Naming findings/products after their inventors has been a norm in the world of science and technology, good examples are unit symbols of force and energy represented as: "J" and "N" (being names of James Prescott Joules and sir Isaac Newton respectively).

Meanwhile just as both principles of physics were originated by, and attributed to Joule and Newton, the first cryptocurrency (bitcoin) was anonymously launched in 2009 by a person (or group of persons) known as Satoshi Nakamoto and thus connoted as: BTC (for Bitcoin) and SAT (for Satoshi), and these are the unit/subunit symbols of Bitcoin.

• What is a subunit?

A currency's subunit is a subdivisions or fraction of it. For instance one united states dollar (USD) and one Nigerian Naira (NGN)  are comprised of hundred cents and kobos (as their subunits). Bitcoin on the other hand is made up of a hundred million Satoshi otherwise known as SATs, the value of which is determined by dividing current price of bitcoin by a hundred million (price of BTC/ 100,000,000 = the value of 1 SAT).

• The essence of SATs

An ideal money functions as a medium of exchange, unit of account and store of value, but to fulfil the first two functions (necessary for buying and assessing prices of commodities) money must be divisible and distributive. And having proposed Bitcoin as a peer to peer payment system (in its white paper) Satoshi wasn't unaware of that fact. 

Therefore to meet that very end in a world of over six billion people as at the time of its (Bitcoin) inception, it was imperative for bitcoin's fixed supply of BTC 21,000,000 to be subdivisible, which I believe was designed to ensure the mainstream of, and foster use of bitcoin (in Sats especially) for micro payments.

But with average transaction fees of $0.50 - $2.50 at it's early stage, merchant payments in Sats (or Bitcoin subunit) wasn't feasible to the early adopters due to a blockhain condition known as scalability issue. 

Nevertheless, thanks to the latest innovation on Bitcoin Blockchain known as Lightening (which has made the SATS dream a reality), as at today you don't need one Bitcoin to own Bitcoin, as one can now buy, trade, make everyday merchant payments in Bitcoin subunits (SATS). Welcome to a new era of Bitcoin when lack of ASIC machine isn't an excuse to amass (or stack Sats).

SATs stacking Sites you may like to Join (am in already) and start gathering some SATs (Bitcoin subunits):

1. https://satsman.com?ref=x10

Check back for more site updates...

My next post would be on [What is LIGHTENING].

For the meanwhile don't forget to:

Follow, like, express yourself in the comment box and more importantly drag the tipper to encourage me & reward yourself for time spent on this passage. Thanks. As a new reader you can SIGN UP to start earning tips.