Bitcoin Forum

According to Jameson Lopp, a former BitGo and current CasaHODL engineer over 4 million Bitcoins (http://over 4 million Bitcoins) (over 25% of current circulation) are lost.

Source: https://coincodex.com/article/2018/jameson-lopp-estimates-4-million-bitcoin-are-lost-forever/

Where does we can retrieve it or else lost forever that lost I think a big coordinations with bitcoin and can do something with better progress or definitely still working with interest.

I have read from several sources for a long time that more than six million bitcoins are considered lost. Here the figures are clearly understated and obsolete. In principle, how can you accurately calculate the number of already lost bitcoins. It is clear that this figure will always be approximate.

I think it was only hidden by millionaire please give me a little only for daily needs and feels me the real meaning of Bitcoins worth.

Wow, is it official research or just an article by some make up artist LOL!
I doubt this truth. But whatever it's interesting to research by myself. Thanks!

Very interesting article, I'm feeling a little bit richer now  ;D

Same as burnt coin... It's not really a prolem, lots of people lost there privates keys.
Got a bitcoin wallet in 2011 but never retrived my .dat file like lot of people here :)

For me about this  situation I don't know if 25% are lost because I am the first timer joined this campaign. I cannot experience about this kind of matters. I hope it will not happened to us so that we cannot fell regrets even we are first timer.

That's sad, people never really took bitcoin serious and were careless with their keys. I personally have some small quantity (Less than 1 btc) that I cannot access. I know the wallet but no access

It is a very high number, i really doubt that it is exactly a twenty five percent, i read about this somewhere but i can not remember it exactly, it was not 25%.

You do realize that the research is based on the addresses being used. According to them my 2014 wallets are probably lost, because I haven't made a single transaction since I bought the coins. I'm sure a lot of coins is lost, but estimating that it's 4 million or 6 million based purely on activity is stupid.
Don't underestimate the hodlers ;)

It's interesting to hear that news, I didn't aware of that until seeing this article. I think it's important since BTC has a fixed 21 million supply cap.

Its very good to have come across this write-up. It really broadened my mind with much better information about Bitcoin. I also think information like this will be needed on the amount of Bitcoin holders that lost access to their wallet. If at all they are part of the 25% that are lost.

This is already common knowledge. though the numbers are just guesstimate: no one really knows how much bitcoins are lost since they could easily be just cold storages from different people. Nonetheless, in theory this should make all the existing or circulating bitcoins valuable due to the law of supply and demand so this is all good. However, if there aren't really any demand present, no matter how much lost bitcoins are there, it simply wouldn't boost the price up.

This is just must of the way that bitcoin is lost. And I do believe that much of it was lost in the past because lately, people are very much knowledgeable, wiser and serious with their coin.

Why do you feel a little richer? You must be careful with your coin and have to labour because rich don't come without some work and determination.

It is possible! This is because people die day in and out. When the die, what happens to their bitcoin? If the owners of bitcoin die without leaving any will containing their bitcoin wallet and private key, then the coin will be lost eternally. It is high time we made our next of kins aware of our bitcoin wallet details, death is inevitable.

I don't know that information,thanks for sharing here.Hope that it will recuperate them so that more bit coins will circulates.

4 million bitcoins lost and 2 million were hacked that's a lot of bitcoin that are going gone in the market except those stolen ones.

How can it be that he said that these lost bitcoins cannot be part of the supply if there are only limited supply of bitcoin. Lost or not, it's still part of the supply, circulating or not.

Total of 17 million bitcoins on circulation less this 4 million, 13 million bitcoins in the market.

We can't blame them for being careless during the early days if I'm on their shoe probably I'll commit the same mistake.

I do not understand why this can happen? because I think that bitcoin circulation in every market is 4 million bitcoin remaining, then predicted will be exhausted in 2024. but after hearing 4 million bitcoin lost from the market, I feel pessimistic.

if 4 million bitcoins are lost, bitcoin will not have a chance to have a high value. maybe bitcoin will end here.

    I think it is difficult to believe this. How can you calculate the amount of lost bitcoin which a lot of the people are the owner of it? I those bitcoin are just hold by the people and hide it for a long period of time.

I don't know how far it's exactly true.But such a high volume of loss of bitcoins would help boost the bitcoin price since it's supply has lessened while not its demand.

This is a very normal thing, there are many people who lost the BTC because they forgot the wallet key or lost the hardware wallet!
There are still some people who have lost some BTC accidents!
Any cryptocurrency is the same, there are always some cryptocurrencies lost, and can never be used in the blockchain!

It has a big impact on bitcoin mate if this thing is true. The circulating supply of bitcoin will decrease and also those total supply if it. The question their is, it is lost? Or it is hold by other people for their own sake.

If bitcoin is really digital and we are certain that the bitcoin has been list indeed, I feel it can be retrieved since lost means it now doesn't belong to anyone. It should be mined and readded to the volume.

True talk ooo. I have been a victim of this inconvenience. When i first join the bitcoin family, i did not really understand its operations. i created my first wallet, bought some coins and invested a lot of time filling airdrops too which earned me some coins in addition to the ones i bought. I was careless and therefore I lost all my investments and hard-earned tokens in addition. I was so dissappointed and had start to everything afresh. I believe other people have had several experiences too which may include theft, fraud etc. Some bitcoins are also lost when their holder die. It is not surprising to hear that about 25 percent of bitcoins are lost.

I do believe that there are lost coins and I am aware that they are not retrievable. But I doubt that it is abiut 25% of the total bitcoins.
Maybe less but not more than 6 million.
Lost coins may be a good thing. When there are lost coins, Values is not possible to end up in ZERO value but hell yeah it is a person's worst nightmare especially when he o she lost their savings in investing in cryptos right?

