No, Bitcoin’s Circulating Supply is Not 18 Million

[1Referee]

If mainstream adoption is the key, having a maximum of 21 million units seems problematic. You could argue that the price would exponentially increase to match the demand to the point 21 million will be enough when considering the price per coin, but that still doesn't necessarily solve the problem.

Focusing on 21 million BTC units isn't correct.

At this point most people can already not afford a whole Bitcoin, so it makes much more sense to deal with satoshi units. I have been getting used to dealing with the satoshi unit a lot due to the lightning clients I use. It's so convenient and easy to use, and more importantly, people prefer to own whatever number of whole satoshi units over 0.0000xxx part of a whole BTC unit.

If you think satoshi units are low value units, then you will be surprised to find out that one single satoshi can be split into 1000 milli satoshis on lightning.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Satoshi_(unit)

[bitsurfer2014]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think you are suggesting the idea that Bitcoin will someday, have the capability to have "smart contract" like features and procedures that will follow certain conditions based on a specific algorithms which could also be tailored to a unique use case?

It already does and has since day one. They got hobbed a bit by Satoshi due to security vulnerabilities in them but I'm confident that they'll be restored to full power eventually as people learn more about what form that would best take.  Lightning is powered by Bitcoin's smart contracting abilities.

So in essence, I assume Bitcoin still has plenty of room for growth and that is good! Given time, I'm now more confident that those features will be implemented in due course and with the help of Bitcoin's core developers, together with the community, I hope it could be realized sooner than expected!

I think in the future such features will also have an influence on determining the actual circulating supply of BTC. Anyway, thanks for the clarification.

[minersday]

A recent analysis from CoinMetrics hints that over 1,500,000 Bitcoins could permanently be out of the total circulation. While BTC’s active supply should currently be over 18 million, the quantity fell short.

Notably, on October 19 this year, 18 million BTC officially entered circulation, which happened at block 600,000. At this time, the community began cheering up as it highlighted “the end of the inflation process for Bitcoin.” However, things aren’t as they appear. The supply reportedly fell short which brought on a sense of fear, where are these lost coins going?

Source link for the news here

I honestly don't know what you guys are thinking about this one. Do you actually agree that Bitcoin's circulating supply is not 18 million? Do you guys believe that these 1,500,000 BTCs are actually lost?

I know that some of you may have different reactions to this one. I would love hearing out your thoughts and opinions about this one guys. Thanks in advance.

If you think the total circulating supply of bitcoin is not 18 million, please give us your main reasons why you think its not rather than sharing thoughts of other people. You should rather back your reasons with your source than just presenting thoughts of other people from the source. At least make an effort to share and state out your thoughts. That might even help someone to understand why you decided to share this information here.   

[Asmonist]

If that is true 1.5M lost is really relevant to the market price. Some say these are just for publicity or just to make noise about bitcoin but definitely this issues should be taken cared of. Its not that much for some but for those little investors these are really relevant. If these would worsen the situation or just making an issue, well it could be the time that bitcoin should be regulated.

[Wintersoldier]

If that is true 1.5M lost is really relevant to the market price. Some say these are just for publicity or just to make noise about bitcoin but definitely this issues should be taken cared of. Its not that much for some but for those little investors these are really relevant. If these would worsen the situation or just making an issue, well it could be the time that bitcoin should be regulated.

But basically these bitcoins that are considered lost could have a positive impact on the market. If they will not be utilized, it is somehow like a person is holding that huge amount of BTC, we all know that hodlers contributes to the market price of it. Though, for me, if we compare the circulation of the cryptocurrency to the real life financial economy, all money should be circulated that's why banks are doing it so, so as to the cryptocurrency. More active market = more active market adoption.