Bitcoin Forum

What would happen if all Bitcoin is mined and all Bitcoin is lost?

When bitcoin had little or no value. Many of it was lost. And it’s unrecoverable pretty much. Many threw out their hard drives or they just deleted the wallet.dat because it wasn’t worth anything and it’s gone forever.

I think that something like 2-3 million is lost and not recoverable. There is also satoshis stash which most likely will never be spent. It’s good because it keeps the supply lower.

For a start, humanity will still be in existence and we will all still be functioning properly…

But on a more serious note; how do you propose all bitcoin to be lost? How is that going to be possible? You can’t just expect everyone to just wake up one day and realize that they can’t recall their secret phrases again and where they kept it has been destroyed with their phrases along side.

Try asking more realistic questions maybe then you’ll get an actual answer. Question like this won’t yield anything good for you.

When all bitcoin is mined, which will happen in 2140 if the network continues to be lively operated till that year, miners will have only one income source, transaction fee. This question is asked and answered many times, you can search and find past topics on it.

The second question, all bitcoin is lost, seems to be impossible. There are about 4 million bitcoin assumedly estimated to be lost but we never know an exact number for it.

I posted one thread on estimation of lost bitcoins (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5281598.0) that can be helpful for you.

I believe in future, with more expensive price, people will be more careful with storage, back up, recovery so that there wil be less and less bitcoin lost in coming years.

@stompix gave a detailed explanation on the future of Bitcoin as regards to when all Bitcoin have been mined. You can read that in this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5473528.msg63131503#msg63131503).

On the other aspects of your post, I don't know what will make all the Bitcoin to be lost or are you referring to when the world will end? We actually have certain amount of Bitcoin that are reported to have been lost; those will remain lost.

It's lost forever and there's no way to recover it. That's it. The Bitcoin has a limited supply and it's not like paper money that they can create unlimitedly. I think there's a lot of lost Bitcoin, as per my simple search on google, it stated that there's at least 13 Million Bitcoin that is lost right now it's worth 565 Billion USD, I'm really surprised when I found out about it. I was hoping that at least I could have 100 Bitcoins from those lost Bitcoins.

The miners will waste their time and effort doing all those mining and the world moves on, that's the only way that will happen when bitcoin is gone. Bitcoin doesn't have the expected impact yet because it's not as influential as we want it to be to the point that it's going to make waves in the economy of a lot of countries but if this was to happen when bitcoin's at the point where it's already influential to the economy and a lot of country have it as their secondary legal tender or maybe even their traded currency for the global market then we would see a more catastrophe happening.

Millions of Bitcoins have already been lost, mate. However, your question may not have a straightforward answer. If Bitcoin experiences widespread loss, it could affect its usability creating challenges for its practical use as a currency or store of value.
The idea of all Bitcoins being lost is unlikely, as it would require a widespread and simultaneous loss of private keys, which is highly impossible.

When all Bitcoin is mined, its price would likely become more stable, shifting its role from a store of value to a means of payment. At this point, Satoshi's original vision for Bitcoin as an alternative payment method could be realized. When Bitcoin was created, it was meant to serve as an alternative means of payment. Satoshi also foresaw people viewing it as a store of value for profit, leading to the implementation of the halving mechanism.

Can we just discuss a thing that currently happen or something that could happen in the near future? you're discuss a thing that could happen after 2140, everyone who still live right now were dead.

If someone can still able to mine Bitcoin, they will get new coins, not lost it!

I'm more worried what if Bitcoin fees is stuck at $50, making people to migrate to L2 and curious how secure the bridge is.

There's a similar question like what you asked: What happens if all humans were dead?

A bitcoin that is lost cannot be recoverable and it’s gone forever. All the people that have lost their wallet private keys or seed phrase cannot have access to their funds again to send those bitcoins out. They will remain dormant there forever. Unless you have another meaning to what you mean by when all bitcoin is lost, all bitcoin cannot be lost but some of them and those are already lost now. I don’t think much will be lost even in the future since everyone knows the value of bitcoin and would keep their wallet address safe.

This was the expected one from the beginning,many people say the bitcoin will end and become the zero dollar.But still the decade was passed,the survival of the bitcoin was still existing.So no need to worry about the future of the bitcoin,because the bitcoin had the better future.The early adoption of the bitcoin will give us more returns in the bitcoin trade.Many of us from the beginning in the forum and come across the value of 3k-4k in the price of bitcoin.But we all sell the earning bitcoin at the cheapest price.Now we keep regret for the price of bitcoin around 42-43k dollars.


We have the life span of 60-80 years with the current generation and food habits.So if we discuss for the 2040-2050 is enough,if you are with the age of 30 in 2050 you will attain 57 years.So the survival of bitcoin may extend beyond the 2050 with the huge value like 400k dollars.

Simple answer to your question is, nothing will happen if all Bitcoin is mined and lost. If there was no Bitcoin left, there would be nothing to trade and the value of Bitcoin would probably go to zero.

But I'm curious to know what makes you think of this scenario knowing that the last mining of Bitcoin is something that's expected to happen around the year 2140 and for the entire Bitcoin to lost can be possible in just one way. This could happen if people forget their private keys or lose access to their wallets. How could you imagining everyone forgot their private keys including you? Not likely possible to happen.

For the benefit of possibility and in case it happens, the crypto market would likely crash because without Bitcoin, the entire industry would be in turmoil. This would affect not only people who hold crypto but also the companies that rely on the technology to operate.

What do you mean by lost? Lost in value or lost as in the bitcoin is lost because of sending in the wrong address? Well, if its about lost in value, well, let's take, for example, what happened in other coins. Of course, bitcoin will only lose its value if no more investors are coming in or no circulation is happening in the market, meaning many investors sell their bitcoin and more and more supply of bitcoin and low demands mean the price will drop. That's when the value of bitcoin will be lost, and based on the current state of bitcoin, I find hard to imagine that it will lose its value.

About the loss of bitcoin due to uncertainty, if a bitcoin wallet gets thrown or is lost, then all of bitcoin will be like that. I don't think it is possible because, remember, there is still a lot of unmined bitcoin. Even if a lot of bitcoin has been lost, it is still to be mined and circulated in the market.

Can you please clarify what you mean by Bitcoin is lost? What do you want to point out—that all 21 million supplies have been used? Is this what you want to say? Well, in that matter, nothing has really happened and nobody knows the future.

Or maybe you mean to say that the other reason for the loss is that we lost Bitcoin? Is that so? If a large amount of money is lost, it hurts our hearts emotionally.

Well it's statically as improbable as every person on earth loosing his credit card overnight, so don't worry about bitcoin loss. Lesser availability of bitcoin would mean it's value actually going up. It's more of the demand and volume of transactions that matters as said in some previous posts.

This isn't a new question but again if you can't find the other threads that deals about this question about mining all Bitcoin and then all of them lost, then some opinions are here for you. First, if all Bitcoins are mined we're not alive by that time I can guarantee you that. With all of the stress that this time of living, we're expected to live lesser than the older ones. And should we say that all Bitcoins are mined, transactions will continue and miners will still do the same thing but they'll mine to confirm transactions. If all bitcoin is lost? how it is going to happen? I have never thought of that all including all of the holders unless some catastrophic that will deplete human beings so as the network will be gone.

