There’s a common misconception among prospective bitcoin buyers that only those with deep pockets can afford to access the market. However, this is simply not the case. 

Using exchanges like Kraken, people can buy as little as $10 worth of bitcoin (BTC). This is possible because there are smaller units of bitcoin, similar to how one U.S. dollar is made up of one hundred cents. 

Investors that don’t have thousands of dollars of disposable income to purchase a whole bitcoin can buy fractions of one instead.

The units of bitcoin

The smallest unit of a bitcoin is known as a satoshi, or a SAT. 

One hundred million satoshis (SATS) make up a single bitcoin, meaning it’s possible to purchase 0.00000001 BTC or one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin.

The unit was officially named after the creator(s) of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2011 following a discussion about the asset’s divisibility on the Bitcointalk forum. 

Advancements in secondary scaling technologies – external solutions that help blockchain networks like Bitcoin reduce congestion and achieve greater transaction throughput – have paved the way for users to transact even smaller units than the satoshi.

The Lightning Network (LN) is one such technology that allows users to transact with significantly smaller amounts than would otherwise be possible on the Bitcoin blockchain. 

The LN lets users transact in up to one thousandth of a satoshi. This smaller unit, known as a millisatoshi, only exists on the LN and is rounded down to the nearest satoshi once final balances are recorded on the Bitcoin…