Bitcoin Forum

I meet loads of people who have collected coins everywhere. They have 20 different types of wallets with a little bit of value. It's due to happen that people will loose their private keys or forget that they even have an account. Over time that value could accumulate pretty big. What will happen to these 'lost' coins? Will these stay on the Blockchain forever, accessible to no one anymore?

Yes, they will be lost forever, everyone can see them but nobody can touch them. There are still loads of people who are not active on this forum for several years now, their airdropped NEM coins for example are worth $1 million now and they do not even know that. Also I doubt they have saved their private keys because loads of people did not take this seriously at that time. I know that I had some wallets back in 2014 but I do not remember both wallet addresses and private keys.

Speaking specifically about Bitcoin, I found this article (linked below) claiming that nearly 4 million bitcoins are already very likely to have been lost:


I don't know how much of this makes sense, to me the number is simply too high. But, who knows. Another point being made in the linked article is that people are going to be much more careful when sending bitcoins in the future, now that the value of this crypto-currency has been firmly established.  

Definitely those lost coins are going to remain in blockchain technology for ever and no one will be able to access them except those that can find the private keys. I had about many people that have invested into bitcoin and as at now did not know they password or private keys, so they could not access there account.

I think so because I'm sure the wallet they use has security guarantees so only the users can open the wallet and of course if no one opens and sells the coin, the coin will forever be in the wallet

Unfortunately, there are already many assets that will never be paid, maybe someone will come up with this method, but it can be difficult and impossible

They will be lost, and the price over time for a particular coin will grow, wallets, and keys now irretrievably lost. They will just exist but access to them and no one will ever get.

a lot of people have lost their Bitcoins in this way, so yes they will just be stuck there forever

It will be lost forever untill the owner finally found their private key, the wallet will be counted as one when the counter for the holder published the holder quantity count.

The coin will be on the wallet forever, and no one can take it.

That's why you need to have a list of all the logins and passwords. I often think about this and store all kinds of passwords in different secret places. Here, it's not just bitcoin, it's passwords from gadgets, apple, card, registration, and much more. On the one hand, it's safe to keep it in your personal memory. One, if something bad happens, I do not know what my family will do.
And the coins will be lost forever.

They just will remain on the wallet, they will be considered lost because nobody will ever pick them up and sell them

Depends on the coin really, most of coins will raise in price, if we don't get some burst that will kill the ussless onese, and some of them have "died out" already.

It's a loss for those who forgot their wallets and let there coins float. It will only make the supply scars and the price will rise. So to avoid lssing our private keys, we should be serious on this business and keep it in a safe storage like offline wallets.

These coins are essentially gone forever.  They are as good as burnt.  Without getting back into whatever held them, they can not be recovered.

This is why it is absolutely crucial to store your coins where you can access them safely.

This is really regretful when we are not careful, do not focus on private key, the value of them can be a huge asset. So this is a great lesson for us in the Crypto market.

I think these coins will be lost forever and nobody will ever bring them out of the lost purse. I think in a few years there will be a lot of forgotten purses on which such lost coins will lie.

The coins will remain, of course, but they will be lost for the householders if they certainly do not find the key. and coins most likely grew very much in value.

Of course it will stay at the blockchain forever,because if theres no one to claim it there will be no chance to get those coins not without their private keys,which is why it is going to be remain to their current wallet,not unless someone has broked the blockchain's code,which is not possible wihtout the help of quantum computer.

Nothing will happen to them. They will be counted in the total, but they will simply lie on forgotten wallets, nobody can do anything with them.

It will remain in the blockchain,not unless someone has gotten your wallet's  private keys that is the time that we should be worried about our coins.The transactions wont be allow anyone to proceed as you will need to open his wallet to transfer the funds if ever you are going to get your lost coins,morelikely it isnt going to get recovered.

They are maybe lost, but fewer Bitcoins in circulation could give a better value because it is a very wanted goods.
At first, many people didn't care about Bitcoin when the price was small. I guess from that comes such a high number of lost Bitcoins.
I bet that we gonna hear in the future about lucky guys that found their private keys of long forgotten wallet.

Very, it is a pity that their not return. If I could return all the lost wallets since 2013( all in the world lost 3mln coins, considering that all bitcoins in the system can be 21 million, it turns out that about seven of the coins are lost forever.

I do not know for sure but in my opinion the lost coin will remain in blockchain and still be a part of it,
because all have been added in the beginning can not be added and can not be reduced,

I read that the development of a coin return algorithm sent to incorrect (non-existent) wallets is under way!

I think that it is necessary all the same to exaggerate the possibility of restoring access to lost wallets and passwords, or to burn information that is inactive for more than a year. Also, users should have more attention to their data, so that later do not regret the loss.

