How many Bitcoins are lost forever?

[Amph]

How can bitcoin be lost? i cant understand this? maybe the fees that are taken from each transaction ?

simply someone can't accees his private key anymore for many reasons

maybe because he lost it, because he forgot his password, because his hdd has failed ecc...

[Lorenzo]

no have idea, i really don't know
we can find out who the owner of the largest bitcoin?

Largest bitcoin? You mean the address with the most coins? According to BitInfoCharts, this is currently the address with the most coins:

http://blockchain.info/address/39coweGgC8CPZ6hYL1BBEfc1zqbSfHsprW

How can bitcoin be lost? i cant understand this? maybe the fees that are taken from each transaction ?

A private key is like a "key" that unlocks an address and allows anyone to spend the funds contained within that address. There are some addresses out there where no known private key exists. For example:

http://blockchain.info/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

Any coins sent to the above address will be lost forever. Same with this unspendable address:

http://blockchain.info/address/1CounterpartyXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXUWLpVr

That one was used for Counterparty's proof-of-burn. People sent bitcoins to that address to prove that they were "burned" (i.e. destroyed) so that they could be rewarded with the equivalent amount of XCP coins.

It's also possible for coins in an address to be lost forever by simply deleting the private key that corresponds to the address. Your wallet.dat file contains private keys corresponding to addresses in your wallet. Permanently deleting this file from your computer would make any bitcoins stored in that wallet to become permanently inaccessible. While technically speaking, it may be possible to guess the private key and regain access to these coins, private keys are long and random enough that it would take billions upon billions of years to find a successful match.

As for transaction fees, they aren't lost. They go to the miner that solves the next block. Usually this is a pool and miners who mine in that pool get the fees in addition to the block reward.

[tsoPANos]

Well we can't be sure as many said.
It is VERY important to take into account the founder of bitcoin, satoshi nakamoto.
Is widely speculated known that he owns more than one million bitcoin.
Do you consider them lost? What if he wakes up someday and dumps all his btc on the maket? 

[ShopemNL]

In the current system they create money which will never be destroyed or get lost, with cryptocurrency they loose money easyer then creating it  

Which is better?

[Q7]

Well, we can't really estimate without getting all the required information. An address staying dormant for a long time may not necessarily means that the owner could have lost the private key, nevertheless that person could have just set the cons aside or have it transferred to an offline paper wallet without trying to access it.

[Argwai96]

Well we can't be sure as many said.
It is VERY important to take into account the founder of bitcoin, satoshi nakamoto.
Is widely speculated known that he owns more than one million bitcoin.
Do you consider them lost? What if he wakes up someday and dumps all his btc on the maket? 

Does anyone have the nakamoto suspected wallet address ?, but you raise a good point  but facts showed bitcoin can hold specially after getting goxed, many he doesnt need to dump into the market because he could just sell them to a private broker.

[Amph]

Well we can't be sure as many said.
It is VERY important to take into account the founder of bitcoin, satoshi nakamoto.
Is widely speculated known that he owns more than one million bitcoin.
Do you consider them lost? What if he wakes up someday and dumps all his btc on the maket?  

Does anyone have the nakamoto suspected wallet address ?, but you raise a good point  but facts showed bitcoin can hold specially after getting goxed, many he doesnt need to dump into the market because he could just sell them to a private broker.

i think he did mined so many coins, not only for stress purpose but for reducing the overall supply limit, and thus rising the possible demand for it, because scarcity will be more incisive

if he indeed sold those coins, he sold them at the 1200 peak, seeing how he was a firmly believer, still there is chance that he lost all those 1M coins, which would be a good thing, not for him maybe...

[Lorenzo]

Well we can't be sure as many said.
It is VERY important to take into account the founder of bitcoin, satoshi nakamoto.
Is widely speculated known that he owns more than one million bitcoin.
Do you consider them lost? What if he wakes up someday and dumps all his btc on the maket? 

