Bitcoin Forum

So I have a question for you all.  Has anyone thought about how many bitcoin's that have been created and have not circulated due to folks using services like instawallet and forgetting to book mark or forgetting passwords to wallets and the amounts so small they just leave them?  I know this is a very big and massive question but I was just thinking that with so many coins out now that are being held it would be interested to come up with an estimate are held due to basically being lost.  The other question I have about this is with services like instawallet where folks may visit and forget how can they sweep those accounts to get the coins back out?  They may not due to ethics but also by having them it makes their value look bigger. 

I just find it interesting with so many ways to handle bitcoins what are the possible ways to account for or exercise those coins?

instawallet, i believe, has total control of all coins, it is just the end user who has lost access after a predefined date.

there are lots of mined coins that have no moved from the mining block ...

There is no way to determine whether unmoved coins are left that way intentionally or not. This has been discussed many times:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=20799.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=44511.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=26821.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22110.0

Found these with a simple search.

Why do you believe this?

the FAQ suggests this, because it is possible to recreate the account but the owner doesn't do this to avoid being "hacked" on a social engineering level …

I do like what you all are writing and I really think an answer is either not possible or very hard but I think it is worth thinking about because this could turn out to be a lot of money later on down the road.  I also think this will raise ethical and operational issues too. 

Thanks for the input so far.

I guess that explains why one of my URLs is not longer working. I'm locked out!

There is a thread on summing up all known inaccessible coins...if memory serves me correctly, the sum was roughly on the order of 100,000.

Well, inactive accounts are just that, inactive.  The customer still owns the funds.  

The hosted (shared) EWallet provider can't know which customers lost their URL, but can know how many bitcoins are held by customer accounts that have become inactive.

At some point the EWallet provider might be tempted to use those funds (e.g., lend them out), but who knows.   I suppose if the terms of service change at some point the user has the option of withdrawing those funds and anyone who no longer has access to the account (e.g., forgot, died, or lost the URL) then those funds could change hands after some reasonable period of time passes.

The golden rule -- those with the gold make the rules.   In bitcoin EWallets, you are voluntarily handing your money over to someone else to hold.  If you don't take care of your money, someone else will.  Happens all the time .... like this:

 - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-26/banks-warn-customers-government-set-to-take-their-money/4541116

Menstruation thread. Appears every 28 days. If it doesn't... oooopsss!

What if, all the "small amounts" are sended to a wallet if the account where they are isn't used for a period of 3 months, and once a month the big wallet is donated for a bitcoin lover ? 

It could turn out to be a lot of money of course, but it's a lot of money that is not yours, so what is it worth to you to think about money that is not yours?
Shouldn't you think more about your own money, instead of someone elses money?

You already pay a small fee to use 'free' services like instawallet, but the real breaker is that their service is reliable and they claim they are not liable for any error that isn't directly and expressly their error.

I think we have a junior politician in the making.