Yes, it will be lost coins, like treasures that no one will find.  I know personally such examples, when people can not restore their wallets, because they lost passwords.  And they kept a lot of money on these wallets.  Therefore, you need to carefully treat the storage of passwords for wallets.

In my opinion, those coins will be lost forever, no one can find them and no one will get them. It's a pity because of our carelessness, so keep your keys private.

I think that this issue is settled. It seems to me that these coins will eventually burn, because they are out of circulation.

I think that the lost coins will be inaccessible to anyone for many decades

If anyone forget their wallet privatekey with full of token and cryptocurrency inside, they'll lose them forever and there are no way these cryptocurrency can be transferred to anyone wallet. But I think it's really hard to lose privatekey cause people often keep their privatekey very carefully but sometime, they still can lose it because of some reasons like hacked or losing their computer :)

actually the numbers are somewhat near to what can be called lost. Some miners are insane if I may say.

Really. I have read a news back in 2017 where a miner made a mistake or something during the mining of a certain block. They've lost like a hundred thousand bitcoins in a block, iirc.

Correct me i am wrong though. I cannot remember it really. Just the news about some lost bitcoins.

A coin or token stays where it is unless someone or something transfers it to another location or wallet. So in this case, if a user forgets or lost his private key, then the coins or tokens inside that wallet will stay in it forever. This is the effect of decentralization (not saying its is a negative effect not a positive one). Having those coins or tokens be lost then we could consider them as burnt. Thus, contributing to the scarcity of that specific coin or token and, a possible, increase in its market value.

to my knowledge guys, when the private key is lost, then the wallet address can not be opened again. although very many tokens are owned. automatically, it looks like the coins contained in the wallet's address can not be opened by anyone. if my opinion is wrong, please be advised, still very less experience. my advice, keep a good private key.

Yes it is gone forever. It will stay on blockchain forever but no one can access it unless they will have their private key again or someone will have their private key. We hope in the future this problem will have solution.

Its already a solution like "lost key contract" and stuff like that (google for it) but people doesn't care and continue loosing their funds

This is a rather interesting question, which I also asked myself. I think that the coin will not be available..

I never asked this question, but it seems to me that coins that are not used in any way - eventually burn. Although I can not imagine how this happens.

In the world of cryptocurrency.. Once lost, its lost forever!! that's why its annonymous...
My thought goes to those who have Bitcoin wallets with sh!t loads of BTC in them before they die and their family doesn't know sh!t about it!

Using only a private key to control your wallet is a common feature of all cryptocurrencies. At the same time, this is a nightmare for those who are forgetful.

These coins do not disappear anywhere. They can not be used if the wallet owner can not remember the password.

If those coins cant be accessed anymore due to lost of private keys or seeds then those coins would really just remain on the network but those are lost forever on the void.It is not dead but those coins are useless since no one would able to touch those coins anymore.This is why if we do have lots of coins on a specific wallet we should really be responsible on keeping out wallet informations like keys or seeds because these things are the most important.

It wont going to anywhere,but it is going to float in the blockchain forever,as long a theres no private keys you wont get the funds from your wallet if you forget or lose your keys,not unless the quantum computer exist and it could break your wallet's keys in just few minutes but if that happens cryptocurrencies are going to be worthless.

Losing your savings in bitcoins is easy enough, even without an attempt on them by scammers and hackers. The crypto owners themselves cope with this task. First of all, this is due to the fact that they do not know a reliable way to protect their wallets.

wasting time because it can not be put to good use by the owner, unless there is a pause in the password and password of the wallet, ideally it will be safe if nobody tries to open it. should have a small wallet but privacy and security stay awake.

Like this many people lost their coins and searching for the solution but there is no solution for this problem. if anybody cracks this and find your private keys then they will easily hack everyone accounts so this could be not possible. Once you lost your password and private key then forget your coins it will go long sleep in blockchain forever.

That's why you need to have a list of all the logins and passwords. I take it seriously and keep all kinds of passwords in different secret places. It's not just about crypto currency, it's passwords from gadgets, apple, maps, registrations and much more. On the one hand, it is safe to store it in your personal memory.  But, if something bad happens, I do not know what my family will do. And the coins will be lost forever.

This is blockchain feature, you can look at your assets, admire, but if you don't have a private key, then you can do nothing with them. No one to restore access to your wallet, in a decentralized world, everyone should take responsibility for their assets , as usual money.

they will remain stored. No one will be able to open it so for the transaction also nothing could. a coin would remain in place and there will be no taking. quite unfortunate if that kind of thing can happen.

