As I write this a bitcoin is worth around $16'700. That's more than any other crypto currency.

Many will know than bitcoins are worth 100 million satoshi.

That means a satoshi is worth around $0.000167. It's a number which is hard to get your head around.

$100 makes how many bitcoin? How many satoshi for $100?

You don't know? Nor do I - at least not without a calculator.

Even with a calculator I might get the decimal place wrong.

Both numbers ($16'700 and $0.000167) are too difficult to easily convert into the amounts we typically use in day to day transactions.

No doubt there are some smart mathematicians who could do that kind of maths standing on their head with a cucumber stuck up their nose.

Introducing the "finney"

A finney is half way between a satoshi and a bitcoin. It is equal to ten thousand satoshi, or one ten-thousandth of a bitcoin.

1 finney = 1 bitcoin / 10'000 or 0.00001 bitcoin
1 finney = 1 satoshi X 10'000 or 10'000 satoshi.

A "finney" is one ten-thousandth of a bitcoin. In other words, if a bitcoin was $10'000, a finney would be $1. With a bitcoin price at $20'000 a finney would be $2, and so on. Right now, with the bitcoin price at $16'700, a finney is worth $1.67.

Now let me ask you differently:

With a finney worth $1.67, how many finney in $100?

This time I think you could guess the answer? Perhaps you guessed that around 65 finney make $100? If you guessed that it's not bad. The correct answer is 59.88 finney make $100. So anything from 55 to 65 would have been a good guess.

Why should we start to use the term "finney"

• It's a lot easier to work out how much money is involved when quoting in finney, compared to quoting in bitcoins. You know what 100 finney are worth. You don't know what 0.00001 bitcoin are worth. Its' the same thing.

• It's a lot easier to work out how much money is involved when quoting finney, compared to quoting satoshi. You know what 100 finney are worth. you don't know what 10'000 Satoshi are worth. Its' the same thing.

• As soon as people get used to the term "finney" the amounts will be instantly comprehensible. Today 1 finney = $1.67. It's easy to remember like that.

• The price of a finney is much more in line with the price of most other crypto-currencies.

• If someone tells you that bitcoin could shoot up to $100'000 from $16'700, you might not believe it. That's a rise of $83'300. It seems too much.

• On the other hand is someone tells you that the price of a finney could jump from $1.67 to $10, you might believe them. It seems plausible. Every week one crypto currency or another shoots up to 10 times its earlier price. A move from $1.67 to $10 seems easily done.

Apology

I would like to offer my sincere apologies to anyone who lays claim to the word "finney" before me. I think I heard it first on a radio show. I think the line went like this

• "finney is worth 10'000 times satoshi".

I missed the context, but it got me thinking that the word is worth promoting as a usable sub-unit of bitcoin

If anyone is wondering why call it a "finney", then just search that word in steemit and you have the answer.

I would also like to distinguish the word "finney" (miniscule "f") from the word "Finney" (capital "F"). The latter is said to be worth one 1000th of an ether although I only ever saw that mentioned once, so I don't think it has much usage.