ATOMICITY (Atomicité in French)

The word atomicity derives from the ancient Greek word atomos which means "that which cannot be cut into smaller pieces" (a-, privative prefix and temnein, to cut).

In chemistry, the atom is a particle in a chemical element that forms the smallest quantity that can be combined. Atomicity therefore designates the number of atoms contained in a molecule.

But the concept of atomicity can also be found in computing (the chosen field of Atom e-City Ltd.’s co-founders) and in economics.

In computing

Atomicity is referred to mean “All or nothing”.
Reminder: the coherence of information systems (or the interoperability of databases) is based on respect for ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, and Durable) transactional properties.
According to the principle of atomicity, some complex operations, in particular transactions, are indivisible. A transaction is executed in full or not at all, but not halfway.
In other words, a transaction will only truly be completed if all these elements can be performed.

In economics

Atomicity of the market constitutes one of the four axioms of the doctrine of “pure and perfect competition”, which is understood to maintain equilibrium on all markets. This represents one of the two extreme cases of market structure (the other being a monopoly).
Atomicity implies that there are enough buyers and sellers in the market to ensure that none of them have the capacity to influence the market price.
This results in an equilibrium price that is self-sustained, regardless of changes in the quantity supplied or demanded by an individual seller or buyer, since this quantity is negligible in relation to the whole of the market. Each seller or buyer must then consider the market price as a benchmark imposed by the market, over which they have no control.

More than a concept, a philosophy

This idea captured the attention of Atom e-City Ltd.’s co-founders, who have a tremendous affinity with the world and philosophy of open-source software (OSS).
In fact, atomicity is observed on several levels in the domain of OSS:
- the number of software developers is unlimited, and none can seek to have a monopoly, since any competitor could take over that person’s product and directly break the monopoly;
- the number of distributors is equally unlimited, since distribution is free and the distributor sets the rate as it sees fit. Consequently, no distributor can set a price that is too high without a competitor taking advantage and entering the market with a reasonable price.

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