Does anyone have the nakamoto suspected wallet address ?, but you raise a good point  but facts showed bitcoin can hold specially after getting goxed, many he doesnt need to dump into the market because he could just sell them to a private broker.

Satoshi's addresses are unique and easily distinguishable from other addresses because he never combined his mined coins into a few large addresses in the same way other early miners did. Since he was also pretty much the only person mining throughout most of 2009 (apart from Hal Finney who mined alongside him for a brief period), almost all of the coins that comprise his massive stash are spread out across thousands of addresses containing 50 BTC that have all since remained untouched.

For example, this is probably one of Satoshi's addresses:

https://blockchain.info/address/15ubjFzmWVvj3TqcpJ1bSsb8joJ6gF6dZa

if he indeed sold those coin, he sold them at the 1200 peak, seeing how he was a firmly believer, still there is chance that he lost all those 1M coins, which would be a good thing, not for him maybe...

It's unlikely that he sold his coins since they haven't been moved on the blockchain. The only way he could have sold them while still remaining undetected would be if he sold the private keys to these addresses instead.

[Amph]

if he indeed sold those coin, he sold them at the 1200 peak, seeing how he was a firmly believer, still there is chance that he lost all those 1M coins, which would be a good thing, not for him maybe...

It's unlikely that he sold his coins since they haven't been moved on the blockchain. The only way he could have sold them while still remaining undetected would be if he sold the private keys for these addresses instead.

as a far as i know there isn't one address that is holding all the 1M coin, there is only the genesis block address that it is still there, but this does not mean much

[David Rabahy]

It's unlikely that he sold his coins since they haven't been moved on the blockchain. The only way he could have sold them while still remaining undetected would be if he sold the private keys to these addresses instead.

Goodness; why in the world would someone buy private keys???  The original owner could still have them and move the funds before the buyer.  The only way I would agree to buy private keys would be if the original owner sat there while I moved the funds.

[gentlemand]

I find it pretty stunning that anyone would think Satoshi lost his private keys. This was a cryptography expert and, y'know, the creator of the whole gig. You wouldn't devote years of your life and obsessively hide your digital footprint only to accidentally hit the delete button or not have anything backed up.

For the overall health of his creation he should've laid out some intentions for them before disappearing.

[ajareselde]

Every day i believe there are some "lost" coins. I had a wallet with exactly 256 btc that is lost forever aswell, back in 2009 i think, i just heard of btc, tried it out and turned away,
upon returning in 2011, well, i realized what i lost.

Imho, every address that isn't touched since 2009 or so, is lost. With the exception of Satoshi's wallets, since i doubt he would have no backups, and it would make no sense not to have
a good amount of funds of your own creation. If he was to sell everything, that would make him look hypocritical.

cheers

[CarlesPuyol]

Every day i believe there are some "lost" coins. I had a wallet with exactly 256 btc that is lost forever aswell, back in 2009 i think, i just heard of btc, tried it out and turned away,
upon returning in 2011, well, i realized what i lost.

Imho, every address that isn't touched since 2009 or so, is lost. With the exception of Satoshi's wallets, since i doubt he would have no backups, and it would make no sense not to have
a good amount of funds of your own creation. If he was to sell everything, that would make him look hypocritical.

cheers

256 BTC?? wow thats too much.
What was your reaction when you saw the bitcoin rising to 1000$? 
I lost private key with 0.05 btc so its nothing in compare to you.

[goosoodude]

The worst thing is that too many computer noobs are in bitcoin. I mean how many "normal" persons do you know that make regular backups of their data? Normal people dont think about a harddisc crashing, notebook stolen or things like that. They only check it once its too late. Though one might say nearly everyone who does make backups did learn it the hard way.

Anyway... realizing that you hold your bank account on your pc is a whole new level. And MANY will lose their money that way. Its a pity but it will come that way even more than now.

And even when you make backups. The next level is dying bitcoiners. Only a couple of you guys have some things put in motion so that your relatives can get your bitcoins after your death. I didnt too.