Just got to know own though but wondering what might be the cause if indeed this information is true.
Perhaps people who had Btc died without passing on their private keys. Well, this doesn't sound good.

Of course a large percentage is permanently lost, because once the private key is lost the wallet is no good. Additionally, during the scaling issues it was not worth sending spare change to another wallet, so it was often discarded.

I just heard this news about the loss of bitcoin but the opinion pushups44 very reasonable because the loss is in because the wallet is locked that can not be solved and the throw it away wallet that is not in can be used again and bitcoin participate in it because very little and not worth
so by itself the bitcoin disappears

It would be great if that news could be verified somehow.  Its a very interesting statistic none the less.  I have no idea if 25% sounds about right.  I cannot imagine how many people burn their own coins on a daily basis. 

It's not lost, rather, it's in a place that we can only see them, but can't own it like in a museum. Just think of those bitcoins are being held by someone who don't want to sell it off. These coins were lost probably on bitcoin's early days, when it's price is just like to an in-game currency. Losing bitcoins on early times is tolerable, but today, it's unacceptable because of it's value.

There are many bitcoin lost because many peoples forgot or lost their wallet information indeed, but i don't know if it is 4 mil or not.
But this is the cause of bitcoin value get skyrocketed. If the circulating supply low, then the price will increased much if the demands high.

I have never known this kind of news and this one is new to me, if you're going to ask for my reaction then sad to say but I'm shocked. I've been a long time bitcoin user and only today that I have encountered this news. I never knew that this is happening and I felt bad for bitcoin community. I hope that those lost bitcoins can be brought back to us.

Yes many adresses for long time dont move their btc's its means what private keys losted for this wallets.
Maybe in the future this adresses was bruteforced

Yes there is no correct number for this.
There might be still holders who are just not doing any transactions until now.

Wherever they get that number it is a total of a non moving bitcoin which is not an accurate idea to tell people. They should input that is just a wild guess.
Although, it is good for me. I dont know about the other holders. It means greater value in the future. That is what they dont see until now. Next time it will just be satoshis that they will be talking about on how valueble per sats is. ;D

If they used that as a guideline, then we must assume that Satoshi's 1 000 000+ coins are lost too.  ::)  Some of the early adopters have loads of coins that was mined in the early days and those coins are stored in cold storage.  ;)

A lot of people lose coins on a daily basis, but they are too scared and embarrassed to announce it on a public forum. <Sending coins to wrong Bitcoin addresses or forgetting their passwords or passphrases for their wallets>  :P

I think the percentage is higher. <30%+> :o

I think that this figure is much larger. About half of the bitcoin will never be used unless a quantum computer is invented that will be able to crack access to the bitcoins

I had some bitcoins when they came out when I really did not care much about it, I could not find the bitcoin number when I learned about 1k.
I think the number of missing bitcoins is the same

that's sad on the one hand but good for value of bitcoins on the other hand, as it means the lower circulation supply, therefore our bitcoins are more valuable than we thought

It’s a good thing, it means YOUR bitcoin’s are worth more. Lower number available to buy on the market = higher trade price.

25% of circulation is not a small number. If thats true, whether it will greatly affect the bitcoin price?
Or is this just an artificial issue?

Yes i've read from a couple of reliable sources. I think we cannot be sure how many bitcoins are lost but the number that article gave us isn't incredible. Many bitcoin owners didn't take serious bitcoins they had because of very low prices. I know some people who's trying to find their private keys or something make them remember how to reach their bitcoin accounts. They are just people i know. Who knows how many people are in same situation all around the world.

 Not exactly! How can we believe this news? Maybe offline wallet users. Otherwise it is not possible, where the bitcoins? Just on the air? So funny. Not right the news. Miners active so no worry. Bitcoin not weak currency, its so much strong.

For me about this situation, I do not know if 25% was lost because I was the first timer to participate in this campaign. I hope it will not happen to us so we can not regret it even if we are the first timers.

I would speculate that back in 2008/2009 in bitcoins infancy there wasnt the same value
put on possessing bitcoin, we have heard before the story of people throwing out computers
with hundreds of bitcoins in wallets still on the harddrive - never to be retrieved.

Also I would speculate that a portion of that 25% can eventually be retrieved as they could
be considered "in long term storage" and so not showing any movenent whatsoever.

No bitcoin is lost, if a wallet is not active for years, it doesn't mean it's lost.  Most people use bitcoin as a store of wealth. The owners of the said bitcoin knows what they are doing

It is often discarded. Its a very interesting statistics no less. I can not imagine how many people burn their coins on a daily basis. Just think about the bitcoin that is being held by someone who does not want to sell it. Taking a bitcoin at an early time is acceptable, but today it is unacceptable because of its value. Perhaps in the future, this address is brutal. Although I was not surprised. I feel sorry for those who have lost their bitcoin and other cryptos.

Horrible news! And i have seen in another news says that the amount is 6 million bitcoins. 6 Million Bitcoin makes $39 billion.. It is just crazy! If i lose bitcoin that much i think i wouldn't breath anymore. I am sure that is from the first time minings that the bitcoin price were like $1 or less.

25% is a huge number, which is currently measured in billions of dollars, and it is practically impossible to return them.

Yes, what are you saying and I agree to your words about bitcoin because I hope that information and sharing is here because after we know information like that, we all hope to restore unfavorable conditions so that bitcoin can circulate again.

does bitcoin have no hope of reaching the 21M supply? How will happen at 2M estimated to be stolen with chance because it can retrieve it. Here's how Bitcoin miners earn less than 21M bitcoin.

This needs improvement why bitcoin can be lost to the virus or indeed stolen by technology people if it is stolen this must be someone who can correct the misfortune of bad things like this technology education is now very important for all life of the new era.