If we accept there will be a limit on the divisibility for us to work around due to technical and performance constraints then the rest of the decision is really about usability, perception, language and pragmatism.
We did consider some other options (which granted, I could have included in the RFC, but I’ll put them here now) which really come down to how many whole units we have, where decimal places go, and where the ‘whole token’ is placed in the spectrum.
I’ve done a comparison with Filecoin on price as a very very very rough guide to a (almost im)possible (to predict) dollar value that SNT might have in the medium term. This is only to give you some way to compare the different solutions between each other in terms of fiat conversions, and how people might manage that in their head. Please don’t take it as anything other than that. And it was also done before the start of winter.
(Note: some of these calcs for share price etc include the original 2^32 starting point, but you get the idea)
Proposal for Nice Numbers
Here’s an option. One where we deviate from the original supply, but use nice powers of 10 for symmetrical goodness. For this, we can still do typical English names for the biguns and then only need to go down the the micro for the sub-divisons. This is pleasing to me.
Total Supply of base/whole units: 1013 or 10,000,000,000,000 or 10 trillion
Number of sub-divisions: 106 or 1,000,000 micro tokens
Total number of available sub-units: 1019 or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000
| Decimal | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 000 000 000 000 | trillion |
| 1 000 000 000 | billion |
| 1 000 000 | million |
| 1 000 | thousand |
| 1 | token |
| 0.01 | cents |
| 0.001 | milli |
| 0.000 001 | micro |
Let’s take a look at the implications for conversion from MAID and for shareholders too. It’s not of much consequence long term, but it will need to be explained as a deviation from the original promises. People might be wary and call a bait-and-switch late in the day. Incorrectly of course, but something we have to manage, and a drawback to be aware of:
| Number of SNT per MAID | 2,328.31 |
| Number of SNT per Share | 246,386.50 |
And then there’s the…
Comparison this with the Filecoin numbers
| Implied SNT dollar price | $0.0003 |
| Est. SNT cost per TB | 174.62 |
The Many Units Proposal
Here’s an exercise in looking at the proposal with the base unit being the smallest thing, and then working up from there
Total Supply of base/whole units: 1019 or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 quintillion or 10 exa tokens
| Decimal | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 | exa (quintillion) |
| 1 000 000 000 000 000 | peta (quadrillion) |
| 1 000 000 000 000 | terra (trillion) |
| 1 000 000 000 | giga (billion) |
| 1 000 000 | mega (million) |
| 1 000 | kilo (thousand) |
| 1 | token |
| Number of SNT per MAID | 2,328,306,437 |
| Number of SNT per Share | 246,386,495,655 |
And then there’s the…
Comparison this with the Filecoin numbers
| Implied SNT dollar price | $0.0000000003 |
| Est. SNT cost per TB | 174,617,085 |
In the end what we've pitched in the RFC what may not be perfect, but is a pragmatic solution, as it's still reasonably usable and is the closest to the original proposal i.e. giving MaidSafeCoin and share holders what they were promised:
Proposal sticking with original whole token supply
Total Supply of base/whole units: 4,525,524,120
Number of sub-divisions: 109 or 1,000,000,000 nano tokens
Total number of available sub-units: 4,525,524,120,000,000,000
| Decimal | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 000 000 000 | billion |
| 1 000 000 | million |
| 1 000 | thousand |
| 1 | token |
| 0.01 | cents |
| 0.001 | milli |
| 0.000 001 | micro |
| 0.000 000 001 | nano |
Comparing this with the Filecoin numbers
Given the current Filecoin cap, and their stated storage cost (which is notoriously hard to interpret, but we try) multiples by a factor of 5 which gives a rough approximation of perpetual; storage costs we get:
| Implied SNT dollar price | $0.71 |
| Est. SNT cost per TB | 0.075 |
So to summarise, given our best guess at the likely performance limitations given the currently available information we have divisibility at 10^9, and for simplicity and pragmatism we stick as close to the original supply proposal.