[Withdrawn/Superseded] Use units of kNSR in end-user messaging and user interfaces

[woodstockmerkle]

Based on the end-user feedback from the 1st B&C auction, Jordan Lee moved the decimal point over several places in the 2nd auction to simplify the representation to end users. Since Nu is in a phase where additional end-user purchases of NSR would be beneficial, perhaps a similar action should be taken with NSR as well.

A significant amount of NSR transactions are performed with BTC, which presently have 4 or 5 leading zeroes as a current NSR/BTC price. Not only does this provide the perception of a “penny stock”, it could cause end-user mistakes.

This proposal does not add much value beyond an “inverse stock split” of sorts, but as most humans are most comfortable with financial values from 0.01 thru 1000 or so, there could be enough value in itself.

Proposal: Use units of kNSR in end-user messaging and user interfaces throughout the Nu ecosystem, wherever possible.
Motion RIPEMD160 hash: tbd.

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1. Establish clear messaging about the kNSR moniker, as a representation of 1000 units of NSR, that will go active July 1st, 2015 12:00 UTC

2. Inform CoinMarketCap of the change – reduce # of shares by 1000, multiply price by 1000, and use the kNSR symbol. (Total market cap should not change)

3. Inform all active exchanges of this shift, and advise them to take the same action, as above.

4. Add units of kNSR in the Nu UI, and set this as the default.

5. Where possible, future-proof UIs, etc with support for mNSR, and uNSR for Milli and Micro

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If there is a significant cost to add this code, perhaps a vote needs to be raised as well; the language could be changed to make the passage of this motion contingent on the vote as well, in addition to the typical 50%.

[tomjoad]

A few of us were discussing a very similar idea in an internal chatroom about two weeks ago, prior to deciding that BlockShares should use a smaller set of shares at a higher price for the reasons you just wrote.

The idea was to turn 10,000 NSR into 1 “new” NSR. This would reduce the supply of NSR down to about 81,000 instead of 810 million.

Pros:

• If the price translated perfectly, the new price per share would be about $20.00 (if currently at 0.0020 USD). This price is much easier to speculate and discuss with. It’s also easier for newcomers to easily see the value of a share.
• You would now need 1 NSR to mint a block (and possibly cast a vote) rather than 10,000 NSR.
• NSR would now have 8 decimals (same as Bitcoin)

Cons:

• Exactly as you described: there are a lot of external systems using NuShares that could get burned making the switch.

@JordanLee said that the actual coding changes required would be minimal, but that there was a high likelihood that value could be lost during the switch. This could include an exchange not properly making the adjustment, not wiping its order books, etc.

I would support this motion if you presented it for voting (although I would prefer it to scale NSR by a factor of 10,000 instead of 1,000, and just call the new units “NSR” instead of “kNSR”) but there are significant challenges that may harm the market cap of NuShares. I believe we are at a stage where the number of external systems is small enough (4-5 exchanges) that the change is possible with enough advance warning, but I also trust the opinions of our developers and QA team who are more hesitant about making a change.

[GreatScott]

I think people will see this as a gimmick to address what is currently happening in the NSR market.

[mhps]

When price goes up 1 “new NSR” would cost hundreds of dollars, then people would complain it’s “too expensive”.

[Yurizhai]

Timing aside, how do you feel about the idea in general?

[GreatScott]

I count my NSR by how many votes I have (10,000s), so I do not really oppose the idea. But on the other hand, what about small holders who only have, say, 50,000 NSR. Dropping their “total” to 5 or 50 NSR may be discouraging.

Since I understand market share, it really makes no difference to me. This is also why I see no benefit to making the switch.

[Cybnate]

I don’t think the risks as mentioned weigh up against the pros. If anything I would definitely keep the division by 1000 instead of 10000. With 10,000 we will be quickly perceived as expensive when the rate rises. If it goes down further we are in trouble anyway.

I don’t think the risk of end-user mistakes is high as long we are dealing with long non-human readable addresses it is not great anyway. I would prefer to address that first.

I’m on the fence with a tendency to not vote for this motion unless more pros are becoming available.

[masterOfDisaster]

Maybe I get this wrong, but I understand this motion not being about a protocol change, but a change of denomination.

So the technical risks would be eliminated by that.

The risk in the area of perception could remain though.

As kilo is well known for being used as written form of 10^3 it shouldn’t confuse people very much.
It might be easier to deal with prices of 1.x USD per 1kNSR than with prices of below 1 Cent.
And to require at least 10 kNSR for being able to vote is less confusing than requiring 10,000 NSR for that.

Dividing all by a factor of 10,000 would make handling easier as well. It would be like it’ll be at B&C Exchange and ordinary stocks - 1 vote per share.
But there’s no unit for lots of 10,000.
I’d like to see a protocol change to reduce the amount of shares by 10,000 where I’d prefer only a denomination change for creating a unit called kNSR.
I’m in favor of using kNSR if it comes to changing numbers.

[woodstockmerkle]

As the overall intent of this draft motion is now captured in @tomjoad’s motion [Passed] Reduce the total displayed supply of NSR by 10,000, I am withdrawing this one.