[JonahBraun]

In one format, IEE754 has 24576 possible representations of zero[1], which fits your definition of "wasted bits". Some of your other criticisms might be valid, but at this point I'd like to see an accurate technical comparison between DEC64 and the decimal formats of IEEE 754.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal128_floating-point_forma...

[StefanKarpinski]

This is why decimal floating-point formats are kind of a disaster in general and are only implemented in relatively rare hardware intended for financial uses. In many of those applications, using a decimal fixed point representations is better – i.e. counting in millionths of pennies (you can still count up to ±9 trillion dollars with 64 bits). But yes, a technical comparison of different decimal formats would definitely be interesting. I suspect that despite the occasional failure of intuitiveness, we're far better off with binary formats and better programmer education.