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GLOSSARY/SATS

Sats

BASICS
DEFINITION
Satoshis — the smallest unit of bitcoin. One bitcoin is 100 million sats, so a whole coin is optional; everyone stacks sats.
Named for Satoshi Nakamoto, sats are how bitcoin is actually denominated in practice: Lightning invoices, mining payouts, and fee rates all speak sats. At most prices a US dollar buys somewhere in the hundreds-to-thousands of sats.
Thinking in sats fixes the "bitcoin is too expensive" illusion — you buy $25 of bitcoin the same way you buy $25 of gasoline, no whole units required.
IN A SENTENCE
“Lunch was 21,000 sats over Lightning.”

Key facts

Per bitcoin100,000,000 sats
Writtensat · sats
Fee unitsats/vB

Common questions

Can I buy less than one bitcoin?

Of course — any exchange sells fractions. Most people never own a whole coin, by design.

Will prices ever be quoted in sats?

Lightning commerce already does. Wider adoption is a cultural shift in progress.
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