LOL. That is a useless unnecessary question. This is never going to happen. Even if it happens, You and I won't be there to see it. If all Bitcoin is mined and then all are lost somehow, then there will be another Bitcoin or a project like Bitcoin. According to the internet, there are 71 million Bitcoin users and there are 19.58 Million Bitcoin on supply. What makes you think that 71 million people will lose their backup of their wallet? isn't it absurd to think what is not going to happen?

First of all Bitcoin will not be lost if it's all mined mining Bitcoin is just the process of creating even more coins, one of mining's many purposes but anyway let's say that all Bitcoin was mined, well then simply enough there will be no more new Bitcoin right after that it's just gonna be a fixed supply from then one the concept of lost Bitcoin is just based on the users if one had lost access to their wallets then now they hold Bitcoin that will be no more participating in the market

What you are asking is a hypothetical situation that will never happen unless the world gets destroyed. It is not that easy to lose all Bitcoin as those who have it will know how to protect it. That does not mean that Bitcoin is not being lost, they are still and it is the responsibility of the owner to keep them safe. If someone losses it then they are in flat and they cannot blame anyone else.

In case such a hypothetical situation arises in the future as we cannot predict the future then other cryptocurrencies will dominate. I think the next big crypto according to the market cap is Ethereum and it will dominate the crypto world. The value of it will increase exponentially due it is highest number of pairing with Bitcoin.

As for forever, it is not yet known. Some users who threw their hard drives into a landfill want to organize a search by sorting the entire city landfill, and who knows, maybe they will succeed (if the city administration gives the go-ahead). :) Some of the lost coins may be returned. There have been cases where old hard drives were found or lost wallets were accessed. What is impossible now may become possible in the future. For example, thanks to new technologies that will allow to return lost forever bitcoins.

I don't think it's good, but it happened. Moreover, some bitcoin will be lost by users. For sure.

You still didn’t answer OP’s question. Therefore, I will do it. Theoretically, all bitcoin could be lost, but practically, I think this is impossible, thanks to decentralization. That is, bitcoin is present in a very large number of people (in varying quantities). Even if there is only 1 BTC left, then even then it will be possible to split it into small parts and continue to use it, but the price, I think, will already be exorbitant. If the BTC-network is ever destined to cease to exist, it will not be because all the bitcoins are lost. It definitely is.

I'm still trying to think what you mean by all the Bitcoins gone. Is it like magic magic that removes something instantly? Or maybe you mean suddenly the Bitcoin network for some reason collapsed and lost all its chains? Honestly I don't know what you mean. Maybe you mean the time when there are no more coins that can be mined? if that happens then there are some answers from other users above me. That's if you live until 2140, so I don't like to assume that something impossible will happen.

I mean as we go more into time, more and more Bitcoin will be lost. Most of the people who have Bitcoin stored in cold wallets / hardware wallets never share passwords with any of the family member and on their passing away, those Bitcoins are forever lost. The amount of Bitcoin lost in the first 10 year will be always high as people used to get 25-50 Block rewards on mining compared to now.

This question is too general, you will get a different answer from every comment made in this thread. Try making more specific questions that can add insight to you after re-reading comments from other users. Lost Bitcoins can never be recovered and the more Bitcoins lost the less supply there is. Bitcoin loss cases mostly occurred in the past when it was still trading at low prices. Now every individual who has Bitcoin will keep the Seed Phrase well because Bitcoin has a high price.

All bitcoins will never be lost you think if bitcoin is lost forever no one can recover it but no one will easily let bitcoin be lost forever everyone tries to keep their private key safe because everyone knows that bitcoin will reach its high value. For those wondering what will happen when all the bitcoins are mined the supply of bitcoins will stay the same if you google for the answer and that's partly because anecdotal research shows that bitcoin halving happens. Most likely if the halving trend continues and everything else remains unchanged bitcoin's supply limit will approach its far upper limit.

Same as you, I also feel confused by OP's statements and questions regarding this matter. This is impossible and very ambiguous. Lost how? lost value? If it loses value, it means that it's simple, people are no longer interested and don't use Bitcoin and its network anymore. Worthless and of course abandoned.

It's a situation that isn't likely to occur naturally. Some things I can think of are the collapse of the global Internet, or perhaps a huge leap in quantum computing, but I don't expect those things to happen. If nobody, for some reason, can access their BTC, Bitcoin loses all of its liquidity, and the price kind of freezes because nobody can sell and make it lower, but BTC becomes worthless because you can't buy it, can't sell it, can't do anything with it. But then, in reality, it all depends on a cause. If the cause has to do with the Internet or even electricity worldwide, it's probably the end of cryptos. If it's quantum computing, new coins with stronger encryption can appear, and it would be the end of Bitcoin (assuming that all BTC is lost), but not the end of cryptos.

Not sure where you looked that up but no there are not 13 million Bitcoin lost! You got some extremely bad information there. It's more like 2-3 million bitcoin lost, and that includes Satoshi's ~1 million bitcoin.



Anyway, to answer the question if all bitcoin were mined and lost then bitcoin would simply stop. There would be no transactions and therefore no reason to mine. Nobody would be using bitcoin nor holding bitcoin nor mining bitcoin. Of course the only way all bitcoin got lost would be if there were some sort of apocalyptic event that destroyed nearly all the world and all the people in the world, in which case nobody would be worrying about Bitcoin anyways haha

Already many bitcoins are lost through various means. When Bitcoin was almost worthless many people deliberately deleted their wallets and did not keep any kind of recovery seed. Again, despite the reluctance of many, the wallet has been lost and there is no way to recover it. Many bitcoins are lost in this way. Keep your bitcoins as safe as possible.

As Bitcoin becomes more valuable, people will naturally become more cautious. Security protocols will tighten, backups will be multiplied like rabbits, and recovery plans will be as detailed as a blueprint for a spaceship.

The future of Bitcoin, and any digital currency for that matter, is a wild card. It could become the golden ticket to a decentralized utopia or a cautionary tale of digital dust. But one thing's certain: the journey will be fascinating, and even if all the Bitcoins disappear, the lessons learned and the technology forged will be invaluable treasures in their own right.

So, let's keep exploring, keep questioning, and keep pushing the boundaries of this digital frontier. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be the ones writing the next chapter in the epic saga of Bitcoin!

If all btc will be mined, then it does not mean they will be lost, because then the 100% supply will be in the market, and we can see no mining, but I recently learned that validation is also necessary, which means these are two different things, like validators validating our transaction, and then this transaction is mined into block by miners.

And when they created new blocks, new BTC came into being, which increased the supply and area rewarded to the miners as a reward block. But when all the BTC is mined, there will be no block reward but only the transaction fee reward for the miners, and validation is still needed, as is mining.

Which means both things will never stop, therefore the mining will never stop. And BTC will not be gone, and to be honest, I'm not afraid of it because the ending date is predicted to be around 2140, and I might be dead by then hehe.

By losing mined bitcoins, do you mean losing a person's individual bitcoins loss? Or do you mean the whole 19.5 million bitcoins?
If a person loses his mined bitcoins due to his carelessness i.e. becomes a victim of hacking, then there is nothing to be done here only the hackers will benefit. On the other hand, if he lost the recover phrases, I mean if he lost the bitcoins like this, it would be a donation or a gift to all the bitcoiners in the world.
Also if you are talking about losing the whole 19.5 million bitcoins then it is never possible because these 19.5 million mined bitcoins are held by countless people. Maybe the holding amount of each person here is different, but I can say that Bitcoin will not be easily lost to such a large number of people. :P

When all Bitcoin will be mined then almost all supply (except lost or dead wallet supply)will be live in the market. We experienced that after every halving the btc price make ATH. After every year the adoption will be increase and the most possibly big institute will use btc for different purpose. One Satoshi rate may be more than any country currency. In 14 years almost 10% population of the world taking interest in btc, some countries regulated btc, ETF approval is close then you can think what achievement will btc get in 130 years.

