How many Bitcoins are lost forever?

[Mozdalifa17]

There's no way to calculate lost Bitcoins. But we do know that once they are lost, it is virtually impossible to get them back because you would need to get lucky with guessing the private key. There are probably Bitcoins lost every day, so this could help increase the value of the remaining Bitcoin.

i am not a programmer specialist but anytime in the future , someone might find possibility to return them back (lost bitcoin) , or even bitcoin foundation . ??

As far as I know it is possible to recover all passwords from the wallet if lost. Thus the risk of losing bitcoin reduced.

Thank you for the valuable information so bitcoin can be recovered in case you have .dat wallet or the sig key .

[kumax]

The bad thing about crypto-currency is that you cannot find it on the street or in the pocket of your old jeans like you can do with a physical coin.
If it's lost, it's forever. And I know that it could be re-discovered with brute compute force again, but to be honest, what are real chances?
You have a higher chance to find a briefcase with a million dollar on the street, than to find a private key of a lost bitcoin.

[vindyne8]

I've read these stories of those who lost 10,000 BTC or more. Unknown how many of them are true, but have to believe at least some are. People who lost a wallet on an old PC's HDD that died, without a backup, stuff like that. Crypto people are much more careful about these things today, but the general public is not so cautious. I can only imagine that as adoption increases, so will the total number of BTC lost forever increase. A lot.

[CyberKuro]

Try to read about bitcoin burn addresses that include to lost forever
The total number of unspendable bitcoins is 2,771.4086. This does not include situations like lost hardware and private keys.
http://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2016/12/21/btc-burn-addresses/
That's what based on data but we know more than those amount had been lost, just consider it's good for us due to the rest of coins worth slightly more and more for every bitcoin that lost.

[neonshium]

many but it will make BTC expensive , because   total investment / (total supply - total lost forever)   is more than total investment/ total supply

this is correct. bitcoin's totally circulation amount is reducing day by day. specially after those so many altcoin projects and their ICO... thousands of BTC still frozen in ICO escrow addresses. thats also a reason of bitcoin price increase.

[Wandering Soul~]

This is a great article about that: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/thousands-bitcoins-lost-time/ . It only says nuber of PROBABLY lost coins not the exact number of course . If there is article saying the exact numbers then it is definitely fake or untrustable data cause there is literally no way to determine it .

Some may see it as a problem when bitcoin has fully adopted and were running out of supplies . May be in the future 1 satoshi can be also divided into portions if a really huge number of bitcoins are lost .

Looking at the bright side, If the supply gets lower and the demand continuosly increasing then the price will be also .

[Positid]

many but it will make BTC expensive , because   total investment / (total supply - total lost forever)   is more than total investment/ total supply

this is correct. bitcoin's totally circulation amount is reducing day by day. specially after those so many altcoin projects and their ICO... thousands of BTC still frozen in ICO escrow addresses. thats also a reason of bitcoin price increase.

Certainly that is not the reason, do your know that when an ICO does not succeed, normally the investors will be refunded if such funds are in escrow. And how much really is the amount of ICO raise, it does not even reach 100,000 of bitcoins while we have millions of supply.

[Bitcoin0916]

Because bitcoin can not be controlled, of course we will be difficult to ascertain how much was lost. If someone say 100 btc, 1,000 btc, etc. it's just their opinion, because they cannot to prove.

[PokerFace3]

many but it will make BTC expensive , because   total investment / (total supply - total lost forever)   is more than total investment/ total supply

this is correct. bitcoin's totally circulation amount is reducing day by day. specially after those so many altcoin projects and their ICO... thousands of BTC still frozen in ICO escrow addresses. thats also a reason of bitcoin price increase.

The reason why the bitcoin circulation is frozen is because many people are holding and waiting of the price to get a $1000 so they start selling, and the constant demand on it drives the price even high and the higher the price the more people greed and hold the bitcoin even more, but we will see a big change in the price when it reaches $1000 or beyond that also.

[tyz]

It is only possible when you use a brain password. If password is chosen badly it could be that some time in the future someone will reaccess the Bitcoins. It does not really reduce the risk to lose Bitcoin. If you do not use a brain password it is almost impossible.

There's no way to calculate lost Bitcoins. But we do know that once they are lost, it is virtually impossible to get them back because you would need to get lucky with guessing the private key. There are probably Bitcoins lost every day, so this could help increase the value of the remaining Bitcoin.

i am not a programmer specialist but anytime in the future , someone might find possibility to return them back (lost bitcoin) , or even bitcoin foundation . ??

As far as I know it is possible to recover all passwords from the wallet if lost. Thus the risk of losing bitcoin reduced.

[mrkevio]

many but it will make BTC expensive , because   total investment / (total supply - total lost forever)   is more than total investment/ total supply

this is correct. bitcoin's totally circulation amount is reducing day by day. specially after those so many altcoin projects and their ICO... thousands of BTC still frozen in ICO escrow addresses. thats also a reason of bitcoin price increase.

The reason why the bitcoin circulation is frozen is because many people are holding and waiting of the price to get a $1000 so they start selling, and the constant demand on it drives the price even high and the higher the price the more people greed and hold the bitcoin even more, but we will see a big change in the price when it reaches $1000 or beyond that also.

