I don't think lost bitcoins CAN be recovered, at all.  Even an address change won't "put them back in the pool".

This is still true even if you had some way to identify the difference between lost bitcoins and stale savings accounts (that could still be activated).

What's so hard to understand?  Send money from anywhere, to anywhere, from anyone, to anyone, in any amount, at any time, for free.

Seems to me there is great utility in that.

True, you have to exchange in and out, but that is ultimately a small price to pay when you consider how much banks charge for wire transfers, or even how much Western Union charges for transfers.

Great info, thanks.

So now I can create my paper wallet and *transfer bitcoins to it* for savings.  Spending the coins is difficult, but presumably we're talking about occasional transactions here.

Hi there, I'm your average joe prospector, who happens to be quite technically proficient.  Possibly getting into the mining game.  Bullish on bitcoins because of how easy it is to transmit money from anywhere to anywhere, in any amount, for free.