In short when btc mining stop, supply will become greater in the market which often lead to price dumping but hence the adoption will also increase there will be no negative effect on it and any amount of btc holder will be lucky one

I think mining all bitcoins, and losing bitcoins, is an impossible thought for you. Nowadays Bitcoin has become so much popular to everyone and started using Bitcoin. In that, it is unprecedented to imagine Bitcoin disappearing. Time has passed for Bitcoin to disappear. The event that all bitcoins were lost could have happened when bitcoins had no value at all. And now the demand of Bitcoin has increased so much to people. So I don't think in case of bitcoin, such thing as disappearing can happen. But if all the bitcoins were ever lost, there would be a huge crash in crypto

Imagine all Bitcoin disappearing, like "What if all the gold in the world suddenly vanished?" The hypothetical is nearly impossible. Let's play this game. If all Bitcoin were lost, a tremendous digital asset would be destroyed.

Losing all Bitcoins would make the entire currency inaccessible. It's no longer about mining since mining creates new Bitcoins, not recovers lost ones. We're talking long-term - the last Bitcoin will be minted in 2140. But we only concentrate the now. The cryptocurrency economy would change drastically if Bitcoin disappeared. Alternative cryptocurrencies may rise as investors search for the next digital gold.

But now it gets fascinating. Scarcity creates economic value. Even though lost Bitcoin is useless if it can't be recovered, its perceived value may rise. It's an interesting theory to consider, but let's be honest: it's quite improbable. It's best to expect the unexpected in bitcoin but also understand its risks and rewards.

Imaginary things do not have value. Me imagining a ton of gold in my mind does not make me billionaire because I don't own that cold thus it has no value. The same thing will happen with Bitcoin if all the Bitcoin is lost. When you have nothing in your hand it becomes an imaginary thing. As imaginary things have no value, Bitcoin will also become worthless.

Many will lost their assets invested into Bitcoin other than that nothing will happen.

For me it's highly unlikely due to the decentralized and redundant nature of the blockchain technology that underlies Bitcoin. The system is designed to prevent the loss of all bitcoins by distributing the transaction history across a network of nodes, making it challenging for a single point of failure or loss.

But individual users can lose access to their bitcoins through various means such as forgetting private keys or passwords, hardware failures, or losing access to wallets. Such instances contribute to "lost bitcoins" but are typically not widespread enough to jeopardize the entire supply. The resilience of the blockchain system is a key factor in preventing the total loss of all bitcoins.:)

Well, everything will be unspendable as they have lost their value and all bitcoin wallets and private keys will be useless. With that, people might be leaving bitcoin for good as lost bitcoins will be hard to recover again. Recently, there have been reported 3.7 million lost bitcoins and they will probably be lost forever. That's why as long as there are still bitcoins that are left for us, then we should take advantage while they're still intact.

However, for now it's hard to assume that all bitcoins will be lost. If that happens, I guess bitcointalk will never serve its purpose anymore.

The question is just laughable. Like you, @LearnBitcoin, said as an assumption, even if it is possible, I don't see such happening. OP forgot that there are bitcoins in the possession of different people, and there is no way that everyone can just lose all the bitcoins in their possession. This discussion is just a fallacy; there is no way to even think about how such a thing can happen.

Some people have Bitcoin in their wallet and no one is aware of it; some will die, and their Bitcoin will be trapped in their wallet for ever because no one will have access to it unless they themselves, but that's not going to happen the same for Bitcoiners. Some people will still transfer their Bitcoin to their loved ones, and they will continue to be in possession of their Bitcoin.

According to the OP's assumptions, don't even think about it because it has a 0.5% chance of happening. Why? Because the only way such a thing will be possible is if everyone on earth who has Bitcoin in their possession dies and there is no way to recover their Bitcoin. That's only when such a thing can be possible, but the truth is that everyone will not die at once without passing their Bitcoin to their loved ones.

Even if we were to assume the worst scenario possible and somehow all our technology stopped working for some reason, our coins will still not be lost, as you are supposed to have your seed words written down on a piece of paper somewhere, so our coins will simply be inaccessible, and if at some point society recovered and the internet was back online then the bitcoin network could be back too and you could use your coins as usual, so the scenario you are bringing forward is incredibly unlikely to happen.

Haha, What the hell,
What kind of weird fantasy is it ?

OP please make sure to put some context in whatever you are trying to say or ask because it seems like you are not in full consciousness (not a toxic comment) just saying maybe you are feeling sleepy or just waking up. Simply if no one can access the Bitcoin now the network will be considered dead, but how's it possible that every single Bitcoin is lost?

There is only one possibility of network being dead if the entire worlds Network collapse, as the entire Internet faces some kind of war type situation which directly disconnect every ISP port. It will be also temporary Becasue sooner or later Internet will recovver.

Bitcoin won't be fully mined for over a century, so new coins will keep getting created for a long time still.  But once every last bitcoin is finally mined, say, 2140 that'll be it and  no more new ones after that.  The ones out there already can still be used and moved around though.  So could bitcoin prices kind of go either way after no more new coins come? I'd say yeah.  Up or down, depending how many folks want to buy versus sell the finite number still around. 

Bitcoin wouldn't be lost when every piece of it is gone you silly. Every coin up till now that is being used after all is primarily those that are mined in the past and is just passed down from one person to another, so the most sensible inference you can make out from this is that when all coins in the future are mined, either we get the full 21 million supply circulation or we get even more issues with how transaction fees and transactions are being taken care of in this network.

Suppose that you have 10 kids, and you gave them shirts to wear, but they have to dig it inside their drawers first, once a day. Eventually all of their shirts will be drawn out of the drawers and they would've worn every shirt in there, but they can switch shirts, pass their shirts to another sibling, or perhaps even hoard all the shirts to become the most shirt-wealthy kid in the family. Economy will still commence and carry on even when all coins in the market are mined, that I can assure you my friend, so don't worry about it.

I mean if all of it was lost it would not have any value anymore I guess since even though we know Bitcoin is a valuable asset if all of it was lost the market is going to stop already since we can't trade it anymore no one is gonna be able to buy Bitcoin anymore if all of it was lost so probably is it just going to be a cryptocurrency that worth nothing.

But today the lost Bitcoin cannot be recovered anymore so that just means that the supply of Bitcoin has decreased and can be a good thing in my opinion since low supply could easily increase the market price of Bitcoin.

To be honest if all of the Bitcoin is mined we dont really know how it is going to affect the market or the Bitcoin it self, but in theory that is when the market price of Bitcoin could potentially skyrocket since there was more Bitcoin that is going to be created anymore meaning that the Bitcoin is potentially gonna be super rare if a lot of people is gonna start to buy one. But at the same time we it is just theory since personally i dont know how the transactions, mining, network is gonna work if all of it is gonna be mine, but probably that is where it might start as a digital currency since it is the goal of Bitcoin.

