How many Bitcoins are lost forever?

[roadbits]

Recently came through a post in which its described that he had lost 3000btc. It happened just because he lost the access to the wallet in which he had stored the entire thing without diversifying. Very few might have experienced such a big loss and I haven't lost in such a manner and most of my losses were through gambling.

This is a very large amount of Bitcoin to put into a single address. Several backups should have been made to avoid this. I hope this user has more Bitcoins saved in other places.

Keeping 3k bitcoins in the single wallet is a big risk, and he lost the coin just because of he lost the access to the wallet this reason is serious can believe. But anyway you said it's true, and that was his worst day in his life. I never lost like this and yes if I lost my coins it's in gambling other than this I never lost my coins in any other mistakes. But one time someone hacked my account and stole my coins it's just 0.05 BTC after that I secured my account with giving high security. 

[BitHodler]

Recently came through a post in which its described that he had lost 3000btc. It happened just because he lost the access to the wallet in which he had stored the entire thing without diversifying. Very few might have experienced such a big loss and I haven't lost in such a manner and most of my losses were through gambling.

This is a very large amount of Bitcoin to put into a single address. Several backups should have been made to avoid this. I hope this user has more Bitcoins saved in other places.

Keeping 3k bitcoins in the single wallet is a big risk, and he lost the coin just because of he lost the access to the wallet this reason is serious can believe. But anyway you said it's true, and that was his worst day in his life. I never lost like this and yes if I lost my coins it's in gambling other than this I never lost my coins in any other mistakes. But one time someone hacked my account and stole my coins it's just 0.05 BTC after that I secured my account with giving high security.  

It's different for each and every person as to what is being considered to be a safe amount per wallet.

One person spreads 10BTC into 5 different wallets, and another person spreads 10,000BTC into 5 wallets, and another person spreads 5000BTC into 25 wallets.

Based on that we can't really judge someone for having that many coins in just a single wallet. Only thing not wise to do is having everything into just 1 wallet. That's dumb.

[sourris01]

How can you calculate the actual number of bitcoin on the hands if cryptocurrency valyutni considered anonymous and no information about it except for the amount of iron transfer from the stock exchanges, no. This is a very difficult question, but perhaps there's an answer, which may give the experts in this field.

[canhchuacaro1]

There is no way of knowing how many coins are lost so i dont think it will affect the price. Total market cap of bitcoin will always be based of the total number mined and that is the number the market look at. Lost coins are just lost and nothing else...
Well as it has been said the more lost Bitcoins there are the better for us. But seriously though the more Bitcoins that go missing unlike fiat it will only drive the price up.
However, the whole premise of Bitcoin is that the probability of that happening is so small that it is virtually zero.

[betlord90]

That is an interesting question but unfortunately there is no way to ever know.  I am sure a lot of people got in at the beginning and became bored of it and just left or forgot about their wallets.  If only they could be recovered and distrubted to all!    That would be sweet!

I guess it would be better to do signature campaign than to find this lost bitcoin, right? Because like what you have said, there is no way to find those lost bitcoin in the internet, maybe there is, but I am sure that it is one of a kind process to find those bitcoins. It would just consume so much of our time and ended up with nothing. It would be better if we are just going to focus on the things that we are doing to earn bitcoin, to replace the lost bitcoin that we had.

[snowyNNN]

Does anyone know what is happened to all the coins lost from hacks? I mean those huge numbers of bitcoin taken from several exchanges.

Lets take the recent Bitfinex hack for example, will those coins be sellable through some kind of mixing service or are they marked thusly that they can´t be sold at an exchange? And if those coins have been sold is there evidence of this?

[moonya]

Does anyone know what is happened to all the coins lost from hacks? I mean those huge numbers of bitcoin taken from several exchanges.

Lets take the recent Bitfinex hack for example, will those coins be sellable through some kind of mixing service or are they marked thusly that they can´t be sold at an exchange? And if those coins have been sold is there evidence of this?

Hacker activity does not affect the fact how many bitcoin can be lost forever. It had to know the places or purses where they are stored without the hosts, then another matter, but if you bind the Exchange bitfinex, it is easy to implement the key transition from one owner to another and not more than that.

[berserkinterbuy]

That is an interesting question but unfortunately there is no way to ever know.  I am sure a lot of people got in at the beginning and became bored of it and just left or forgot about their wallets.  If only they could be recovered and distrubted to all!    That would be sweet!

