What about those bitcoins that are LOST?

[Sarthak]

I don't think so, and that's exactly why I opened the thread.
If the whole world will ideally begin to use Bitcoins, there won't be enough for everyday use.
1 satoshi will end up worth 100$ or so, and you can't really go shopping with that smallest coin.
I repeat: it's NOT an actual problem, but it MAY become in the future, even more when we consider that with time, Bitcoins are lost inevitably in different ways.
So the count is not even on 21 millions, but less.

We can always use an alternate currency for small transactions and use Bitcoins to Store wealth in that case

But i don't think a satoshi will ever touch $100.. lol :p

[1714538875]

1714538875

[1714538875]

1714538875

[1714538875]

1714538875

[1714538875]

1714538875

[1714538875]

1714538875

[momore]

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?

Is that to say it's better to use a online wallet?

[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?

Is that to say it's better to use a online wallet?

I personally don't trust much online wallets: seen too much crap happened in the past.

[b-trading]

I don't think so, and that's exactly why I opened the thread.
If the whole world will ideally begin to use Bitcoins, there won't be enough for everyday use.
1 satoshi will end up worth 100$ or so, and you can't really go shopping with that smallest coin.
I repeat: it's NOT an actual problem, but it MAY become in the future, even more when we consider that with time, Bitcoins are lost inevitably in different ways.
So the count is not even on 21 millions, but less.

We can always use an alternate currency for small transactions and use Bitcoins to Store wealth in that case

But i don't think a satoshi will ever touch $100.. lol :p

we will see it will happen later

[Trent Russell]

how can a bitcoin address have many private keys :O
every bitcoin address has just one private key!!!

No. There are 2²⁵⁶ private keys
And 2¹⁶⁰ addresses (hashes of compressed and uncompressed public keys)
So, there are ~2⁹⁶ private keys for each address

This is correct. Anyone surprised by this should read about the Pigeonhole Principle.

[btcjoin14]

Could that lead into situation in a distant future where there is too few bitcoins to supply and maintain desirable number of transactions? Let's say that even the smallest amount of bitcoin will be more expensive than the smallest amount of any currency. That could be a problem.

[runpaint]

Could that lead into situation in a distant future where there is too few bitcoins to supply and maintain desirable number of transactions? Let's say that even the smallest amount of bitcoin will be more expensive than the smallest amount of any currency. That could be a problem.

Holy shit have you told anyone about this yet?

[apriyani420]

Could that lead into situation in a distant future where there is too few bitcoins to supply and maintain desirable number of transactions? Let's say that even the smallest amount of bitcoin will be more expensive than the smallest amount of any currency. That could be a problem.

i believe that its nearly impossible, people wont loose that much money, also i think that its possible to let people mine more bitcoins than the current limit though its just my guess

[bitcollins85]

Could that lead into situation in a distant future where there is too few bitcoins to supply and maintain desirable number of transactions? Let's say that even the smallest amount of bitcoin will be more expensive than the smallest amount of any currency. That could be a problem.

If that was the case everyone participating in the network could agree that dividing a bitcoin into 8 decimal places isn't enough and up that amount to 16 or some other number, that wouldn't be a very controversial change to the protocol.

[CoinCidental]

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.

Relax, those are mine...
I'll move them when I'm good and ready

[Andy4.4]

They will never come back and they will rip.
If the developers try to get back them then it will be violation of the user's privacy and bitcoin will not remain secured.

[jones techbit]

it's not an actual problem the divisibility of Bitcoins is how the lost coins problem is handled and the increasing demand.