Bitcoin Forum

If we think about a very long term for Bitcoin. Over time, if we accumulate all the bitcoin lost by people who lost their wallet. There will be no more bitcoin in circulation. I think it would be a good idea to force people to spend their bitcoin in, let's say 25-30 years. If not spent, the bitcoins will be spread in the community. This would also prevent super maniac savers who would die with their super saving of bitcoin.

... EVERY FUCKING WEEK!

lol, the first of these threads I saw was full of complaints about it popping up every week, I thought it was an exaggeration... I was wrong.

i wonder if perhaps a year ago some smartass programmed a "What about the Bitcoin Lost" bot, and has it on a weekly timer.

Sorry I didn't know that was a topic that was overused. I'm new here. It's only prove that this mater is concerning a lot a people I guess...

this is something alot of people have thought about, and it might just happen
but i dont think we would force anyone to spend the coins, but simply move them to a new address.
all coins left behind on old addresses would be made available for mining again.
but this is something we can worry about in 20 years...

still no...

coins are divisible, no need to ever worry about lost coins, better yet they will mean your current coins are a bigger slice of the pie

well mining lost coins 20 years from now could be beneficial, it would add more intensive for miners to keep the hash rate high

I have a feeling this will become a hot issue and something for the community to vote on in 20-30 years

you're right... it's true that it does concern a lot of people.

but don't forget that a lot of people were once very concerned about falling off the edge of the earth if they sailed too far out to sea.

I don't think they would change the rules now let alone when bitcoin is 20-30 years older
inaccessible for n years doesn't mean lost but would look like it and i would be pissed if i got out of jail/woke up from a coma/got returned to earth and my savings were gone because of some vote i never heard of
like these threads always end up on, go and make an altcoin that takes people coins off them  and see if its gets used.

Right, so the answer to this has already been stated:  Bitcoins are almost infinitely-divisible.  Lost coins simply increase the value of existing coins.

I also think that once bitcoins become more valuable, people will be more cautious to lose them.

In previous threads on the same subject it was concluded by many that the fear of deflation was what people were really worried about. Others also made the case that any kind of system that revoked possession of coins under ANY circumstances would utterly destroy confidence in the value of the currency.

Bitcoin's problem of lost coins is a non-problem, lost coins only affects those that lose them. For everyone else it benefits them, it makes the rest of the held coins more scarce, and since the divisibility of bitcoins can be made utterly tiny we will never "run out" of coins. For perspective in wikipedia the value of the world economy is something like 60 trillion. If 1 satoshi were to deflate to the value of 1 US penny, Bitcoin could solely accommodate 20 trillion of the 60 trillion dollar world economy. Not even the US can boast that kind of share. Additionally others have said the protocol could be modified slightly to add more decimals if needed. Seriously, there's nothing to worry about.

Right..  Even today if I drop a few pennies in the gutter I might not pick them up; however if it were a gold or silver coin you canbet your ass I would protect it more so I would have never dropped it in the firsT place.

NO

Go elsewhere to try to steal our money.

In case it is not clear: NO

And NO, it is NOT a good idea, it is a retarded idea.

Everyone who signed on to the Bitcoin protocol did so under full knowledge of the fact that the coins belong to the owner of the private key, forever.

Even if it were remotely probable for this to be implemented (which it is not), any changes in this would completely break the trust of the bitcoin user base.

If you really want money that has an expiration date on it, the code is out there. You can start a new self-destructing currency at any time.

Personally, I hope some idiot loses 10 million or so coins. Every other bitcoin holder, including you, would benefit.

The catch is this: you will never know if coins actually get lost.

We don't know the rate of lost coins but losing them will decrease the supply of coins, leading to price increases. Increasing price will lead to the average person having less coins than before. As time goes on the absolute number of coins lost just gets smaller and smaller. It can never get ahead of the curve because the value of bitcoins will simply increase and the currency is basically infinitely divisible.

It's important to understand that it's actually possible to run the entire world economy with just 1 single bitcoin, although we would need to add a few more decimals.

+1

If you want to change the rules, make your own currency and try to get it to catch on. It might surprise you how quickly you'll learn why exactly Bitcoin is already so relatively popular valued at $6.5 a pop atm as it is.

The amount of coins and the total amount is arbitrary, and should not be held against the value.

Even if the Feds deleted the keys of 20,999,999 Bitcoins, that 1 BTC left can be split between one hundred million people (8 decimal points) and the core dev can increase that.

-Charlie

I was just Rick rolled by bitcoins :/

You felt aim by my "super maniac savers" or what? Nothing about stealing any money here.

you want to steal coins off people that are
in jail for N years
in a coma for N years
Otherwise indisposed for N years

Wow, people feel very strongly about this. Even if it's a bad idea, I don't see why we don't explain why that is so, instead of yelling. As for me, I agree with what was mentioned above (hidden in the noise) - bitcoins are divisible to 8 decimals, so there is plenty of room to accommodate deflation. Also, the rate of loss is relatively low. Finally, expiring coins would create more problems than it solves.

Already done thousands of time.

Please use the Search function the next time.

I disagree with the strongly emotional reactions here. This is not necessarily a bad idea. It could be an interesting experiment.

It just isn't Bitcoin.

Obviously, a "hard fork" change can change anything (more precision, limited coin age, ...), but it requires a exceedingly high degree of consensus to pull off, as (almost) everyone needs to upgrade (not just miners). If the precision becomes a problem one day, a consensus for a change that increases it may be viable.

I don't believe a change such as this would ever be accepted by nearly-everyone, as it changes the philosophy behind the system.

Nice then go and make Altcoin-2
Then please move the thread to the Alternative Currencies forum since it's no more Bitcoin

the problem is how to confirm the number of bitcoin lost?

You can't

That's why the idea is retarded

I said 25-30 years but it could also be 50 to 100 years. If you haven't spend your bitcoin after 100 years you would never do anyway and a bitcoin that is not spent is a bitcoin useless. Forcing people to spend a bit their bitcoin will only ease merchants to grow up and strengthen up the currency. It will also encourage the spread of the bitcoin worldwide.

This +1.
How would you 'recycle' the gold sunk below the Marina Trench or buried inconspicuously behind my lawn? If you can revoke bitcoins as you see fit, then Bitcoin is no different from fiat.

The BTC protocol can just be updated to allow more decimals.

I have yet to hear anyone disagree to this easy solution.


Decimals, new cryptographic standard and swarm clients - basically every problem that might ail BTC in some 100 years has been theoretically solved. Rest easy.
(I was concerned myself about these, so I collected all the answers)

If you think making coins in long term savings disappear adds value then go make your own chain with that 'feature' to show it.

In addition to adding more decimal places we can also begin trading in smaller units. This will avoid the hassle of having to deal with everyday prices having too many zeros after the decimal point.

Example, extend the protocol to allow for an additional 6 decimal places of precision. At the same time begin trading in units of microBTC, where 1 microBTC = 0.000001 BTC.

Fiat currencies have done the reverse after experiencing periods of high inflation.

No need to confiscate dormant coins.

No.

Stop trying to find fail solutions to an INEXISTENT problem