Satoshi As Value

We all know Bitcoin is capped at 21 million coins, which equals 2.1 quadrillion satoshis (since 1 BTC = 100,000,000 sats). But not all of that is actually usable — it’s estimated that around 4 million BTC are lost forever (lost keys, old wallets, etc.). That leaves us with about 1.7 quadrillion satoshis in circulation.

Now, imagine in the future we’re transacting directly in sats instead of BTC. The question is: how do we move such tiny amounts efficiently? Right now, the average fee is around 590 sats (~$0.69) per transaction.

Here’s the concern: if Bitcoin’s value keeps rising, won’t fees in dollar terms rise too? How do we make sure fees don’t eat up the small amounts people want to send?