What about those bitcoins that are LOST?

[GODLIKE]

And I mean really, really lost.
A lot of people can't remember their passwords after 4 minutes since they set it up.
But apart this, there's several ways bitcoins can get lost, like in example if you have a wallet on a USB key and this breaks and you have no cold backup.

This will inevitably bring, in the future, to less than those 21 million cap.
And they WILL keep going down.

Is there a plan to reintegrate them?

[1714121071]

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[1714121071]

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[amaclin]

Is there a plan to reintegrate them?

No reason to do it.
But majority can change consensus rules any time.

[monsanto]

And I mean really, really lost.
A lot of people can't remember their passwords after 4 minutes since they set it up.
But apart this, there's several ways bitcoins can get lost, like in example if you have a wallet on a USB key and this breaks and you have no cold backup.

This will inevitably bring, in the future, to less than those 21 million cap.
And they WILL keep going down.

Is there a plan to reintegrate them?

Lost coins reduce supply of bitcoins. Supply goes down, price goes up. You can divide Bitcoin however you want, so unless I'm missing something, it shouldn't be a problem.

[CoinCidental]

if there was a way to regenerate lost coins ,people would also want a way to regenerate stolen coins and it would leave a huge hole in the system
of who decides when and if a coin is truely lost forever ........

some coins may appear lost and are in someones inheritance who is still a baby etc

satoshis coins may well be unretrievable ,but whos to say he wont come back and retrieve them ? the core principals of bitcoin
were a finite money supply without any manipulation possible ,i would like it to stay that way

[NorrisK]

And I mean really, really lost.
A lot of people can't remember their passwords after 4 minutes since they set it up.
But apart this, there's several ways bitcoins can get lost, like in example if you have a wallet on a USB key and this breaks and you have no cold backup.

This will inevitably bring, in the future, to less than those 21 million cap.
And they WILL keep going down.

Is there a plan to reintegrate them?

There is no way to prove that a coin is lost, unless it was send to a burn address.. Most coins that are lost therefore, are not really lost, only forgotten. Reclaiming those would be like creating double coins.

[pooya87]

And I mean really, really lost.
A lot of people can't remember their passwords after 4 minutes since they set it up.
But apart this, there's several ways bitcoins can get lost, like in example if you have a wallet on a USB key and this breaks and you have no cold backup.

This will inevitably bring, in the future, to less than those 21 million cap.
And they WILL keep going down.

Is there a plan to reintegrate them?

you need not worry about the future when the 21 million cap is reached because it is far far away.

also the price of bitcoin will determine whether the amount of available bitcoin is enough or not, besides there is not just 21 mil BTC there is much more because you have to consider every digit after the point too. i mean 1 satoshi (1e-8BTC) is usable and have value.

additionally 1 satoshi can be broken down into smaller units if needs be, with a simple change in the code.

[mindrust]

Lost Bitcoins is a good thing actually. They make your unlost bitcoins more valuable. (As long as the lost ones aren't yours of course)

[GODLIKE]

OK I'll try to be more clear.

Case: 10 years from now, developers uncover that 5% of BTC are unused, since 10 years.
Those wallets are much probably lost. Users don't use those coins for the simple reason they have lost their keys.
Hypothesis: reintegrate those coins by mining them back.

Another case: coins WILL keep being lost as time goes, this happens with fiat money, and WILL happen with Bitcoin.
For a long time now there won't be any problem of course, but IF Bitcoin will become a hugely widespread currency, as we all hope, then this WILL be a problem.

[GODLIKE]

Lost Bitcoins is a good thing actually. They make your unlost bitcoins more valuable. (As long as the lost ones aren't yours of course)

I don't think so: nobody knows anybody has lost his coins, there's no way to know it, apart the case I exposed in the previous post, or by admission of the user himself, which can be fraudulent.
AT THE MOMENT the value of your coins is UNAFFECTED by lost coins.
In the future, when we'll hit the wall, THEN this may affect it, as less and less coins will be in circulation.

[GODLIKE]

And I mean really, really lost.
A lot of people can't remember their passwords after 4 minutes since they set it up.
But apart this, there's several ways bitcoins can get lost, like in example if you have a wallet on a USB key and this breaks and you have no cold backup.

This will inevitably bring, in the future, to less than those 21 million cap.
And they WILL keep going down.

Is there a plan to reintegrate them?

you need not worry about the future when the 21 million cap is reached because it is far far away.

also the price of bitcoin will determine whether the amount of available bitcoin is enough or not, besides there is not just 21 mil BTC there is much more because you have to consider every digit after the point too. i mean 1 satoshi (1e-8BTC) is usable and have value.

additionally 1 satoshi can be broken down into smaller units if needs be, with a simple change in the code.

I agree with this: it's not an actual problem. It may become a problem in the future.
But if what you say is true, that also Satoshis can be divided, then there is no problem at all, I guess.
But I've never read anything about this, are you sure this can be done?