I guess it would be better to do signature campaign than to find this lost bitcoin, right? Because like what you have said, there is no way to find those lost bitcoin in the internet, maybe there is, but I am sure that it is one of a kind process to find those bitcoins. It would just consume so much of our time and ended up with nothing. It would be better if we are just going to focus on the things that we are doing to earn bitcoin, to replace the lost bitcoin that we had.

I also believe that the search for and counting is a waste of time and that is simply unrealistic to implement such an idea. Moreover, what is the difference for the user, because it may not affect anything.

[Tanic]

It's very difficult question. I think it's impossible to calculate this coins. I guess on the net there are a lot of bitcoin wallets who get lost or who's users get lost. Who knows how many bitcoins in it? Who knows how take coins from there? I don't know.

[eduaro66]

It's very difficult question. I think it's impossible to calculate this coins. I guess on the net there are a lot of bitcoin wallets who get lost or who's users get lost. Who knows how many bitcoins in it? Who knows how take coins from there? I don't know.

If we take the example of, and more while bitcoin infancy, then a lot of people used it as a mere diversion and no more. So already at that time it had a lot of losses because of not serious attitude.

[rico666]

No Bitcoins are lost forever. Sooner or later we will find at least one of the 2⁹⁶ keys there are to every bitcoin address.

Rico

[chrisivl]

No Bitcoins are lost forever. Sooner or later we will find at least one of the 2⁹⁶ keys there are to every bitcoin address.

Rico

That someone has to deal with the search for and gather information about them. I agree that all the generation time bitcoin coins have his address and he had originally been recorded somewhere, and then let them get lost. But having found this information, they can be found. But this is only a theory.

[tyz]

Even it is very unlikely that an arbitrary key with Bitcoin balance is found, the site you have posted is kinda scary.
It shows that it is even possible that your Bicoins could be stolen without own mistakes.

No Bitcoins are lost forever. Sooner or later we will find at least one of the 2⁹⁶ keys there are to every bitcoin address.

Rico

[OrangeII]

Well, I have lost some of the bitcoin for some things, but I do not care about it, because I only do business. Well, business is like that, there's always missing money. probably almost 1 BTC, but it was not a problem, because instead may be more than that.

[boybugs18]

I dont think you can determine how much bitcoin has lost since it created and when people knows that their bitcoin has a good value they will surely go back in it and try their hardest to find that private key they have but if they can't find it I think that there are some ways to get the bitcoin back as long as they can provide some information about their wallet or something.

No Bitcoins are lost forever. Sooner or later we will find at least one of the 2⁹⁶ keys there are to every bitcoin address.

Rico

man do you have to run those rig for 24/7 just to achieve that?

[hdtqisg]

No one knows just when to see BTC was sent to the said accounts which are used

 

[Windpower]

There is really no way for us to know. Hopefully someone finds a way to see how many Bitcoins have been lost.

Recently came through a post in which its described that he had lost 3000btc. It happened just because he lost the access to the wallet in which he had stored the entire thing without diversifying. Very few might have experienced such a big loss and I haven't lost in such a manner and most of my losses were through gambling.

This is a very large amount of Bitcoin to put into a single address. Several backups should have been made to avoid this. I hope this user has more Bitcoins saved in other places.

If you had that kind of money, I doubt you would be stupid enough to keep all of it in one wallet. There is not doubt in my mind that he has a lot more Bitcoins in a safe place.

[n0ne]

Large number of bitcoins would have lost from the day of its existence. Most would have been lost due to the loss of private keys. In the early days when bitcoin was not much popular a person lost 7500 bitcoins which was stored in a hardware wallet thrown in a garbage. He did it by mistake without knowing its value, likewise many people might have encountered in similar mistakes. So calculating the entire loss of bitcoins is simply impossible.

[Gromozeka!]

Large number of bitcoins would have lost from the day of its existence. Most would have been lost due to the loss of private keys. In the early days when bitcoin was not much popular a person lost 7500 bitcoins which was stored in a hardware wallet thrown in a garbage. He did it by mistake without knowing its value, likewise many people might have encountered in similar mistakes. So calculating the entire loss of bitcoins is simply impossible.

And like a lot of stories, most certainly occurred at the start of bitcoin, when the network publish such stories become very sorry for these failed millionaires, because now they are just so, and would have been.

[Vorth]

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?

I guess its too big, large number of bitcoin now for sure but I think the only one that can know that is the developer or the bitcoin founders.