That's possible. There will be an end to everything. Everyone will die once the earth and galaxy will start falling and that's the time everyone will die at the same time. Other than this, I do not see any possibility that only Bitcoiners will die. We don't know who has Bitcoin and who has to die because they have Bitcoin. This is just a stupid assumption. It's like a kid thinking, what if everyone dies in the world and I will grab all the toys from the shopping malls and eat all the chocolates? I will visit this city to that city and I will live like a king. Which is never going to happen. I would ask OP to stop being a kid and wake up, start working for your aim.

Then it will be the end of humanity, and at the same time, the end of Bitcoin or maybe the whole cryptocurrency.
Please don't take what I said seriously because nothing is true... aside from the fact that it will be the end of Bitcoin.

Come to think of it. What are the chances for this one to happen? What must happen for Bitcoin to be lost? With adoption increasing year by year, I don't think that this type of scenario can happen. I mean people aren't that dumb to lose "ALL" of their Bitcoins right? Yes, there are some Bitcoins that are unrecoverable already, but to lose all? Can't think of any scenario where all Bitcoins will be lost. Maybe if the internet will be lost forever then yes.

Don't think of it too much OP, and sometimes, a quick Google search, and a bit of common sense are all you need to answer your questions. :)

simply put, they will really lose all their assets. many people cried because of it but it was too late. In fact, I believe it is possible that some of them may even choose to commit suicide because of the large amount of assets they have saved. wise and alive people will be willing to throw away everything related to bitcoin and try to start building assets again from scratch. Even though this looks cruel, I'm sure it's a fact, several coins that are exit scams always experience the same thing, especially Bitcoin, which is the majority of crypto investors here, I can't even imagine what would happen to me if that happened.

If the total supply of Bitcoin is mined, Bitcoin will be scarce and the price will be high.
Bitcoin will not disappear as long as people's activity in the crypto market is still active. As long as it is active, Bitcoin rotation will continue to occur at any time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.
Your Bitcoin and my Bitcoin might be lost if you and I don't save the seed phrase properly.

All bitcoin can be mined but all bitcoin cannot be lost, the digital currency is not centralized, the only thing that can make all bitcoin lost is when the bitcoin network is under attac and the protocols were changed, this is something merely impossible to achieve, which make it more reliable and trusted and immutable, individuals holding bitcoin can lost theirs when they make mistakes or got hacked but everyone's bitcoin cannot get lost at the same time without the blockchain technology under attack, while being under attack is what is almost impossible to see happen.

Depends on when will it be gone, if it's gone right now then there's going to be waves of panic surging all over the world because a lot of companies that have invested billions of dollars in bitcoin will be facing bankruptcy and then they'll lose everything because they got to pay the investors and the world will never be the same because a lot of people that have invested in bitcoin will be going back to square one in their financial status unless they've been able to branch out to other avenues of investment and not just bitcoin or cryptocurrency then that return to square one is their only way, altcoins will be affected the most because the market will think that X cryptocurrency will be next and so the market will experience panic like never before.

And this will probably be talked about for over a year and then people will eventually forget about it and then we will move on, this forum will lose a lot of members but there's some that will stick and still talk about the nostalgia of the golden years of bitcoin.

Yes if all bitcoins are lost it will be lost forever and no one will be able to recover, even if it can be recovered, in my opinion I don't know how sophisticated the tools that must be used, but so far recovering lost bitcoins is impossible.

But I find it very difficult to believe that there are 13 million bitcoins missing from circulation, maybe some of them are the main holders of bitcoins that have never opened their wallets to this day, maybe for the range of 5-8 million bitcoins that are lost / lost their owners in my opinion is a natural thing, but 13 million is a lot of numbers and if you count the supply in circulation around 6 million coins?

Okay look at this

50 ______________2009 to 2012
25                           2012-2016
12.5                         2016-2020
 6.25                        2020-2024        right now in 2023 fees are running 1-4 coins a block
 3.125                       2024-2028
 1.5625                      2028-2032
 0.78125                     2032-2036
 0.390625                    2036-2040
 0.1953125                   2040-2044
 0.09765625                  2044-2048
 

The right question is will we get fees straightened out in the next 4 ½ ings.

not what happens in 2140

That can only be theoretical thought but it's not going to happen practically because the value of Bitcoin determines the amount of safety the holders would have for their holdings. When Bitcoin had little to no value in the initial days, people barely cared about their coins or took care of their wallets or private keys and stuff, that is the reason why a lot of people lost a lot of coins back in the day that cannot be recovered anymore, but that isn't going to happen anymore.

Do you think that a person holding even 1 Bitcoin will be careless with their wallet or other important stuff related to it like private keys or seed phrases? No, because it's a lot of money and one cannot afford to lose that much money. So, it's practically not going to happen considering the situation we are in.

Loool...how come every Bitcoin be lost? :P Create a wallet, make all the deposits of the world and throw the private keys into the ocean? Bitcoin will never be lost. Yes a part of is lost, because some lost the private keys in the early days or some to hardware failure. But that's all in the past now. So technically that's not possible. You can't expect that every person who owns bitcoin will have memory loss and forget the seed phrase! Nope.

Nothing would happen because in 2140 almost everyone of us won't be alive when all Bitcoin get mined. And, it's funny to even believe that all Bitcoin can get lost because that's not going to happen and that's why I don't believe that it makes sense to answer a question like this as there is no way to logically answer a question like this. Even if half of Bitcoin are lost in 100+ years then still there will be half supply of Bitcoin with us and those half would be more than enough for the people who may have Bitcoin in those years.

I am just curious: how do you see unrealistic dreams? Bitcoin isn't like a centralised organisation that would lose everything at once. It's unlikely to scam a financial services or insurance company. They would disappear overnight, and that happens always in Ponzi schemes, either online or in real life. Everyone won't lose their seed phrase overnight, and the Bitcoin blockchain won't disappear either. However, even if your dream comes true, there will be no footprint of Bitcoin, which is unlikely to happen ever. So you don't need to worry about it.

If all Bitcoin were lost, it would lead to increased scarcity, potentially driving up the value of the remaining coins. It could pose challenges for adoption and erode confidence in the cryptocurrency. However, the decentralized nature of Bitcoin makes the scenario of all Bitcoin being permanently lost highly unlikely.

Do you understand the process? Lost and Finished in the mine have different meanings. I want to ask what you mean by this question, because if bitcoin has been mined then the circulation of bitcoin will revolve around the buying and selling process on the exchange. In the end, people will hold a certain amount according to their financial capabilities. However, if you mean how much bitcoin will cost after it is mined, then no one knows for sure how much it will cost.

We are still quite optimistic about the journey of bitcoin whether it runs out or not in the mine because the strength of bitcoin is much more tested and even when economic conditions become more difficult bitcoin is the only investment that can maintain value.

It would actually be a "great" idea for a computer virus that makes people send Bitcoin from their wallets to burn addresses... like every time you open your wallet to send Bitcoin, your entire balance gets sent to an address like 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE.  :D

It still wouldn't lose all the Bitcoin, but it would certainly take a lot out of circulation.

If hackers spend time to code, they will do it for stealing bitcoin from victims' wallets to their wallets, not to burn address.

This address still receives small inputs and they are like dust attacks.
https://bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

The balance is 13.34900207 BTC that equals to $573,914.

We don't know who sent bitcoins to the address but senders are donators to all of us.

