How many Bitcoins are lost forever?

[SebastianJu]

Is that possible to a "lost private" key Bitcoin wallet to get hacked by someone, and send out the Bitcoin?

It's possible.  If the password was generated, for example, on an Android client before they fixed their system Random Number Generator. 

Otherwise, it's technically possible but a bit less likely than Pluto turning out to be made of antimatter.

I believe there are a lot of users observing or creating addresses with brainwallets. Then watching these addresses and emptying them when a poor victim is choosing a too bad brainwallet. Someone made an investigation and it seems that ALOT of addresses are observed that way. Watching for poor victims who upload some coins on "their" address.

[SebastianJu]

there was a story of a guy who had a HDD with a large amount of Bitcoin on it, and he threw it away, and went digging through the dump.  7500 Bitcoin mined on a laptop!! Those were the days, LOL!!

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/27/hard-drive-bitcoin-landfill-site

Yeah I heard that as well, I would've searched my ass off on that dump if that had happened to me. But it never will as I still online wallets for my transactions and bitcoins.

Oo You realize that WAY more bitcoins were lost (to their owners) because they held coins on exchanges, online wallets and such? You really should think that over. Giving your bitcoins to someone other brings always the question up if you get them back. Only when you control the private key and no one other has access to it, then you can say that you are relatively safe.

[TheMostDopePizza]

I don't know dude. haha ! BTC

[NewLiberty]

there was a story of a guy who had a HDD with a large amount of Bitcoin on it, and he threw it away, and went digging through the dump.  7500 Bitcoin mined on a laptop!! Those were the days, LOL!!

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/27/hard-drive-bitcoin-landfill-site

Yeah I heard that as well, I would've searched my ass off on that dump if that had happened to me. But it never will as I still online wallets for my transactions and bitcoins.

Oo You realize that WAY more bitcoins were lost (to their owners) because they held coins on exchanges, online wallets and such? You really should think that over. Giving your bitcoins to someone other brings always the question up if you get them back. Only when you control the private key and no one other has access to it, then you can say that you are relatively safe.

Sometimes both happen at the same time.
When the exchange accidentally deletes its wallet!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828445

[SebastianJu]

there was a story of a guy who had a HDD with a large amount of Bitcoin on it, and he threw it away, and went digging through the dump.  7500 Bitcoin mined on a laptop!! Those were the days, LOL!!

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/27/hard-drive-bitcoin-landfill-site

Yeah I heard that as well, I would've searched my ass off on that dump if that had happened to me. But it never will as I still online wallets for my transactions and bitcoins.

Oo You realize that WAY more bitcoins were lost (to their owners) because they held coins on exchanges, online wallets and such? You really should think that over. Giving your bitcoins to someone other brings always the question up if you get them back. Only when you control the private key and no one other has access to it, then you can say that you are relatively safe.

Sometimes both happen at the same time.
When the exchange accidentally deletes its wallet!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828445

*lol* Didnt hear of that yet. Unbelieveable. Cold Wallet? Backups on the same drives? Even i have backups on different places and im not even an exchange. Hefty... the worst thing is, you only know when something like that happens that the one you trusted is not the smartest.

[lorylore]

I have a feeling that the unconfirmed transactions those amounts are lost forever?
please correct me someone if i am not correct.

[gentlemand]

I have a feeling that the unconfirmed transactions those amounts are lost forever?
please correct me someone if i am not correct.

If they never go through that means they never really went anywhere in the first place so they stay in your wallet.

[lorylore]

I have a feeling that the unconfirmed transactions those amounts are lost forever?
please correct me someone if i am not correct.

If they never go through that means they never really went anywhere in the first place so they stay in your wallet.

But the balance is 0.00, will they get back to the wallet ? as for the moment it is not.

[gentlemand]

But the balance is 0.00, will they get back to the wallet ? as for the moment it is not.

I guess it depends on what wallet you're using. Your intent to spend is noted by the wallet and it reduces the balance by the sent amount. It if hasn't been confirmed then the balance is topped up with the sent amount. The balance did change but the coins never moved.

https://blog.blockchain.com/2014/03/05/occasional-unconfirmed-transactions-are-being-addressed/

[lorylore]

But the balance is 0.00, will they get back to the wallet ? as for the moment it is not.

