand Bitcoin as counting discrete units, and ultimately improves educational clarity and user experience.”
Transition Plan and Early Adoption
Carvalho acknowledges the radical nature of the change and estimates a transition period of at least one year. During this time, wallets and exchanges could display both the old and new configurations side by side, allowing users to gradually adapt before the old system is phased out. Notably, Synonym’s own Bitkit wallet already operates using this “integer-only” configuration, effectively serving as a real-world testbed for the proposal.
Proponents argue that as Bitcoin’s price continues to rise, the inconvenience of switching between bitcoin and sats will only grow. If Bitcoin indeed reaches one million dollars in a few years—as many bullish predictions suggest—using sats to price a cup of coffee (e.g., 10,000 sats) would be technically possible but cognitively taxing. Carvalho’s proposal essentially aims to bring the counting unit back to natural numbers, making Bitcoin more intuitive for new users.
However, opposition has been swift and loud. Prominent Bitcoin podcaster Stephan Livera mocked the idea on X (formerly Twitter): “Hey, I’ve got this great idea! Instead of one pizza with eight slices, let’s just call each slice a pizza. Just make sure when you go to order your pizza, you now order eight pizzas instead of one.” He ended his post with “Just my two pizzas,” a playful twist on the common phrase “just my two sats.”
Deep Community Division
The proposal does not change the underlying Bitcoin protocol—the atomic unit remains 1 satoshi—but instead redefines the user-facing terminology and display. Critics warn that such a shift could cause massive confusion across all layers: historical data, price charts, wallet balances, and even smart contracts would need to be rescaled. Moreover, since the core software still operates in satoshis, forcing a “1 BTC = 100,000,000 bitcoin” representation at the UI level could create coordination nightmares for developers, merchants, and users alike. Some skeptics see the move as a marketing stunt for Synonym’s products.
Proponents counter that long-term adoption of Bitcoin demands lowering the entry barrier for ordinary people. When a single bitcoin costs hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, the conceptual leap between “sats” and “bitcoin” is a friction point that discourages widespread use. Under Carvalho’s system, a user who buys 0.0001 BTC would simply see “10,000 bitcoin” in their wallet—no decimal, no conversion math. This approach mirrors how fiat currencies like the US dollar work: you don’t think in terms of “cents vs. dollars” in everyday speech; you just say “five dollars,” even though the smallest coin is a cent.
Conclusion: A Long Road Ahead
As of now, the BIP remains a draft subject to community discussion. Bitcoin’s development process is famously conservative, and any change this fundamental to user habits would require a strong consensus. But Carvalho’s proposal has at least opened an important debate: as Bitcoin transitions from a niche asset to mainstream money, should we rethink some of the early design choices that were made when Bitcoin was worth pennies? Whether the BIP ever gets adopted or not, it highlights a growing need for user experience improvements in the Bitcoin ecosystem.