Maybe more accurately we can say that all of us here will never be able to see the end of Bitcoin being mined because we need to live for more than 120 years and that of course will be very impossible. But maybe it's true as the theory you said is that when bitcoin becomes increasingly scarce, the price will increase, especially if there are a lot of bitcoins that disappear on the market because they lose access to wallets. Currently, as far as I remember, there are more than 2 million bitcoins that are counted as lost bitcoins because they have never moved again. I've read that article but I've forgotten where I read it.

Bitcoin would be totally mined on 2140+ as far as i remember
https://www.ccn.com/education/what-happens-to-bitcoin-after-all-21-million-are-mined/

Bitcoin is lost? It would be depending on how its been described about lost.
Value? If demand becomes to zero then value would go zero as well.
Literally lost? If you do lost your keys then say goodbye into those coins, there's no way that could really be able to take it back.

This is why it would be always best that you should really be that responsible on keeping up your PK's or Phrase and not to lose it
and never ever let someone do able to know those things or you should think about its the key for your funds, so its normal
that you wont really be giving it. lol

Have you recently lost bitcoin? Or are you imagining a simulation if bitcoin does not exist and is replaced by another digital currency?

I like practical, easy and everyone accepts especially long distance, bitcoin is very representative of these functions, I imagine if people are late to recognize bitcoin it doesn't matter, but if they already choose bitcoin, of course transfers abroad will be very easy and cheap. I myself really like assets that are easy to liquidate and have good value to save.

Yes your concern may lie if the price of bitcoin becomes $0, even if you have 1 bitcoin is not left. Throughout history there has not been a moment until the dump to an unreasonable price like a few tens of dollars from tens of thousands, still in the tens of thousands of dollars even when it was so critically last year, I believe this is what makes bitcoin so attractive because it is stable and does not collapse easily. I am a crypto seeker I am not afraid of the value of bitcoin, because of its worth of digital assets and currencies, I choose my own way to use and manage bitcoin well.

My advice is to buy bitcoin first and save it, like you feed your country's fiat money and like you are not afraid of losing value due to inflation in each country.

The bitcoin was become the un erasable icon in the crypto currency field.So if any one want to inverse their money,the firat thing which was noted by the trader is bitcoin.Many traders get into the crypto currency because of their friends or family members become the rich because of the bitcoin trading in 2021 or 2017.If the trader had come in the year of 2021,they will get to know about the OP words.Since 2017 we all hope for the bitcoin will be closed into the market.But the real fact is the bitcoin usage was keep increase by the year to year in the crypto currency field.

Since the beginning of Bitcoin, until now people have lost a lot of Bitcoins, but people have not had any problem with it. The OP asked the question what would be the problem if all the bitcoins were lost? I think there will be no problem. But we may get hurt temporarily. I have heard before that FTX went bankrupt and stole billions from customers but nothing happened to the people they are alive. I have also heard about the Luna scam where billions of customer's money was wasted resulting in nothing to people. So if Bitcoin crashes too, investors and users may suffer for a while.

He only experiences fear about value when he tries to compare it with fiat. They always did to compare anything currency with local fiat.
Even if he really intended to learn and keep his mind on Bitcoin, actually he's good and fine. He must not compare or exchange Bitcoin with any value or currency so that he is calm and comfortable, Because Bitcoin price is always fluctuating, this is not good to observe all the time especially when he doesn't know the past and doesn't know what's going on. The newbies always ask this question anytime, they always worry if bitcoin that they keep become worthless and $0 even bitcoin is almost already 13 years exist.

of course it's fatal. I'm sure those who lose all their bitcoins will definitely be depressed. if you remember the case of the LUNA project in 2021, how many people were depressed, even in some news I heard they had a death rate due to suicide. I always prepare for this by not investing all assets into one container, even bitcoin. However, anything could happen. I prefer the safe method, but still invest here.

Bitcoin don't disappear if they are looked after properly. It could have fatal consequences if someone else knows the key so they can access the wallet and take away all the assets.
The loss of assets on the exchange occurs because people store them there. If assets are stored on an exchange, then the asset owner is not him but the exchange owner because they don't give us the asset key, we are only given a password to log in to the exchange.

If all assets are stored in a wallet where full control lies with us because we hold the key, it is far from fatal unless our wallet is compromised.

Lost because of the negligence of the holders, or lost because of losing in the conduct of trading here in cryptocurrency? Because you didn't specify or say what. Or maybe lost because the supply of Bitcoin has been exhausted?

Which of these three are you talking about? If it is due to negligence, we must learn from what we have done wrong and have a lesson from it so that it does not happen again, and if we lost because of trading activity, we must study or learn more about trading skills and things that should go deeper here.

And if its supply runs out, even if it is known that it is impossible, no one really knows.

Yes indeed sir, it is best to separate between fiat (for needs) and bitcoin for investment with a ratio that the OP can afford for a risk.

If the OP responds even though he is active today, paying attention behind the scenes, the thread is incomplete so that other people's answers are not moderated, there is still a chance if what the OP wants is read out fundamentally and according to the list of bitcoin planning that he may already have. Is it to temporarily store bitcoin for his business needs, does he want to start mining bitcoin, or is he afraid that the price will drop when the minner reward is distributed later during halving. I am still confused about the OP thinking that bitcoin will slowly drift away and become extinct on the basis of careful calculation or thinking casually while having coffee on the terrace of the house ;D and speculating with his mind. I assume when everyone stores bitcoin it will not necessarily be quiet and disappear and then affect the price and circulation, yes because the needs of each person are different, in other words hodl-er can sell bitcoin at any time. and for the complete disappearance of the circulating supply in the near future at this time it is impossible.

Bitcoin is one of many cryptocurrencies and the technology behind it, blockchain, is still thriving. Where everyone is criticizing the price of bitcoin going forward, you say what if all the bitcoins are lost? I can guarantee that if the world is destroyed right now, all the bitcoins will be lost. I don't know the future, what will happen is the next thing. See, life is unpredictable, so it's important to make the most of every moment. Embrace the present and make the most of the time you have. I think you lack a lot of knowledge about Bitcoin, otherwise you wouldn't have asked such a question.

Bitcoins that are lost due to forgetting the password, losing the private key, or any other reason remain recorded on the blockchain which is a decentralized ledger that stores the entire history of Bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin does not disappear, instead, Bitcoin will remain frozen in each wallet and can never be accessed again forever.
As a result of some Bitcoins being frozen in wallets due to loss of Private keys or Seed Phrases, the supply of Bitcoins in circulation is decreasing. Shortage in circulation is the deflationary nature of Bitcoin as the limited total supply is only 21 million, lost Bitcoins will gradually reduce the amount available.

I guess you are right we are not probably going to see that end but it is for sure an important detail in the future right, for sure it is going to have a big impact on the community but we just do not know yet if all of our theories is really gonna happen. The network speed could also be a thing in the future because we just dont know if it can really support the miners since the network or Bitcoin reward was already all mine for sure the miner's profit is just gonna rely on the transactions of the sender that just means it is going to be cut on there since but I guess it is still going to be fine if the market value of Bitcoin already skyrocketed.

This lost Bitcoins was actually a good thing if we are going to talk about the market value of Bitcoin since it is limiting the supply of it, the only downside is if it happened to you. But for sure it is not going to be the end of Bitcoin since there are a lot of upgrades or changes that could happen that is going to occur even on blockchain technology, I mean technology just keeps on evolving every day right so we dont know what kind of technology we have when that day comes.

