How many Bitcoins are lost forever?

[Somekindabitcoin]

This is much to less if you follow all the proofed looses.
I just read this today http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/06/01/blockchain-sent-8k-worth-bitcoin-to-wrong-address/
Another 8k of Bitcoins are (probably) lost forever, if no one has the private key of the wrong address.

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

I think it is much more then 5000.

they are at least 7k, we have a confirmation from the owner of his old wallet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tMXLDVpPs8

however i changed my mind i don't really think that 3M, like many are emphasize strongly, are lost forever, while it's cool and all to reveal that you lost your money, perhaps in hope to become famous or something or to be more recognized

telling to everyone that you have retrieved your coins back in some way(you remembered your passphrase, you found an old back up ecc...) it's more unlikely...

WOW, the guy who sent $8k worth of BTC to the wrong address is the biggest idiot ever.
I always check the address twice when paying for something..

I double check it always so i make the other party confused to check again the address that i want to re-check.
I think these type of lost bitcoin should be solved but there is no way
Every bitcoin that is sent to wrong address is lost

that to send to wrong adress happens in banks as well my friend i had lended her some money she sent into other account without confirm the account owner,banks allow to see for who we are sending the money ,bitcoin only shows adress soo yes must be sure and confirm more then once the adress to avoid confusion.

But banks can charge the transaction back, and if not, they can ask the guy who got the money to send them back or just do some legal actions against him, if he refuses to return the money. BTC and a bank is something completely different and you can't compare it.

Yes, one of the most important things that people will have to learn when Bitcoin gets massively adopted and when transacting with Bitcoin is to triple check, not just double check before they hit that send. Because once you hit send, you are at the mercy of the other side if you did a mistake by chance. You don't control anything no more.

I always check the first two letters/numbers and the last 2 letters/numbers.

Oh yea, exactly me! I do it too.. always check the first 2 and last 4, I think it's better like this.. I'm always scared if I didn't paste the address and deleted the last letter or something like this so I always check it.. I'm glad every time I send it good

[Ingatqhvq]

I guess more than 1 million, it doesn't matter, it can't affect the future of bitcoin.
                                                                   

[Somekindabitcoin]

I guess more than 1 million, it doesn't matter, it can't affect the future of bitcoin.
                                                                   

Of course it can affect the future of Bitcoin, imagine that there's 1 million coins lost and another 10k coins lost every day. This is likely possible to happen and it will affect Bitcoin a lot. Price will go up and there will be smaller and smaller rate BTC / user.

[g1974ak]

I know it is a tricky question. What do you think, how many Bitcoins are lost forever and are 'out of the network' by lost private keys?

Very simple question mate. That can be found easily. I need only one data. If you told me how many people are live in this moment on the earth I can calculate for you the number of bitcoins lost not only by the lost of private keys but for every other reason.  

[prodigy8]

Can satoshi or the main of the bitcoin who made it, can he decide to recover the lost bitcoins that people lost them.

[Amph]

Can satoshi or the main of the bitcoin who made it, can he decide to recover the lost bitcoins that people lost them.

no there is no bitcoin CEO, and satoshi wasn't a ceo of bitcoin either, it always based on consensus

you can't go there and add a random amount to the supply just to retrieve those lost coins(which are actually a good thing for the future value), i'm not saying that it cannot be done, i'm saying that miners in primis should be favorable to it, and i doubt they are...

[VirosaGITS]

Can satoshi or the main of the bitcoin who made it, can he decide to recover the lost bitcoins that people lost them.

No, you'd create a fork. The code is right there, its not centralized, so you can't just say, oh so i have access *change random stuff*.

[smith coins]

Is there any website where it shows how many bitcoins are lost, or we know only from people that lost their bitcoins?

[Bitware]

I know it is a tricky question. What do you think, how many Bitcoins are lost forever and are 'out of the network' by lost private keys?

People lie, cheat and steal, so you must assume that there are no lost bitcoins.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Is there any website where it shows how many bitcoins are lost, or we know only from people that lost their bitcoins?

There is no way to know total Bitcoins lost. For example, a person deletes a wallet with Bitcoins. How can we know that Bitcoins are lost if he does not publicize it?

I know it is a tricky question. What do you think, how many Bitcoins are lost forever and are 'out of the network' by lost private keys?

People lie, cheat and steal, so you must assume that there are no lost bitcoins.

Unfortunately, that assumption is false.

[Bitware]

I know it is a tricky question. What do you think, how many Bitcoins are lost forever and are 'out of the network' by lost private keys?

People lie, cheat and steal, so you must assume that there are no lost bitcoins.

Unfortunately, that assumption is false.

Prove it.

[CarlesPuyol]

My guess is that every day people loose bitcoins. And the amount of lost bitcoins is about 100,000 btc total (Its just a guess..) Do you think this number is reasonable?

[Derrike]

I heard a story about a guy who was the first of the miners and adapters of the bitcoin and he mined over 7600 Bitcoin and stored them in a hard drive.
After some time he disassemble his pc and kept the hard drive.
In around 2011 he threw his hard drive in trash along with 7600 Bitcoin.
In 2013 when he saw the price sky rocketed,  he regretted his decision.