[Amph]

Lost Bitcoins is a good thing actually. They make your unlost bitcoins more valuable. (As long as the lost ones aren't yours of course)

I don't think so: nobody knows anybody has lost his coins, there's no way to know it, apart the case I exposed in the previous post, or by admission of the user himself, which can be fraudulent.
AT THE MOMENT the value of your coins is UNAFFECTED by lost coins.
In the future, when we'll hit the wall, THEN this may affect it, as less and less coins will be in circulation.

i presume that the impact would be very low on the market, do not expect an huge rise in demand only because 30% of coins are lost, people simply will buy less one whole btc and more satoshi or bits

[Hazir]

Lost coins are actually good for the bitcoin in general. Satoshi once said that lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.
So this is not a problem, there is no need for 'recreate' initiatives, because it would not be wise imo.

[ausbit]

A good question OP i have thought about this before.
Interesting answers so far but 2 questions of my own

1) Who would sign off on the coins actually being lost and would we ever trust any 1 person to do this?
2) I know there is a blockchain.info address that you can send coins to that can never be recovered, do these coins get replaced? Can anyone supply that address for me please?

[GODLIKE]

Lost Bitcoins is a good thing actually. They make your unlost bitcoins more valuable. (As long as the lost ones aren't yours of course)

I don't think so: nobody knows anybody has lost his coins, there's no way to know it, apart the case I exposed in the previous post, or by admission of the user himself, which can be fraudulent.
AT THE MOMENT the value of your coins is UNAFFECTED by lost coins.
In the future, when we'll hit the wall, THEN this may affect it, as less and less coins will be in circulation.

i presume that the impact would be very low on the market, do not expect an huge rise in demand only because 30% of coins are lost, people simply will buy less one whole btc and more satoshi or bits

Not like that.
In a possible future that we all are hoping, Bitcoins will be a used everywhere by everyone.
There will actually be scarcity of them.
People won't BUY bitcoins: they will USE them and EARN them with their work (until AI and robotics will take all of that...).

[newb4now]

"Lost" coins are gone forever until/unless the private key is later found.

Hopefully the first time someone loses their private key it is for a small amount of BTC so that they can learn a lesson without a major loss.

Some people have lost a lot (such as throwing away computers by accident before BTC was worth anything) without ever creating a backup.

I think a few major exchanges have lost coins by accidentally wiping keys during server updates

[GODLIKE]

Lost coins are actually good for the bitcoin in general. Satoshi once said that lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.
So this is not a problem, there is no need for 'recreate' initiatives, because it would not be wise imo.

Around one year ago, I made a quick count and found that 21 million BTC, if they would be distributed to cover ALL the Earth wealth (241 trillions), they would be not granular enough to be used as currency.
To say it another way: a single Satoshi would be valued something like 50 or 100 $, and couldn't be used for shopping in a comfortable way.

Now, of course this is an utopian scenario, but it still is a POSSIBLE scenario, and one that we all hope will be one day reached.
Sure there's alternatives out there: Litecoin could come into play as THE alternative for everyday transactions, it also has a much higher cap, it would be the silver of cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin could be the gold.
But still: each Bitcoin or Satoshi lost, in a scenario where all Bitcoins are used, would represent a failure when granularity is not enough.

[GODLIKE]

A good question OP i have thought about this before.
Interesting answers so far but 2 questions of my own

1) Who would sign off on the coins actually being lost and would we ever trust any 1 person to do this?
2) I know there is a blockchain.info address that you can send coins to that can never be recovered, do these coins get replaced? Can anyone supply that address for me please?

I presented a way to "spot" lost coins: they would be out of use since years and years.

[GODLIKE]

I can propose an even worse scenario: let's say that USA now bans Bitcoins.
FBI could, after taking them from criminals, instead than resell them on the market, just burn and lose the keys to recover them.
We are talking about thousands of BTC wasted in each major operation and a continuous waste in smaller operations.
Actually, this would be possibly the only way to neutralize a cryptocurrency: bleed it to death.

[Amph]

Lost Bitcoins is a good thing actually. They make your unlost bitcoins more valuable. (As long as the lost ones aren't yours of course)

I don't think so: nobody knows anybody has lost his coins, there's no way to know it, apart the case I exposed in the previous post, or by admission of the user himself, which can be fraudulent.
AT THE MOMENT the value of your coins is UNAFFECTED by lost coins.
In the future, when we'll hit the wall, THEN this may affect it, as less and less coins will be in circulation.

i presume that the impact would be very low on the market, do not expect an huge rise in demand only because 30% of coins are lost, people simply will buy less one whole btc and more satoshi or bits

Not like that.
In a possible future that we all are hoping, Bitcoins will be a used everywhere by everyone.
There will actually be scarcity of them.
People won't BUY bitcoins: they will USE them and EARN them with their work (until AI and robotics will take all of that...).

i was talking about the impact that lost coins may have, and it isn't so great as a many think, let's say that 10.5M are lost, this would bring (by logic) the price to x2 at best

there is no other reason why it should go to x100 or whatever crazy value, because we have only lost 50% of total supply

[Hopalong]

A good question OP i have thought about this before.
Interesting answers so far but 2 questions of my own

1) Who would sign off on the coins actually being lost and would we ever trust any 1 person to do this?
2) I know there is a blockchain.info address that you can send coins to that can never be recovered, do these coins get replaced? Can anyone supply that address for me please?

I presented a way to "spot" lost coins: they would be out of use since years and years.

Bitcoins has not been around since years and years but last year 5,5 million bitcoin was untouched for more than 2 years.