Definition
A satoshi, often shortened to sat, is the smallest whole unit used in Bitcoin's base-layer value accounting. One bitcoin equals 100 million satoshis, so one satoshi is 0.00000001 BTC. Wallets can display the same underlying amount in either denomination, which can make small payments easier to read without changing their value. Transaction fee rates are often quoted in satoshis per virtual byte rather than as a percentage of the payment. Some higher-layer systems use finer internal accounting units, but Bitcoin transaction output amounts remain denominated in whole satoshis. A satoshi is a unit of BTC, not a separate cryptocurrency or an independently issued token. Ordinals-related software can track particular satoshis through an additional convention, but the base protocol does not assign a larger face value to one because of its number, history, or collectible description.
Source references
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