Once lost, everything will not be recovered anymore. Although bitcoins will not totally disappear since everything is recorded in the ledger, but having no private keys to access them literally means that they're lost forever and will not be on our own possession anymore. Hence, keeping our private keys safely and privately is always a must. Once you have disclosed it, that means you let other people to own it and navigate your own investment. And we don't want to experience it on our owned hard-earned bitcoin investment.

Being knowledgeable on bitcoin is highly essential. While its security is at risk when you fail to secure its safety, but with bitcoin knowledge, you'll be more capable to maintain its privacy and security despite of the hackers that are on hunt on stealing bitcoin from other possessions.

This whole bitcoin thing is pretty fascinating when you think about it.  I mean, there's only ever gonna be 21 million of them, so it's not like the government can just print more whenever they feel like it. 

As more and more coins get lost over the years, I guess the total supply goes down.  And if people still want bitcoins that could drive the price up.  Then again, maybe people stop caring as much over time and the demand goes away.  Who really knows how far it could go?

I think the price will keep going up and down like it always does.  But if adoption spreads more, maybe we see it hit crazy highs down the road.  Or not! Trying to predict this stuff seems kinda pointless. 

It's going to take a long time for all the bitcoin to be mined. And even today, it's hard to find anybody today who hasn't heard about crypto currencies before. So many different crypto coins have been around for many years and been in the newspapers, I would say most people know a crypto investor today. In 50 years I think it will be impossible to find anybody that hasnt heard about cryptos and probably most people will use it regularly. Among my family and friends are mostly open people who are not against cryptos. Only my mother and grandmother are against it, without understanding it. They never used online banking, so they are against everything new that involves money and isn't cash. There two main arguments against something new is either it's only for rich people, or it's a scam. Both of these arguments are hard to destroy if the person isn't willing to learn more about the subject. But over time everybody is going to change their mind, because cryptos are not going to disappear. Which is why I believe it's impossible for all the bitcoins to be lost. Investors are going to take good care of their keys and will not abandon them.

First of all, it is impossible. Because Bitcoin is not just for one user. That it can be lost at any time. Bitcoin is held by about 219 million (As of December 2022) people. So it is unlikely to ever lose one.
Now let's assume, as you say, all the bitcoins are lost. Then maybe many will suffer a great loss. But maybe a new currency like Bitcoin will come. Which people may or may not accept easily.

What do you mean if all bitcoin is mined and lost, only those bitcoin which the owners don’t have access to the wallet again are considered lost and yet they are not lost forever they can still be recovered if the owner of the wallet can regain access to it.

It’s not possible for all the bitcoin to be lose all at ones that can’t happen because many people care about their wallet protection more than it was back then when bitcoin was not valued up to the way it is now, so nothing like such nature will happen.

You mean when mining ends? there by the year 2140? miners will only receive transaction fees as a reward. They will no longer receive any more bitcoins mined.

By the year 2032, if I'm not mistaken, each block will reward less than 1 whole BTC, now it's possible to buy it cheap, even though it has appreciated a lot in recent years.

if 21 million bitcoins have been mined, that means there will be scarcity in the market, and increasing demand from the market will increase the value of bitcoin significantly.

and what do you mean about if all bitcoins are lost? this will not be possible because of the many bitcoin holders they will guard their bitcoins so that it will not be lost. but there are bitcoin assets that may be lost either because the owner has died or the owner no longer has access to them, so they can no longer be accessed and transacted.

After they are all mined,
From the perspective of users - nothing really changes.
From the perspective of miners - they no longer get the block subsidy, they only get the transaction fee.

I dont how that is even possible, I mean lost to whom? Bitcoin is distributed to so many wallets in the world, how can it feasible be "lost"? From a single wallet's perspective, losing their bitcoin means someone stealing it, in which case it is obviously not recoverable from the victim's side.

I guess that at that point bitcoin would not exist anymore, that's it. You are mentioning bitcoin but it's the same with anything else: what happens if we extract all the oil available on our planet? It's done, no more oil. What happens if we kill all the elephants? No more elephants. And so on. Anyway a scenario like the one you are mentioning is extremely unluckily to happen, why would people choose to deliberately get rid of something that has a high value?

If all bitcoins were mined, of course bitcoins would become a valuable asset because the supply of bitcoins is limited. especially if what the op means is that a small part of the bitcoin was lost because he forgot the password or because the wallet couldn't be accessed, but what is certain is that even though the bitcoin can't be accessed, it still can't be accessed. That doesn't mean the bitcoins are lost, but they are still stored on the ledger, they just can't be accessed. but this also does not increase or decrease the actual supply of bitcoin.

Bitcoin will not disappear completely because there are certainly many people who hold bitcoin well and correctly. thus keeping the assets safe even for a long time. Even if bitcoin loses value, if we continue to hold it and not sell it, then bitcoin is still there, not lost.

LOLs if you can actually find a solution to the lost bitcon maybe you might even own %50 of it. The greatest invention that will shake the crypto space is providing a solution to lost Bitcoin which is either through lost seed phrase or which is send to a wrong address. But I doubt that it can be possible because if innovation is made people's wallet will be at risk the more because whatever that can recover a lost Bitcoin in lost wallet due to key misplacment can also be use to hack people wallet.

13 million Bitcoin is quite a lot though. I am really surprised if it is true. Leaves me thinking what will happen if even half of it is recovered. I think it’ll be a dump because most people will sell it off to solves financial challenges or invest in other things. 100 Bitcoins is too much, 1 Bitcoin is just okay for me.

And OP, it isn’t possible for all Bitcoin to suddenly be lost. Not even gradually, considering that its value is too much to be played with.

It isn't true. I don't remember right now where there is a reasonable number calculated and published about the total lost Bitcoin, but it is far from the 13 million mentioned here. When you search for that number of google, what mostly pops up is something in the middle single-digit millions. Maybe something between 4-6 million although I think it is still not solved to a degree that it could be said with certainty that we are talking about millions here.

Some of the reports of these guys who threw away hard drives suggest that some of them alone supposedly threw away tens of thousands. I would assume this did indeed happen a couple of times.

But not all Bitcoin will ever be lost in the sense that people lost their PKs. I think there would be a highly positively correlated scarcity - security ratio. The less Bitcoin there are, the higher the price if all things are equal and the higher and stronger all the security requirements.

All bitcoin that is lost are considered unrecoverable anymore. The reason is your bitcoin remains only as your possession if you can access it with your private keys but if someone is now accessing it, and you have no control over your coins anymore, then considered it as lost and will never be yours anymore.

Bitcoin is a highly valuable asset so we need to assure it's security from all hackers and stealers. Otherwise, if we fall on it, then prepare yourself since your bitcoin will now be someone elses possession.

Aha! Because I thought as much that 13 Million is too much. But even with the 4-6 million you speak of, I still think that the amount is still a lot if it were to come back to circulation. May not be a big dump but price would definitely be impacted. For those who threw away their hard drives I can’t imagine how they feel right now seeing that they throw away money that would have changed their financial status for generations.

It's more like 2-3 million, not 4-6 million. And the point of lost Bitcoin is that they are lost, and irretrievable, so would not ever be coming back on the market. So, likely 10% of total bitcoin are lost, which is fine. That doesn't cause any problems, just like lots of gold being lost at sea over the centuries didn't cause a problem for gold usage.