I guess it depends on what wallet you're using. Your intent to spend is noted by the wallet and it reduces the balance by the sent amount. It if hasn't been confirmed then the balance is topped up with the sent amount. The balance did change but the coins never moved.

https://blog.blockchain.com/2014/03/05/occasional-unconfirmed-transactions-are-being-addressed/

well this is a good explanation for me and for others, seems then good, if there is no confirmation the balance will be back at the normal. thank you

[codenamethisNutz]

add one more btc to the bitcoin that are lost for ever, i had 1 btc saved in my laptop for a rainy day and the hdd just died forgot to make a backup copy.

[Argwai96]

add one more btc to the bitcoin that are lost for ever, i had 1 btc saved in my laptop for a rainy day and the hdd just died forgot to make a backup copy.

Well that sucks, dont give up just now you could always try and recover the data replacing the part on the hard drive that die, check your local pc repair store just dont tell them about the bitcoin,
i had a friend with the same type of issue and they took his bitcoin it wasnt much but it was money.

[lorylore]

add one more btc to the bitcoin that are lost for ever, i had 1 btc saved in my laptop for a rainy day and the hdd just died forgot to make a backup copy.

Well that sucks, dont give up just now you could always try and recover the data replacing the part on the hard drive that die, check your local pc repair store just dont tell them about the bitcoin,
i had a friend with the same type of issue and they took his bitcoin it wasnt much but it was money.

That is a bad situation, what happened to the hdd? try to give a try to fix the bad sectors of the hard disk

[tyz]

Try to recover your deleted harddrive files. There is a good chance to get the wallet.dat back if you have not stored much new stuff after the removal. Take a Google search in order to find many appropriate free software to do a recovery.

add one more btc to the bitcoin that are lost for ever, i had 1 btc saved in my laptop for a rainy day and the hdd just died forgot to make a backup copy.

Well that sucks, dont give up just now you could always try and recover the data replacing the part on the hard drive that die, check your local pc repair store just dont tell them about the bitcoin,
i had a friend with the same type of issue and they took his bitcoin it wasnt much but it was money.

That is a bad situation, what happened to the hdd? try to give a try to fix the bad sectors of the hard disk

[IDKwhatimdoing]

30% what minners got i think its lost forever!!

[jeffthebaker]

Some have estimated it's 30 per cent of all Bitcoins. It coins haven't moved for years it's unlikely anyone still controls them, except for Satoshi's coins. The figure keeps increasing because of things like burned coins, such as the 2130 Bitcoins burned during the Counterparty distribution.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11362827/The-625m-lost-forever-the-phenomenon-of-disappearing-Bitcoins.html

NVIDIA engineer John Ratcliff calculated in June that “zombie coins”, defined as those which have lay dormant for at least a year and a half, accounted for 30 per cent of all Bitcoins.

I can believe that 30% of all Bitcoins are lost. I personally know several people who were into Bitcoin early on, but got out early and didn't check up on it since. (One person I know sold 750 BTC once the price hit $10, for example). Even though I don't know anyone who has lost Bitcoins, I can certainly imagine some of the super early users just forgot about their coins or didn't think to save them when getting a new computer or something.

[Blawpaw]

A lot of Bitcoin are already lost; every day a lot of bits disappear and until 2140 many more will also vanish. This is not bad since it will only make the price go higher.
All bitcoins that are lost make the number of coins become even more scarce. The acceptable assumption would be that as more scarce it becomes, even more valuable will be as well.
But, if alternative currencies are going to be used as well wouldn't that cause an inflation even if the price of Bitcoin went very high?
Couldn't it be possible that people would start to use another less valuable cryptocurrency instead of bitcoin?

[gentlemand]

Couldn't it be possible that people would start to use another less valuable cryptocurrency instead of bitcoin?

If you want to buy something or transfer value then you'll need the exact same BTC value in that alternative currency. It's pretty pointless to add another layer of potential head ache and volatility to carry out what you need to do.

[knowhow]

I already created more than 10 accounts for various and different opcçoes to earn bitcoins from investment faucets or games in order to control investment and know the return , some of these accounts meet with some satoshis surely some people like me already left it or forgotten passwords so a few thousand bitcoins find themselves lost

[CarlesPuyol]

If you are looking for a number, my guess is about 5000 lost bitcoins if we gather all together. And even more...