The first project to benefit this theme will succeed and without shadow of doubt, a project that will commit to recover its losses untold. There are many investors who lose their wallets full of Bitcoin and major currencies and discovering a gateway to Blockchain for the rescue, it would be necessary and considered by all. Nowadays lost the private keys what we have left is the tears.

Yes there accounts will be lost forever ;  the blockchain lets us know that we should be responsible for our finance so taking care of your private key is so important . Unfortunately like you point out, many people forget their keys and lose their fortune

maybe for the lost coin, it's impossible because now it's the person holding altcoin and lots of people investing in Altcoin because now it's altcoin in recovering and so we can hold it and wait until the altcoin price and the market go back

I`m pretty sure they have some sort of system, that let those coin “free” if the account or wallet haven`t been accessed in some period of time, let`s say 4-5 years. If there is no such function, than the coin won`t probably survive as long as to become profitable.

Unfortunately the lost coins will remain in the block chain, it is such a pity. This is why we have to keep our private keys in a safe price to avoid such situations.

Thanks to the author for the topic! I myself belong to such people.
when I started to collect airdrops, I did everything, registered at all sites and  installed hundreds of wallets!  Now this information is on another computer that broke down (  now this information is lost..

How many more are the same as me???))(((

This proves the uselessness of such airdrops.

All those lost coins that people lost because of sending it to the wrong address, losing email addresses and passwords and losing private keys and the likes are all gone forever. They will remain in the blockchain and there is no way to actually get them back. Although I read a theory that lost coins would be taken back to be mined by miners but it is a long shot.

pretty much, yep. they are lost forever. they remain on the blockchain but no one has access to them.

Freeze forever. Maybe until someone make computer that able to hack it like Quantum Computer. So you must be careful because your money will be lost forever if you careless.

There is no return to lost money. You can use safe wallets to lose money. This is the biggest disadvantage of the crypto money world. There is absolutely no follower of lost money.

There is a possibility, that some "highly populated" coins could be "saved" by other more lively coin communities. It is their interest to attract more "colleagues" to the coin community.

Lost coins are gone. People losing so much coins is one of the reasons that the price of bitcoin is so high, there are people who lost the passwords, private key and such to their wallets and just like that those coins are gone forever because there is no way to get them back. Once these coins are gone, they are just gone forever and there is no way to bring them back

It will be lost forever untill the owner finally found their private key, the wallet will be counted as one when the counter for the holder published the holder quantity count.

Crypto is very difficult to follow in money world. There is no such thing as follow-up. There is no turning back when you lose money because even a legal pursuit is not the issue.

What happens is that no one can know exactly, but most accurately, the market is falling sharply, many people are losing and losing money, so be patient and do not worry about the market now. hours. You will be profitable for your future holdings.

The first project to benefit this theme will succeed and without shadow of doubt, a project that will commit to recover its losses untold. There are many investors who lose their wallets full of Bitcoin and major currencies and discovering a gateway to Blockchain for the rescue, it would be necessary and considered by all. Nowadays lost the private keys what we have left is the tears.

If they forgot their wallet password, some brute force software may crack for the password their created at the beginning if there is any wallet file.
But if they not use wallet file and using private key, the balance of coins or tokens will stay there forever if they forgot their private key.

It will still be stored in and will never be opened by anyone. Maybe it's a pretty big mistake and certainly should not have occurred. This is a big drawback in crypto. There will be no can help and there will not be responsible for loss is experienced.

existence or non existence of 99% of the altcoins would not change a thing, literary. apart from the obvious fact that some people will lose their money that they have foolishly invested in those coins. and that is actually a pretty common thing that they coins are either get lost or the altcoin simply dies and the whole thing is considered "lost"

Well, there is no cure, there is no remedy
Do  not lose your private key
Do not lose your password.

Every lost password or private key means loss of effort, funds and portfolio
so stay wise
stay safe.

It is true that all that is misplaced can never be regain 100%.They will be lost, and the price over time for a particular coin will grow or probably, wallets, and keys now can never be retrieve. They will just exist but access to them is nothing but no avail.

Losing coins means you can't find them anymore, and it really happens every day. If you manage bad coins, you are likely to lose them and no one can get them again.

to my knowledge guys, when the private key is lost, then the wallet address can not be opened again. although very many tokens are owned. automatically, it looks like the coins contained in the wallet's address can not be opened by anyone. if my opinion is wrong, please be advised, still very less experience. my advice, keep a good private key.

Yes. If you have lost the private key. Then your coins are always lost forever. It is always kept on the block chain. No one can use it. So the private key is very important to us. Be sure to keep it safe and safe.

With lost coins nothing will happen. They will always lie on your wallet, which you will never be able to enter again. Or you can pick them up if you crack the wallet. ;D