Nothing will happen and secondly have you asked yourself that all the bitcoin you expected to lost where do you think that all the bitcoin will go that is not traceable,  and secondly you have to understand that all the bitcoin can never be lost same time even though the technology of blockchain is very weak to the level we have happen to see a sudden disappearance of bitcoin it will be traceable because is a general issues,  the situation bitcoin can sudden disappear is when hackers attack your wallet address through you depositing in wrong address or exposing your seed phrase you can experience a sudden disappearance of your bitcoin but ordinarily if it happens to general its a blockchain issue and it can be traceable

In the past when the price of Bitcoin was very low, Bitcoin was worthless to investors. Many have died with bitcoin wallets, hardware wallets have been thrown into the ocean, all these bitcoins will never be recovered. The supply however is low and the price of these bitcoins will continue to rise as lost bitcoins are not recovered. 3-4%  of the original Bitcoin lost.

That is right, during the early days. Many didn't thought that Bitcoin could be this big and far.

Those people have never thought of it so, they feel that it was just totally fine to lost them and remove their interest on it.

But years later, we have seen many of them regret their actions and even wanting to dig on the sanitary fill to find their old hard drives that contains sums of BTCs there.

It is possible to test that scenario. First, mine all coins in regtest into OP_TRUE. Then, start spending them, and claiming zero reward. And then, it is possible to end up with a single UTXO with zero satoshis, on some block number. What then?

Well, then Proof of Work is still there. Which means, coins with zero amount can still be created, and the Script will still work as intended. Which means, the only thing that would be disabled, would be related to amounts. Which means, the system will no longer function as P2P Cash, but will become just a "P2P Contract Platform".

But it is very unlikely. As long as a single satoshi is spendable, it can be divided into smaller parts, by applying multisig on that. Which means, 2-of-2 multisig on a single satoshi, could allow splitting it in half, 3-of-3 multisig could allow taking one-third on that, and so on. And also, the proportions could be splitted arbitrarily, and it would be a valid soft-fork.

Also, it is quite unlikely to burn the latest spendable satoshi, because miners will have a huge incentive to do a chain reorganization, to make that last coin spendable again. Another thing is that burning coins can be used as a way to teleport them from one chain to another. Which means, that it is possible to burn all coins on BTCv1, and claim them back on BTCv2, if Proof of Burn would be a part of the new consensus.

I don't know for sure the kind of answer your expect to get from this question because it's a question that obviously answers itself, there was once upon a time in the human existence when there was no Bitcoin in existence and people did lived well and were good same will happen if Bitcoin is gone after it's existence. It's not in doubts how Bitcoin has helped some lives and aswell improved people's standard of living but then it still doesn't mean if it's not there people wouldn't look for alternatives.

But then I would like to take you OP this question what is it that will make all Bitcoin to be lost just like that, why did you think such can happen and is the possibilities you see that influenced such taught in you.

According to an article by Blockchain Council, all 21 million of Bitcoins will be mined by the year 2140. almost 120 years from now. Bitcoin supply will be completed and then miners will only earn money by confirming transactions. and earn fee from the fees.

This article is very interesting you can read it here: https://www.blockchain-council.org/cryptocurrency/how-many-bitcoins-are-left

Now for your second question. I don't think there is any point in thinking about that. because that's not realistic. I don't think all bitcoins will be lost. there will always be Bitcoin in circulation. it will just get harder to get it because it's price may increase so much with time.

No new bitcoins will be added after total Bitcoin coin mining which was designed by its creator Satoshi Nakamoto since the invention of Bitcoin. Currently a miner receives BTC and transaction fees as block reward. When all bitcoins are mined the miners will receive the transaction fee as their reward. But it's still a long time before all bitcoins are mined. It is estimated that more than 1 century is needed to mine all the Bitcoins.

In 2140 all Bitcoin mining will probably end. If miners can make profit then they must continue their activities. So it is pointless to think that Bitcoin will crash. As long as there is demand for Bitcoin, there will be value for Bitcoin. Bitcoin will have no value when demand runs out. As people grow, everyone will try to keep a very small amount of Bitcoin under their control. The value of Bitcoin today will multiply its demand in the next 1 decade so there is no chance of Bitcoin being destroyed or lost.

I do not understand why people think such useless things that have no head or foot and it is just a waste of time if we just keep on thinking what will happen if all the Bitcoin is lost and all such stuff ?
Bitcoin is there for the last 10 years and nothing has happened to Bitcoin credibility so why people are still worried and keep on asking such things ?
I mean seriously don't have any other important thing to think about or if they have nothing to think about they can at least think of all they can accommodate bitcoins and invest in bitcoins other than thinking of this useless thoughts.

It is really possible that all Bitcoins will be lost most specially if nuclear war will happen, the much more devastating EMP wars, the solar flare situation becomes worst or an asteriod will hit our planet because yeah we'll never know. And with that situation I think it will surely be lost forever. If Bitcoin is all mined, maybe price will go high or low depending on the situation.

- if all bitcoins are mined;
i'm sure there won't be a significant impact here, many say the rewards miners receive come from bitcoins that haven't been mined, but if all the bitcoins are successfully mined, the price will be stuck at the last price bitcoin was at and the miners will still be able to operate, however with other methods cmiiw

- if all bitcoins are lost;
i don't know what exactly will happen next to bitcoin if all of it is lost, but what comes to my mind is that if all of the bitcoin is really lost then bitcoin will become a dead asset and cannot be used at all for transactions ^{(this is just my guess, impossible to experience this because bitcoin will continue to exist even if everything is mined)}

You've answered the second question well - I agree with some of the statements, but you haven't answered the first question correctly. If all bitcoin are mined – then miners will likely not get rewards from each block as before, but they will only earn bitcoin from user transaction fees. That's what's happening if I understand it correctly - but the price of bitcoin likely won't fluctuate as much as it does now.

Even if we assume that all Bitcoin was lost and only a fraction remains, let's say 1 Bitcoin, then since it is rare, then its price will be astronomical and we will talk about fractions of it to be worthy, maybe there will be micro-satoshi or something like that.
The worst scenario is to have a hard fork and to get a recovery from months or years before the losses so there will be a possibility of retrieval.
Anyway this is very hypothetical and it will not happen in the current century at least.

Lost means that if it can't recover then it will definitely become worthless. And if Bitcoin starts to constantly disappear from the total supply then of course Bitcoin will slowly increase in demand and the price will likely increase a lot.
However, since Bitcoin is decentralized and there is no way to increase the supply like paper money, the more Bitcoins are lost from the supply, the more pressure there is on the amount of Bitcoins left.

If there is no Bitcoin left to use then there will be no market for it.  It is simple that when there is no supply no matter how huge the demand is, the market will die.


Bitcoin developers can alter the total number of Bitcoins if they want to but due to the consensus system, this kind of action may probably not materialize unless they all agree to change the number of total coins which can possibly result in a hard fork.  Remember Bitcoin is only a program that can be altered anytime the only problem is the implementation since it has to pass through the consensus system.

How is this even possible? Bitcoin all mined, and at the same time all lost? Well, I have read enough replies from people and I wonder why they even bother themselves with many of the suggestions since this is what will never be possible, it can't happen. Who stole them and where did they store them? For what reason and value did they steal them when they wouldn't be able to spend them?

Bitcoin is not a kangaroo blockchain and system where there will not be an explanation for what happens. Not this time what people thought was anonymous is no longer anonymous. The worst that could happen is for a bad news break to the extent that people do not want to deal with Bitcoin again. By this, the value will fall so much, but even at that, some people will still be adamant and will not sell their coin and continue to hold it.

