Bitcoin Forum

As we know if you lose or forgot or if you wont remember you pasword and some kind of security features in bitcoin wallet you cant open your bitcoin wallet and consider that bitcoin is lost forever.

I was hoping that someday in the future bitcoin developers can find a way to recover this lost bitcoins just like old treasure like gold and old coins today. I was hoping that someone can find a way take this treasure bitcoins in there wallet and put back to market again someday. Because if no one can take that bitcoin treasure and put it back to the market bitcoin cerculation suppy will slowly lose forever.

That's not needed. The fact that some bitcoins are lost decreases supply, thereby increasing the value of non-lost bitcoins. Bitcoin is highly divisible, so it's unlikely that its supply will decrease to the point where bitcoins would no longer be useful.

Also, it would be very difficult to determine which specific bitcoin UTXOs should be considered lost. If you obtained bitcoins several years ago and are holding them, would you like some fork trying to take them away from you?

First of all there's no way to differentiate the accessible wallets that are not accessed by the owner for very long time from the wallets that are not accessible, this would not be feasible from start.
There's no difference from "breaking" a wallet that's accessible and has an owner from the case the wallet is not accessible.
So all in all, this means theft, no matter how you take it.

Now, Bitcoin is safe against theft by design. A transaction can be made only if it's signed with the private key of the owner wallet. Period.
If the developers would do what you want, it would mean to alter the strength of Bitcoin and all the wallets, including yours or mine, will become vulnerable.
Do you really want that??

I think you have a point because Bitcoin has a fixed amount in circulation, is about 20,000,000 in all and about 15,000,000 in circulation and if wallets keep losing bitcoin it is holding because of loss of password and username which has no recovering remedy for now will eventually reduce the amount of bitcoin whether in circulation or the total quantity available. So some thing should be done about recovering lost log in details.

Yes, recovering bitcoins is impossible. It all depends to the private key in order to have access to bitcoin wallets and if it happens that your private key got lost/deleted, we'll be saying goodbye to our precious bitcoins. It would be very stressful and depressing to owners if they lost hundreds, thousands or even millions of bitcoins. But I think, this features  of bitcoin wallet is somehow helpful in some ways. If it happens that you lost your bitcoins, you can assure that no one can break through your wallet in order to have access to this and benefit from your precious bitcoins. Theft will be difficult to happen, but the sad part is that, you will lose your bitcoins forever. This is the reason why we should take good care of our private keys and secure in a safe place. That is the only thing we can do in order to keep our precious safe.

Its much needed as we invest in bitcoin and alt coins and once they are lost you cant get it back, similarly there are very high risks to lose coins on exchanges too and they dont refund it back

I think he was pointing that if the more and more bitcoins lost everyday, months, or years the total supply of bitcoins will decrease too until no more bitcoins created. If that happens someday in the future maybe we need to find a way to recover some bitcoins who is already lost and stack in some unknown wallet.

I really agree with your phrase, and it is very necessary to avoid the bitcoin ease available in this world, because if it is on leave it is very dangerous for bitcoin lovers.

Yeah, so its lost forever.


There's no way to recover even if you used quantum pc's to break the privatekey. That's how bitcoin is designed though. Consider that bitcoin is lost forever that's why we always preach here to protect and keep your private key safe so that you won't lose it. Note: I myself lost 7 bitcoins myself because I don't know where I put my password, I earned it way back 2011. But I have move on already.

That's an interesting idea.
If all of the bitcoin is extracted, its value will be unimaginable in the future. Because the price is determined by supply and demand.

It wont happen.because surely most of those lost bitcoins are going to ruin the market,what if you got 100k pieces of bitcoin which was lost in your old harddrive and you are able to recover it,are you going to be a trillionaire instantly? i dont think so ,developers wont break the code as it is created to be just like it is now.

I have heard that it can probably happen, and bitcoin value will increase slightly due to it, but there is still place for more decimals.

So how would you prove that you were the original owner of those bitcoins? And how would you decide what coins are lost and not?

That's actually a good thing that Bitcoin will slowly lose supply forever. It increases the value of the cirulating coins. And to recover anonymous cryptos is very unlikely :)

It's an interesting idea but I against this idea, if there is some software or technology that able to retrieve coins from the forgotten password, its mean it also can retrieve coins from the active wallet, it will makes bitcoin wallet sound so vulnerable, it can caused huge problems, because there is no way to determine whether the coin is in forgotten wallet or the owner left the coin for long tern

If someone can do that then he can posses Bitcoin and don't care to return to the real owner, this what makes this technology looks great, because you alone own your coin and no one can can interfere as long as you hold your private key.

I also think like you so the developers make a solution to be able to restore the lost bitcoin because if it happens it could be bitcoin will run out.

