Naming discoveries after their inventors has been a norm in the world of science and technology, good examples are the unit symbols of force and energy which are 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 and SAT, its main and subunit symbols.
• 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 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, unlike today, merchant payments in Sats (unless in bulky amounts) weren't feasible to early adopters due to a blockhain condition known as scalability issue.
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