And who knows, there could be a shift in the event and the coin gains back. Which will be a second chance for those who hold it to gain more. I do not see anything that can even cause total disappearance here. Also, on the second thought, can Bitcoin be 100% mined? I doubt that as there will always be divisions of mining and will go on like that unless the whole system crashes, which I don't see feasible for now.

There would undoubtedly be significant effects for miners and investors alike if all of bitcoin were lost, and they might suffer financial losses. It is somewhat unlikely that Bitcoin will completely vanish, though, and this is only a highly unreal case. It seems impossible that when we wake up one day, all of our bitcoin will have vanished for no apparent cause, given its significant role in business and its rise to importance in multiple countries. I mean, some bitcoin accounts have been lost, but it's not possible to say that all "bitcoin accounts" would vanish.
 

op I think the popularity of Bitcoin has increased so much day by day especially people are working with more interest in Bitcoin now so I think Bitcoin will not end forever so easily. Generally Bitcoin is not like the paper money we are used to Bitcoin is a coin so it is not possible to expire forever or create many at once. None of us who work on Bitcoin want Bitcoin to end forever or become depleted, everyone will try to hold on to Bitcoin through their own efforts.

It's possible that all BTC can be mined but I don't think all will be lost like we send it to an unknown address that doesn't exist and BTC can't be recovered anymore. Why would someone do that? For what purpose? Keep in mind that the reason why we buy BTC and HODL is to earn a big profit, but that act we said earlier is just an opposite of it.

BTC is only just a currency. It's not the same as anything. And it's not like an ordinary currency, but it is decentralized and has a limited supply. BTC can keep on circulating but I don't think it's possible for an oil to do that once it was already used. Luckily there are lots of sources of it, so it won't ran out easily.

I believe it's possible in theory, but in all probability is very, very unlikely.

In theory if all BTC is lost, then it's all lost, correct?

I don't know why people usually get worried about somethings that seems to be impossible or that might happen to a generation that we won't witness. There are so many things happening around bitcoin right now that you should probably be concerned about than an imagination that won't be implemented.

I have probably said this before ( Wake up from that dream mate) go get serious with other things.

Since it is unrecoverable then surely it will gone forever but humanity will remain and also this
will surely affect the whole crypto system but since there are so many altcoin in existing and people knows its
value and function then maybe we will still have crypto world with new image and new forms .
correct it will lost forever , and we can forget about bitcoin than time and maybe look for another
currency to use as how we wanted to.

I agree with you, I also don't understand why so many people like to think about scenarios that are almost impossible to happen in the near future or within our generation. While many other people are spending their time accumulating bitcoins and they are making a lot of profit from it, we are spending our time doubting and worrying about meaningless things. It was really just a waste of our time.

Bitcoin has and continues to become the world's trend and focus, so instead of continuing to doubt, we should take advantage of this unique opportunity to improve our lives. Doubt and worry never help us have a better life.

How to lose all bitcoins at once where only you can control your bitcoins. Bitcoin is completely decentralized so no one can control it. You can control as much as you bought or mined and own as much as you own. So I don't see any chance that all bitcoins can be lost at once. If you ask such questions knowing all this, then you are the biggest fool. People trust Bitcoin so much and invest in Bitcoins with confidence because there is no such thing as a Bitcoin Scam or all the Bitcoins disappearing all at once.

It is the human nature to over think and make up scenarios in their mind and speculate on them. We should indeed focus on things in life and keep our mental trauma to a bare minimum. Bitcoin is just one part of our daily lives and collecting it should be our objective, it is not something to lose sleep over, after all its money in another form, you will not be taking it to the grave with you.

Bitcoin users should spend more time with friends and family, ease out their minds before coming back to crypto.

OP's questions were out of context, I hope they got what they wanted to know. Keeping your coins secure is important and no one can make bitcoin "lose" like that.

It is vain to think or imagine things that is or are not possible, in a scale of zero to ten, the chances that all Bitcoin will ever be lost will always remain at zero.

And to answer you more appropriately, what will happen if all is lost is that, I will become the only bitcoin hodler and will sell one satoshi for $100,000 each, this is because if every one else is losing their bitcoin, I will never lose mine  ;D.

On a more serious note, like I said before, there will always be 0.00000000 percent chances of all Bitcoin ever being lost, so, it is vain to imagine and or, discuss what would happen if this happens.

You will have to explain how do you think that all the bitcoin will get lost all of a sudden?

Many holders have lost their keys, making their coins inaccessible unless they find them again. More will do it in the future. Those are lost coins. It's highly unlikely that every single bitcoin owner will lose their keys one day. Perhaps you think a malicious future update could render all keys useless, but if we take into account how difficult it is to make changes to the protocol that everyone will agree on, that's pretty much impossible. Finally, even if all of the bitcoin got hacked and stolen, we still can't say it's lost. The ownership, changed and those possessing the new keys have access to it. That would pretty much signal the death of Bitcoin, though. 

Once lost, meaning that won’t be in your possession anymore, and you won’t own the keys anymore so accessing will never be possible anymore. Although even if it’s still in your possession, but the fact that you have lost already its private keys, then it will never be recover anymore.

This is why security of our coins should be highly prioritized, that is keeping our seed phrases in a safe place without disclosing it to anyone. Otherwise, all your hard-earned coins will be gone in a waste without giving yourself the chance to enjoy its profits.

You don't understand, the OP means if all the 21 million Bitcoin are mined and by God knows what unfortunate event all got lost (the 21 million Bitcoin got lost), what would happen. From my perspective I'll say we forget that Bitcoin ever existed and we go on with our life's but that's so unlikely to happen because Bitcoin isn't centralized just as you have highlighted and we can't lose all the Bitcoin all at the same time unless something was to happen that all the 21 million Bitcoin that was created get destroys through some kill switch and we don't have anything called Bitcoin anymore but that too is unlikely to happen.

Nobody controls Bitcoin so they can't just make all the Bitcoin to go missing without any trace. Bitcoin is the blueprint of the industry and without it there will be no cryptocurrency industry, if satoshi was alive and all the Bitcoin was to go out of existence, he'll have something to do about the situation to win back the trust of the community and they'll back him.

Maybe a fork could happen and we get new Bitcoin with the same features and values and it's left for the communication to decide if they'll still trust satoshi or not because for anything to be able to remove all the current Bitcoin from existence, then it has to be beyond human and normal computer capacity.

Bitcoin has been created with a specific amount of total supply in which no additional Bitcoin is adding in the amount, but rather it get reduction in many ways, mostly in the hands of early Bitcoin investors has lost their private key details, because of the cheap price rate as of then and Also some people Lost their Bitcoin through storage device lose without no back up. More over death can also cost Lost of Bitcoin in wallet, because is a private digital assets, that not everyone have to know about it.

Sometimes, I don’t wish to venture into imagining the impossible because this my friend is an impossible.
All Bitcoin been mined and lost… just how would that come to be? Maybe you think the government would eventually becomes so obsessed with the conspiracy theory of having to buy all the Bitcoins little by little, store them all in a wallet and dish the private key or seed phrase to it…
Ain’t no way that would be happening.

If this be one means to satisfy your phobia on either Bitcoin would be around to serve as a currency of the future, well, no one could give you that assurance. Understand that it isn’t risk free, don’t be sacred to dive in with a plan and hope your ability to take calculated risk rewards you.