How many Bitcoins are lost forever?

[Rahar02]

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.

What a big loss for that man, lost $7500 bitcoins. I think store bitcoin on online wallet or paper wallet on safety box than hardware wallet that could be crash (damage) or throw by someone who does not know about your wallet.
As we can't determine how many bitcoin had been lost, there is no point thinking about it but surely it beneficial for the rest of bitcoin even though just a little bit.

[MFahad]

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.

I agree, it is big amount of bitcoin lost forever and still counting on that, many bitcoin just burned and lost and just gone.
And for sure no one can say this on how many where lost unless the developers got their details on this but I guess they have this like those frozen account which not is used for almost a year.

[kiklo]

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?

Answer : NONE

You just have to wait for a Quantum computer that can calculate the private keys. 


 

[tyz]

I just stambled over this thread in Beginners section. A guy bought 12 Bitcoins when they're very cheap and forgot about them. The PC with installed wallet was wiped so that private keys have been lost. Well, another 12 Bitcoins which are out of the race.

[tyz]

This has already been discussed in the history of this thread. Certainly, quantum computing could recover these lost coins again some day. But this technology will also be the end of Bitcoin (unless it will not be equiped with better quantum computing resistant algorithms before) and thus the recovered Bitcoins are completely worthless.

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?

Answer : NONE

You just have to wait for a Quantum computer that can calculate the private keys. 


 

[Bitcoinsummoner]

I just stambled over this thread in Beginners section. A guy bought 12 Bitcoins when they're very cheap and forgot about them. The PC with installed wallet was wiped so that private keys have been lost. Well, another 12 Bitcoins which are out of the race.

That was honestly we can say bad luck.. i cant sleep well if i lose that amount and the bad thing he do it with him self..
Wipeout.. why he did not recover it or restore the computer just to recover the file.. and i think there are some tools ther that you can recover the files.. like in Hirens bootable they have recovery option..

[Gameroid]

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.

I agree, it is big amount of bitcoin lost forever and still counting on that, many bitcoin just burned and lost and just gone.
And for sure no one can say this on how many where lost unless the developers got their details on this but I guess they have this like those frozen account which not is used for almost a year.

i think that it is not so easy t estimate that how many bitcoins have lost for ever. but it is a fact that there must lot of bitcoin lost, as some people may die and their wallet keys will be lost for ever, while other people my have lost their wallets keys for every. anyhow still a lot of bitcoin may be lost for every but i think no one know the fact about that.

[Tyrantt]

We've been discussing a solution to that problem (bitcoins that are lost due to people loosing).

Mainly, there would be a timer of about ~4-5 years or maybe even more that would return bitcoins to the original miner in case of those btc not being used in that period of time. Imo that would be a perfect solution to that problem, maybe push the time to 10yrs if needed in case people are keeping those bitcoins as a long time investment.

[Pattart]

I just stambled over this thread in Beginners section. A guy bought 12 Bitcoins when they're very cheap and forgot about them. The PC with installed wallet was wiped so that private keys have been lost. Well, another 12 Bitcoins which are out of the race.

That's why I prefer to keep most of my bitcoin in the local exchange. because I'm not going to lose the private key, when you forget the password I can use the facility forget password

[Weaver]

im sorry if this was asked before but, is there any site tracking the number of "dead" bitcoins?

[t2yax]

We all know that bitcoins sometimes lost, but as we can see, all bitcoins are there, and it will not lost. It only lost when they are not in used, it is right to be in the right track. For we can use these bitcoins, we should know the value of it, we know the kinds of bitcoins as we all know the altcoins. We could not determine if bitcoins are lost forever.

[GooCust04]

These results reach or impossible to calculate. As you can see the number of bitcoin losses, if no one knows the actual number of users even. It's impossible.

[sir.humus]

I can tell only from my own experience:
I lost almost half bitcoin because of lost keys, mobile phone malfunctions, and transfer requests to wrong addresses.
I learned from every mistake I've done, but I'm sure almost every user of bitcoin has some lost bitcoins because of similar mistakes.

[coinsocieties]

I hate to say, I lost my first few small amounts of BTC when I did not backup my wallet.  Now I use a number of different BTC wallets online, so I am sure they will not all disappear at one time.

[tabas]

im sorry if this was asked before but, is there any site tracking the number of "dead" bitcoins?

None, there is no way to track those dead/burned bitcoins. They are lost forever, we really can't have a way of knowing of how many they were lost even the experts, they are just estimating the amount of total lost bitcoins forever

[coinsocieties]

im sorry if this was asked before but, is there any site tracking the number of "dead" bitcoins?

None, there is no way to track those dead/burned bitcoins. They are lost forever, we really can't have a way of knowing of how many they were lost even the experts, they are just estimating the amount of total lost bitcoins forever

Would I be correct in saying that if there was a way to track them, you could not tell if they were being used or not, so you would not know where they really are from.  I am thinking I am wrong, for when I reread this, it does not make much sense to me, but I was thinking something interesting when i said it.  Tell me if you understand what I mean when I say this.

[E-shipper]

All online wallets under supervision and it seems to me that if someone from the users for many years will not appear, and it turns out that the purse is not claimed, it necessarily hacked and some of bitcoin is still not lost.

[BeGoods]

im sorry if this was asked before but, is there any site tracking the number of "dead" bitcoins?

None, there is no way to track those dead/burned bitcoins. They are lost forever, we really can't have a way of knowing of how many they were lost even the experts, they are just estimating the amount of total lost bitcoins forever

That's a result of decentralization where no center which will help you when things like this happen. in contrast to centralization. when you lose your money you can do contact support

[kumax]

im sorry if this was asked before but, is there any site tracking the number of "dead" bitcoins?

None, there is no way to track those dead/burned bitcoins. They are lost forever, we really can't have a way of knowing of how many they were lost even the experts, they are just estimating the amount of total lost bitcoins forever

That's a result of decentralization where no center which will help you when things like this happen. in contrast to centralization. when you lose your money you can do contact support

Unless your centralized currency is physical fiat and you loose your wallet on the street or accidentally drop your coins into the ocean.. then even centralized system wouldn't help you.
The bigger difference I can see is that the physical currency can be found again by you or someone else, but decentralized crypto is lost forever.

[iMaster]

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.