|
Title: Bit of a noob question Post by: TIEro on February 17, 2014, 10:41:24 AM I was just wondering... what happens to all those bitcoins that are in passworded wallets, where people have lost their password? Are they just *gone*?
Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: backtrackit on February 17, 2014, 10:44:16 AM Yes :'( unless you can crack the password they gone forever, never to be seen again.
RIP lost coins Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: hilariousandco on February 17, 2014, 12:54:44 PM Yes :'( unless you can crack the password they gone forever, never to be seen again. RIP lost coins Yup, but it doesn't matter as they'll just make the remaining coins more scarce and more valuable. Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: DanielVG on February 17, 2014, 04:04:43 PM Well the private keys are not destroyed yet, just not accessible.
If you put your wallet on a USB stick, then slam it with a sledgehammer. That's when your private keys aka coins are obliterated. Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: RodeoX on February 17, 2014, 04:08:29 PM Sad, but yes. Stuck in the blockchain forever. You could see them sitting at an address, but without the private key no one can move them to another address. I suppose you could say that they are not lost, rather locked up.
:'( Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: guybrushthreepwood on February 17, 2014, 04:46:07 PM Sad, but yes. Stuck in the blockchain forever. You could see them sitting at an address, but without the private key no one can move them to another address. I suppose you could say that they are not lost, rather locked up. :'( In Blockchain Prison or Limbo. Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: Kiki112 on February 17, 2014, 04:49:06 PM nothing..
they're lost forever, but it's a good thing for us because less coins in circulation means greater value for existing coins :) Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: guybrushthreepwood on February 17, 2014, 05:13:09 PM nothing.. they're lost forever, but it's a good thing for us because less coins in circulation means greater value for existing coins :) Maybe not lost forever if they finally remember their password or crack it :D. Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: Sonny on February 18, 2014, 03:20:54 AM Exactly as all the above guys mentioned, the bitcoin will be lost forever, if you do not have access to the private keys.
So, don't forget to use a good password to encrypt your wallet, and don't forget that good password lol. Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: troy112 on February 18, 2014, 11:54:03 AM Its just locked up until you get some new type of technology or a way to brute attack that wallet. Or some genius goes onto discover a way out of it. But hey you could add those to your asserts and get taxed :p
Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: Hilaryclok on February 18, 2014, 12:24:32 PM Hi!
Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: serje on February 18, 2014, 12:27:17 PM the password you put on your qt client is one thing and the private key is another thing!
we have 2 things here! Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: moriartypants on February 18, 2014, 02:13:08 PM Heh, I think some years from now, when bitcoins are worth quite a bit more than they are now, there will be a whole IT industry centered around finding abandoned wallets and cracking them.
In fact, you should get in on the ground floor and invest in my bitcoin salvage startup. 1 million X ROI in 30 years. Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: johncarpe64 on February 18, 2014, 03:21:00 PM I was just wondering... what happens to all those bitcoins that are in passworded wallets, where people have lost their password? Are they just *gone*? Yes, gone forever. Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: Sonny on February 18, 2014, 05:03:32 PM the password you put on your qt client is one thing and the private key is another thing! we have 2 things here! If you lost your password (a good password that is statiscally infeasible to brute force), your private keys will be lost (unless you have some unencrypted backups)... Title: Re: Bit of a noob question Post by: serje on February 18, 2014, 07:47:39 PM the password you put on your qt client is one thing and the private key is another thing! we have 2 things here! If you lost your password (a good password that is statiscally infeasible to brute force), your private keys will be lost (unless you have some unencrypted backups)... Any password can be brute forced! while private keys are something nearly impossible to brute force but with the correct algorithm they can be find out! ! Why I say nearly impossible? Check this thread! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=427753.0 He is giving 1000BTC bounty to the guy that finds the value of k for a specific BTC address he owns Also note that the value of k ranges from 1 to 2^256 and 2^256=115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,690,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 note that after 69 I've put only 0's so you can see how big the number is! P.S. If you find the k you will get as bonus his BMW! Witch was around 100.000$ |