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Title: What happens to missing BitCoins? Post by: musiek on November 30, 2013, 06:03:34 AM I'm pretty new to bitcoin, and I keep hearing stories about people losing their bitcoins (like the lost hard drive incident).
This got me wondering, what actually happens to lost bitcoins? Are they forever out of the system until found again? People lose their wallets all the time, does this mean that the 'accessible' amount of total bitcoins is in a state of steady decline?? Send a link if you know this has already been covered elsewhere. Thankyou! Title: Re: What happens to missing BitCoins? Post by: repairguy on November 30, 2013, 06:06:23 AM Yes lost btc are gone forever, and also yes the maximum number of available btc decreases.
Title: Re: What happens to missing BitCoins? Post by: Kluge on November 30, 2013, 06:12:49 AM Yes, yes, and yes. Since we can't really determine the number of inaccessible bitcoins, our "market cap" metrics are further made useless, and we won't really be able to tell when bitcoins are deflationary rather than inflationary.
Title: Re: What happens to missing BitCoins? Post by: everglide on November 30, 2013, 06:21:12 AM its just like your physical wallet, lose it and you'll never see it again
Title: Re: What happens to missing BitCoins? Post by: musiek on November 30, 2013, 06:38:03 AM Cheers for the answers, It makes me giggle imagining a world where all the bitcoins are missing
Title: Re: What happens to missing BitCoins? Post by: mufa23 on November 30, 2013, 06:51:00 AM Assuming Bitcoin is still around in hundreds of years from now, it is possible that someone could generate an address that was someone's long lost Bitcoins (i.e. a collision), but it would be extremely rare. But so far into the future, a single Bitcoin could be worth millions of dollars. Getting a stash of 7,500 Bitcoins would be awesome! But the chances of a collision are extremely rare, and the chances of someone generating an address with anything in it would be even more rare.
So I guess no coin is lost "forever". On a given timeline, it's probable they will be "found" eventually. But we will probably never see it in our lifetime. Title: Re: What happens to missing BitCoins? Post by: JTrain_51 on November 30, 2013, 06:56:07 AM There are storys of this guy who had over 2500 bitcoins when they were at 5 dollars and he lost track of his computer and accounts and then he got married he no longer knows anything of where that computer with the info or any of the info to do with the wallet
2500 x 1000 = 2.5 mill I honestly feel bad! He is married and missed out LOL! |