[shane]

My guess is that every day people loose bitcoins. And the amount of lost bitcoins is about 100,000 btc total (Its just a guess..) Do you think this number is reasonable?

yes that reasonable for me

[tyz]

There is no source where you can see evident losses, so you need to believe all the reports about losses in order to get a hint how many Bitcoins are lost really.

Is there any website where it shows how many bitcoins are lost, or we know only from people that lost their bitcoins?

[Muhammed Zakir]

I know it is a tricky question. What do you think, how many Bitcoins are lost forever and are 'out of the network' by lost private keys?

People lie, cheat and steal, so you must assume that there are no lost bitcoins.

Unfortunately, that assumption is false.

Prove it.

There are certainly lost coins.

• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/tx/4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b        Block reward unspendable
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/tx/2a0597e665ac3d1cabeede95cedf907934db7f639e477b3c77b242140d8cf728        Bad script
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/tx/5d80a29be1609db91658b401f85921a86ab4755969729b65257651bb9fd2c10d       Underpaid block reward
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/1HT7xU2Ngenf7D4yocz2SAcnNLW7rK8d4E                                            Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/1111111111111111111114oLvT2                                                         Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111BZbvjr                                                           Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111HeBAGj                                                          Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111QekFQw                                                         Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111UpYBrS                                                          Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111g4hiWR                                                          Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111jGyPM8                                                           Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111o9FmEC                                                          Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/11111111111111111111ufYVpS                                                           Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE                                                   Unknown private key
• From https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/1DKMg2KmTyQmfiQxDfDsNKVx4PWYa7xga4 to many addresses with unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/1QLbz7JHiBTspS962RLKV8GndWFwi5j6Qr                                               Unknown private key
• https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/16QaFeudRUt8NYy2yzjm3BMvG4xBbAsBFM                                            Unknown private key

There maybe more but these are what I was able to find which are certainly lost. See https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dwTiiDcvWTwiWLC13W16n0W2dtlh0DG7T4IHFd4RFiY/edit?pli=1#gid=0 but it might have listed coins that are not actually lost.

[tomsuredbits]

SuredBits is trying to eradicate this problem from the ecosystem using nLockTime transactions. We use a simple form to create the raw unsigned tx, then the user signs it. If everyone who controls their private key created a nLockTime tx, this issue would no longer exist.

[Za1n]

This is much to less if you follow all the proofed looses.
I just read this today http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/06/01/blockchain-sent-8k-worth-bitcoin-to-wrong-address/
Another 8k of Bitcoins are (probably) lost forever, if no one has the private key of the wrong address.

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

I think it is much more then 5000.

they are at least 7k, we have a confirmation from the owner of his old wallet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tMXLDVpPs8

however i changed my mind i don't really think that 3M, like many are emphasize strongly, are lost forever, while it's cool and all to reveal that you lost your money, perhaps in hope to become famous or something or to be more recognized

telling to everyone that you have retrieved your coins back in some way(you remembered your passphrase, you found an old back up ecc...) it's more unlikely...

WOW, the guy who sent $8k worth of BTC to the wrong address is the biggest idiot ever.
I always check the address twice when paying for something..

I double check it always so i make the other party confused to check again the address that i want to re-check.
I think these type of lost bitcoin should be solved but there is no way
Every bitcoin that is sent to wrong address is lost

that to send to wrong adress happens in banks as well my friend i had lended her some money she sent into other account without confirm the account owner,banks allow to see for who we are sending the money ,bitcoin only shows adress soo yes must be sure and confirm more then once the adress to avoid confusion.

But banks can charge the transaction back, and if not, they can ask the guy who got the money to send them back or just do some legal actions against him, if he refuses to return the money. BTC and a bank is something completely different and you can't compare it.

Yes, one of the most important things that people will have to learn when Bitcoin gets massively adopted and when transacting with Bitcoin is to triple check, not just double check before they hit that send. Because once you hit send, you are at the mercy of the other side if you did a mistake by chance. You don't control anything no more.

I always check the first two letters/numbers and the last 2 letters/numbers.

Oh yea, exactly me! I do it too.. always check the first 2 and last 4, I think it's better like this.. I'm always scared if I didn't paste the address and deleted the last letter or something like this so I always check it.. I'm glad every time I send it good

I also do this on every transaction, even the small ones. But for larger purchases, which for sake of argument I will define as 1 BTC or more, I will actually spend a few moments of time to compare both addresses side by side checking each place value.

I don't know if this method buys me anything more in the form of security, other than my own piece of mind. I am not sure how likely/unlikely it would be to have two addresses with same first 2 digits and last two digits. Probably not too uncommon as I believe every bitcoin starts with 1.

[talkbitcoin]

i think somewhere around a couple of thousand bitcoin is right

[peligro]

Can satoshi or the main of the bitcoin who made it, can he decide to recover the lost bitcoins that people lost them.

no there is no bitcoin CEO, and satoshi wasn't a ceo of bitcoin either, it always based on consensus

you can't go there and add a random amount to the supply just to retrieve those lost coins(which are actually a good thing for the future value), i'm not saying that it cannot be done, i'm saying that miners in primis should be favorable to it, and i doubt they are...

It can be done generally, though it is not a certain person can decide. But when all bitcoiners, or at least the most miners, decide to change the protocol and go with that change from now on, then it would be possible to retrieve missing coins. You simply would override the rules.

In fact it's impossible because there is no way the majority would agree to such a step.