Bitcoin Forum

You ever wonder how many bitcoins are in the wallets of people that have since passed away? Millions of dollars floating around out there.

unlike fiat, there are no central organisations looking to 'take the cash'. End result being less BTC on the open market and therefore price rises

nope, but did you ever wonder how many bitcoins are NOT in wallets of people that wonder where bitcoins are. purely because they have not yet invested more then 2 weeks wages into bitcoin and start to think they need to find other ways to get coin without buying it.

having an illness myself and knowing others also sick/dying. i do find it funny how many people without much money suddenly become interested in mine and other ill peoples finances....

maybe its time people concentrate on their own wealth and how to lawfully get it through hard work. and not worry about other peoples wealth and how to grab it after their death.. like vultures.

there were many many threads about dead man switches or sweeping wallets of dead people to redistribute the wealth to the community. and i for one think that people need to concentrate on their own wealth and not waste time thinking about others.. especially thinking that its just floating around where strangers could or should get some access to it.

I'm sorry, i missed in my OP where i said "strangers could or should get some access to it." ? I'm only 23 and have made over 50k this year from trading altcoins.

I was merely speculating number wise, how much is floating around in wallets no longer able to be accessed, idk just a thought i had today.

cunt

It's a fair thought but you could also think about cash, probably with the same topic.  Like you ever see all those ads about "we have your unclaimed money!"  and I'm sure people have buried money in places, or tore up money by accident.  Old people with bank accounts and they die and have no one who claims it, etc.

That reminds of me this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2697558/Mummified-corpse-Detroit-garage-FIVE-years-death-finally-confirmed-single-Chrysler-contractor-49-family-thought-moved-Germany.html

Not bitcoin related, but could happen if we ever have bitcoins paying our bills on autopay.

This question makes me think that what happens when most bitcoins are mined out, and gradually less and less bitcoin exist in the world because some people lost their private key when they pass away or by some other reasons.

Yeah well, it does happen. It also happens with coins that have been lost and which are located in wallets no one has the key to anymore. It kind of gets priced in in the Bitcoin price. It's just another factor to the general deflation of Bitcoin

Surely there is lots of good bitcoin money unreachable.

See for example:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=713355.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=713355.0)

How much is really unreachable, or just in hads of hodlers, or just waiting to people to find the private keys?

We can only guess.

But the fact bitcoin is finite gives finitude to the coin, since sooner or later most of the coins will be lost and bitcoin may not be practical, but surely we won't see that in our life span

Im sure there are millions of BTC lost in space, never to be recovered. People lose keys, people die, hard drives crash and people lose wallets... all the orig BTC that people prob just threw away when it was only worth pennies.

I told my mom where to find information if i ever pass away.  I think everyone should find someone they trust and do the same.  That said, I still hold most the info on my person, so she can't just go snooping ;)

Same thing here. I've told my girlfriend and bestfriend about my Blockchain account in case something happens to me so that they could share it with my family and them :)

Why do you think about strangers money?

Pretty soon (if not already happening for larger holders), Cryptos are going to need to become part of people's trust accounts.   People need to be leaving log in passwords and instructions to loved ones in case something were to happen to them.   It would be a shame for a family member not to get the BTC of someone who passes away...

May be you right, but what will be with physical coins, cryptocurrency can't to pay some think, it useless, but in any cases it would be better then physical currences.

I feel it is my responsibility to ensure my wife can access all my wealth if/when I die. I have taken steps to enable her to do so. It makes me feel good while I am still alive. After I'm dead I wont care.

I just wonder. If we can do something like that: imagine someone died, left behind a wallet with a lot of btc. There is no way for anyone to claim that BTC ever. And now, if we can implement feature if that BTC he left  were say... did not touch by anyone for like 100 years will be back to the root automatically? Basically if no one claims BTC for certain amount of time they are returned and you will be able to mine them or something again, is that viable?

It's still a little early for that since bitcoin is from 2009
However when I consider the Bitcoins lost by various methods since it does make me wonder how many are long gone.
Examples like the Landfill bitcoins etc.

Even if they were able to claim, unless the passwords and 2fA are left with instructions, the inheritor will never be able to even log in to certain wallets

i guess that's one of the benefits of having your funds an ETF. buy your shares and be worry-free.

you show strange attention to money strangers