So await ALOT of coins being lost in the future and past already. Though in the past most often it would have been because they werent worth enough at that time.

[CarlesPuyol]

The worst thing is that too many computer noobs are in bitcoin. I mean how many "normal" persons do you know that make regular backups of their data? Normal people dont think about a harddisc crashing, notebook stolen or things like that. They only check it once its too late. Though one might say nearly everyone who does make backups did learn it the hard way.

Anyway... realizing that you hold your bank account on your pc is a whole new level. And MANY will lose their money that way. Its a pity but it will come that way even more than now.

And even when you make backups. The next level is dying bitcoiners. Only a couple of you guys have some things put in motion so that your relatives can get your bitcoins after your death. I didnt too.

So await ALOT of coins being lost in the future and past already. Though in the past most often it would have been because they werent worth enough at that time.

If you think about it, it is good thing that people loses bitcoin, because if there are less coins, the price will go up. Dont you think so?

[adzino]

How can bitcoin be lost? i cant understand this? maybe the fees that are taken from each transaction ?

Bitcoins are lost due to many factors like someone lost access to their wallet due to unfortunate HDD failure. Has lost his private key and didn't backup his wallet.

By the way, the fees that are taken from each transaction is actually for the miners.

[knowhow]

well nowadays it will get harder to loose any wallet with coins since they worth something now ,before they were just a new way to trade

[ajareselde]

Every day i believe there are some "lost" coins. I had a wallet with exactly 256 btc that is lost forever aswell, back in 2009 i think, i just heard of btc, tried it out and turned away,
upon returning in 2011, well, i realized what i lost.

Imho, every address that isn't touched since 2009 or so, is lost. With the exception of Satoshi's wallets, since i doubt he would have no backups, and it would make no sense not to have
a good amount of funds of your own creation. If he was to sell everything, that would make him look hypocritical.

cheers

256 BTC?? wow thats too much.
What was your reaction when you saw the bitcoin rising to 1000$? 
I lost private key with 0.05 btc so its nothing in compare to you.

Back in the day that i aquired that amount, it was worth virtually nothing, even the faucet was giving away 5 bitcoins per 24 hours/IP.
I randomly decided to own the same amount of btc as my laptop had ram memory (go figure), and knowing so little i backed up wallet.h instead of wallet.dat
I would be much more terrified if i lost them later on, after buying them at a much higher price, but i can't say that it doesn't hurt, even after all the years..

cheers

[Herbert2020]

i think it is safe to assume all satoshi's bitcoins as lost forever, not because of lost private keys or anything, i am sure he has all of them but because he is not going to use any of those coins.

[Valanor]

Every day i believe there are some "lost" coins. I had a wallet with exactly 256 btc that is lost forever aswell, back in 2009 i think, i just heard of btc, tried it out and turned away,
upon returning in 2011, well, i realized what i lost.

Imho, every address that isn't touched since 2009 or so, is lost. With the exception of Satoshi's wallets, since i doubt he would have no backups, and it would make no sense not to have
a good amount of funds of your own creation. If he was to sell everything, that would make him look hypocritical.

cheers

256 BTC?? wow thats too much.
What was your reaction when you saw the bitcoin rising to 1000$? 
I lost private key with 0.05 btc so its nothing in compare to you.

Back in the day that i aquired that amount, it was worth virtually nothing, even the faucet was giving away 5 bitcoins per 24 hours/IP.
I randomly decided to own the same amount of btc as my laptop had ram memory (go figure), and knowing so little i backed up wallet.h instead of wallet.dat
I would be much more terrified if i lost them later on, after buying them at a much higher price, but i can't say that it doesn't hurt, even after all the years..

cheers

Im late to know bitoin i remember coinbase give 0.1/user where he can upload bank documen or id card but im not try it i still play PTC,PPC and like that.
that a big amount lost in this time but nothing if price still 25cent