And we reached $1000, and people still do not want to exchange it (I'm one of them). This is the bad part: you never know when the price gets to the top, and we're all looking for it to go even higher so pretty much nobody will  spend it right now except those that are scared that it'll go down. With every $10-$25 going up every day, you always want to hope it will not stop soon. I am also hoping it's going to skyrocket in a few months, but I don't know if it will really happen. If it does, then we will know that in four years the same thing will happen. The questions are: when will it happen and by how much will it go up?

[tyz]

This article has already been posted in the discussion. The listing only covers very well-known cases. Like this, where one has discarded his hard drive and after Bitcoin reaches $ 1000, he realized that he was actually a millionaire. But it does not show the many microbalances of Bitcoin that are lost daily just through usage.

This is a great article about that: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/thousands-bitcoins-lost-time/ . It only says nuber of PROBABLY lost coins not the exact number of course . If there is article saying the exact numbers then it is definitely fake or untrustable data cause there is literally no way to determine it .

Some may see it as a problem when bitcoin has fully adopted and were running out of supplies . May be in the future 1 satoshi can be also divided into portions if a really huge number of bitcoins are lost .

Looking at the bright side, If the supply gets lower and the demand continuosly increasing then the price will be also .

[pinoycash]

From the Dust Amount from faucets, from forgotten wallet. its ard to know how mych, i even got atleast 10 blockchain accounts since 2 years back and i forgot all about them due to newbie mistakes and it some satoshis left in each in every account

[ZlaiaZaia]

From the Dust Amount from faucets, from forgotten wallet. its ard to know how mych, i even got atleast 10 blockchain accounts since 2 years back and i forgot all about them due to newbie mistakes and it some satoshis left in each in every account

If you lose the keys is a big problem than just passwords from purses and accounts. It is always possible to restore access.

[one-day0]

This article has already been posted in the discussion. The listing only covers very well-known cases. Like this, where one has discarded his hard drive and after Bitcoin reaches $ 1000, he realized that he was actually a millionaire. But it does not show the many microbalances of Bitcoin that are lost daily just through usage.

This is a great article about that: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/thousands-bitcoins-lost-time/ . It only says nuber of PROBABLY lost coins not the exact number of course . If there is article saying the exact numbers then it is definitely fake or untrustable data cause there is literally no way to determine it .

Some may see it as a problem when bitcoin has fully adopted and were running out of supplies . May be in the future 1 satoshi can be also divided into portions if a really huge number of bitcoins are lost .

Looking at the bright side, If the supply gets lower and the demand continuosly increasing then the price will be also .

I can not understand why everyone is interested in the number of missing bitcoin. Is that what that is important. If someone has already started to earn bitcoin, it will not throw coins anywhere.

[Digitalbitcoin]

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?

Its very sensitive topic and I think every newbie must have to aware before doing procedure of own bitcoin wallet on own desktop or laptop even in web wallet also. Because if you have btc on particular wallet address but if you forget private keys of your wallet then it make big trouble. As no one can use that bitcoins without private keys.

[Zadicar]

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?

Its very sensitive topic and I think every newbie must have to aware before doing procedure of own bitcoin wallet on own desktop or laptop even in web wallet also. Because if you have btc on particular wallet address but if you forget private keys of your wallet then it make big trouble. As no one can use that bitcoins without private keys.

When we are completely newbie we should really learn how to use either online of offline wallet and remember on the important thing related into it and you are right if those wallet lost its private keys then it wont really be recovered no matter what which is considered as lost forever and just floating on bitcoin network.

[RealBitcoin]

Just look at the number of inactive bitcoins that havent moved in at least 2-3 years. Those coins should be >90% inactive.

They may not be lost, but its highly unlikely that they will be moved ever again. Now somebody make a script and parse through the blockchain for such transactions.

It would be interesting to know how many inactive addresses there are there.

[stomachgrowls]

Just look at the number of inactive bitcoins that havent moved in at least 2-3 years. Those coins should be >90% inactive.

They may not be lost, but its highly unlikely that they will be moved ever again. Now somebody make a script and parse through the blockchain for such transactions.

It would be interesting to know how many inactive addresses there are there.

>90% is just a huge percentage which is somehow impossible basing on the movement of bitcoin addresses throughout the blockchain but well you have said this thing then i wont argue.Thats a good news that someone create a script on which knows how many inactive addresses are there but one things for sure those addresses are composed of lost bitcoins and some are just built for storage for long term investments.

[eminem90]

Just look at the number of inactive bitcoins that havent moved in at least 2-3 years. Those coins should be >90% inactive.

They may not be lost, but its highly unlikely that they will be moved ever again. Now somebody make a script and parse through the blockchain for such transactions.

It would be interesting to know how many inactive addresses there are there.

>90% is just a huge percentage which is somehow impossible basing on the movement of bitcoin addresses throughout the blockchain but well you have said this thing then i wont argue.Thats a good news that someone create a script on which knows how many inactive addresses are there but one things for sure those addresses are composed of lost bitcoins and some are just built for storage for long term investments.

Bitcoin is often featured in various speculations about the financial operations cryptocurrency. But first of all it will all depend on what the price of bitcoin. Visit bitcoin were still in the early days of its inception, but not now.