If bitcoin holders lose key or forget paswod it can make bitcoin the amount of bitcoin always decreases, and it's very danger that can make bitcoin extinct.

My brother invested in bitcoin way back 2011 upon the introduction of bitcoin in the market.  He is just an IT student by then and simply invest in bitcoin just for curiosity and expecting nothing.  Unfortunately, for the past years, he ignored his bitcoin investments and forget everything about it including his wallet address.  Last year, he tried to recover his wallet but after many tries, he cannot open it.   I understand your concern and I think if your suggestion will be addressed, many investors like my brother will be benefitted.  

Unfortunately, there is no way to recover the loose wallet and I think wallet developers make it that way for the protection of its users.  This is because if they made a key to open the lose/forgotten password, hackers can find ways to hack different wallets and many investors will suffer from lost of crypto investment if that happens. Meaning, it is very risky. So, for me, that lost bitcoin is not our fault and we should just charge it into our experience and must leave a lesson for us. We should keep our password and wallet safe because we are accountable for our investment.  

Yes I agree with your opinion, because we all know the consequence if we forgot our private key. Bitcoin is a treasure so we should be responsible enough so that it could not  be vanished. We know that Bitcoin is the safest investment that even prey eye cannot detect.

While I thought this would be true as well, its not really the case. As time goes on, people are more careful with the way they store Bitcoins, so they won't lose them as often as people have in the past. So theoretically, fewer and fewer coins should be lost as time goes on. Even then, each bitcoin is worth 100 million satoshis. Even if more coins get lost, you can just divide whats left. 21 million coins are actually 21 quadrillion units of value.

I think lets just be very carefull with our private keys and put it in a very safe place that only you and some very trusted people in your family that you can trust if something happen to you in the future.

I do not think that when you can return lost bitcoins. If this were possible, it would be a threat to the safety of bitcoin. Bitcoin is based on mathematics, and laws of mathematics can not be circumvented. Onset, it's good that bitcoin as well as ordinary coins can be lost.

A Treasure hunt do not necessarily have to be some magical code that are written by clever developers to recover some lost bitcoins. You could be renovating your new house and then stumble onto some time capsule with a laminated paper wallet, hidden in there. The Geo cache hidden in Iceland is still up for grab, if you can find it.  ;)

I want to see more treasure hunts being organised in different cities all over the world to draw some treasure hunters to look for these hidden treasures. Just imagine what will happen if some anonymous person announce that he or she buried a paper wallet with say 10 000 bitcoins all over the world. It will draw some major media attention!

I really agree with your phrase, and it is very necessary to avoid the bitcoin ease available in this world, because if it is on leave it is very dangerous for bitcoin lovers.

I think Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto is the biggest bitcoin holder in the world and he could also retrieve the lost bitcoin, but for now seems he never interfere on what's happen to bitcoin and not even show himself, he is the true bitcoin treasure that we have to search.

it is absolutely not in need, we as a wallet holder should be careful.
and secure our personal data should not be lost.

For one to have confidence of your investment it is good for you and you alone to know your keys therefore keep them safe in different places like hard drive, printout emails not used for other things and so on, in case you loss one you can get it from the other.

I think so. With time people are more cautious with the way saving Bitcoins. Bitcoin is hidden because the fate of thousands of people is hidden in it. If they spend hard time working hard, then Bitcoin will show people the income path. Because investing in bitcoin has resulted in a lot of profit but not a lot of losses. So I think Bitcoin is the secret treasure that makes people self-reliant in the right use.

Restore access to previously lost bitcoins by selecting their secret keys will soon be in connection with the advent of quantum computers that will be able to select a cipher for such keys in a very short time. Apparently, the crypto currency will have to be protected from such computers by moving to a new level of safe operation. The same bitcoins, which will remain encrypted in the block-chain block chain in the same form, can be considered lost and re-used.

there is nothing can do if you loss your password or key. your balance still remain at your wallet forever.
this is the reason that bitcoin price keep increasing until now. the supply is decreased everytime peoples lost their wallet.

It’s not necessary to do, loss of supply doesn’t mean losing its value. I am afraid that if it’s implemented it will create a hole to look for security holes to abuse and those who enjoy it must be the people who are on top of this pyramid. After all who will get rid of his precious assets for granted.

I think this is very dangerous, because with just a small open in security can be used as a way to steal Bitcoin of others. Still in the same problem, how Bitcoin in the wallet can be identified or categorized as "lost", because there could be people who HODLing in a very long time and suddenly the wallet has looted by the treasure seekers.

The most important thing you need to wait for you to want to return the interest back, believe that you will succeed and it will necessarily happen.

Really good post. I agree with it.