What is a Satoshi?

Maybe you’ve heard of the phrase “stacking sats!” and wanted to know what is a Satoshi? Where did this phrase come from? And how is it used today?

Typically, a Satoshi is the smallest amount of measurable bitcoin. This means one Satoshi is equal to 0.00000001 BTC. At the time of writing it is just a small fraction of a cent. Often times you will notice faucets will advertise how many Satoshi they are giving away. Or you might have someone ask to pay you a certain amount of Satoshi. For example, let’s say someone says they will give you 5 Satoshi. This would mean they are offering to give you 0.00000005 BTC because each Satoshi is a one hundred millionth of a bitcoin.

Now that you know a Satoshi is 0.00000001 BTC, you may be wondering who invented this and why is called a Satoshi. Rumor has it a bitcoin user who goes by the name of “ribuck” proposed the idea of calling this unit a Satoshi. By what does Satoshi mean? Satoshi Nakamoto is the supposed creator or creators of bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto created the bitcoin whitepaper and mined the first block of bitcoin! So the general idea is the name Satoshi honors the creator/creators of bitcoin. Unfortunately, no one really knows who Satoshi Nakamoto’s real identity is.

Does anyone use this terminology today? Of course! Plenty of people, especially bitcoiners, use the term Satoshi all the time. According to Google Trends the word Satoshi was searched 27 times last week alone. (At the time of publishing.) You can also see this terminology all over social media as well. Maybe one day as bitcoin gains traction this will become the standard for all bitcoin users. However please note the term Satoshi is generally only used when referring to Bitcoin. You wouldn’t call a unit of a hundred millionth of a different cryptocurrency a Satoshi. Satoshi only refers to the smallest unit of the bitcoin cryptocurrency.

In conclusion, the term Sat or Satoshi is a unit of measurement referring to 0.00000001 BTC. I would urge bitcoin users to continue to use the term to establish its validity and meaning.