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Satoshi Gazette
Glossary

Lower bound

A figure the evidence guarantees the truth is not below: the desk prints it cut, never rounded up, and labels it a floor. The real value may be well above it.

Custody and holdings

Definition dated

also floor figure

A lower bound is a figure the evidence guarantees: the truth may be higher, but the record does not let it be lower. The Gazette's holdings figures are built that way. They add up only what holders have disclosed, so whatever was not disclosed could only add to them.

Two rules follow. A lower bound is cut, never rounded up: 4.21897% prints as 4.2189%, not 4.219%, so the printed figure never claims more than the evidence. And it is never padded: a holder that discloses nothing adds nothing, and the page says so rather than guessing.

A lower bound answers how much at least. It cannot answer how much, and the desk does not let it pretend to.

Common misreadings3

  • People say

    A lower bound is the best estimate

    Precisely

    It is the least the evidence supports. An estimate would add what was not disclosed, which a lower bound leaves out.

  • People say

    The parts should add up to the total

    Precisely

    Each printed part is cut on its own, so the printed parts can sum a little below the printed total. The arithmetic in satoshis is exact.

  • People say

    Unknown means zero

    Precisely

    Where a record is missing the desk prints Not available, never 0, and the bound says what it leaves out.