What is happening with deleted btc wallets?

[ChrisPop]

As the topic's subject says my question is what happens to the bitcoins that were in deleted wallets? If they just dissapear what will happen when all the bitcoins will be mined? Bitcoins can't be printed out like banknotes isn't it?)

[Holliday]

As the topic's subject says my question is what happens to the bitcoins that were in deleted wallets? If they just dissapear what will happen when all the bitcoins will be mined? Bitcoins can't be printed out like banknotes isn't it?)

http://en.bitcoinwiki.org/Bitcoin_Myths#Lost_coins_can.27t_be_replaced_and_this_is_bad

[DiamondCardz]

They're gone.

We can always increase how much you can divide bitcoins by quite easily, though, and it's quite possible wallets including Bitcoin Core could change to have a smaller unit like mBTC or satoshi become the main unit if we ever go that far.

[ChrisPop]

They're gone.

We can always increase how much you can divide bitcoins by quite easily, though, and it's quite possible wallets including Bitcoin Core could change to have a smaller unit like mBTC or satoshi become the main unit if we ever go that far.

That could be the answer. I haven't thought about this,but using smaller units involves price grow isn't it?

[Trouble821]

There are lots of threads about how many Bitcoins are lost forever. These are two of the more recent ones. The last one tries to estimate the quantity of Bitcoins lost forever, but even if coins haven't moved since 2009 someone might have the key. Lost Bitcoins make the others more valuable

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1097562.0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7253.0

[maku]

Imagine this: if you damage, delete or lost your wallet/private key it is the same as you would burn your FIAT paper money. There is no going back.
The only way is to copy your wallet.dat or use wallet with some safety option - for example Electrum with its pass phrase functionality.

[DiamondCardz]

They're gone.

We can always increase how much you can divide bitcoins by quite easily, though, and it's quite possible wallets including Bitcoin Core could change to have a smaller unit like mBTC or satoshi become the main unit if we ever go that far.

That could be the answer. I haven't thought about this,but using smaller units involves price grow isn't it?

No. Using a smaller unit does not affect the price at all as it does not change the scarcity, it just makes it more divisible. It shouldn't have any major effect on the price other than increasing adoption slightly more possibly in a world where Bitcoin has become pretty big.

[7788bitcoin]

The chance of lost bitcoins to be found is zero, but who knows maybe there is one day someone is so so so lucky to generate the same private key? Then the bitcoin will become a hidden treasure!

[ajareselde]

The chance of lost bitcoins to be found is zero, but who knows maybe there is one day someone is so so so lucky to generate the same private key? Then the bitcoin will become a hidden treasure!

The chance of generating such address is the same as generating any other one, which is practically zero, otherwise noone would even use bitcoin out of fear someone will claim their coins.
You have much bigger chances of mining a block with your CPU than to generate an existing address.

[bitcoin567]

i guess the more people loose bitcoins the more their value increase

[ajareselde]

i guess the more people loose bitcoins the more their value increase

Yes it increases because the bitcoin max. of coins gets lower. The rarer the coin, the higher the price.
I guess you can consider people who lost their wallets/coins as eternal hodler's 

[gentlemand]

Imagine this: if you damage, delete or lost your wallet/private key it is the same as you would burn your FIAT paper money.

Actually, if they're damaged but identifiable you can get your bank notes replaced. If you actually lose them then that's that indeed.

[koshgel]

Imagine this: if you damage, delete or lost your wallet/private key it is the same as you would burn your FIAT paper money. There is no going back.
The only way is to copy your wallet.dat or use wallet with some safety option - for example Electrum with its pass phrase functionality.

There's a finite amount of Bitcoin and an "infinite" amount of fiat that can be printed.

[Arcteryx]

Imagine this: if you damage, delete or lost your wallet/private key it is the same as you would burn your FIAT paper money. There is no going back.
The only way is to copy your wallet.dat or use wallet with some safety option - for example Electrum with its pass phrase functionality.

There's a finite amount of Bitcoin and an "infinite" amount of fiat that can be printed.

If you think about it this way, then there is not going to be 21 million in circulation. Most people have lost their coins in this fashion, so essentially they are out of circulation.

[DiamondCardz]

If you think about it this way, then there is not going to be 21 million in circulation. Most people have lost their coins in this fashion, so essentially they are out of circulation.

Indeed. Many people believe that millions of Bitcoins have already been lost, for instance when the price was much lower and people forgot about them. If Bitcoin does become large then it is extremely likely we will see the main unit of Bitcoin shift to either the mBTC or satoshi, or possibly even lower with the amount that BTC is divisible by being increased.

[Blue_Tiger73]

If you delete an account, it is gone for ever. A Bitcoin wallet is just like a bank account, except you can't delete a bank account. It will take an extremely long time to mine every single Bitcoin. We will talk about that problem when it comes.                                 

[Amph]

if in the future thi will be a problem, i'm sure something can be done about it, like an hard fork, they want to hard fork to increase the 21M cap, they should instead think, first, about resurrecting those lost coins....

[Hugroll]

As the topic's subject says my question is what happens to the bitcoins that were in deleted wallets? If they just dissapear what will happen when all the bitcoins will be mined? Bitcoins can't be printed out like banknotes isn't it?)

the bitcoins themselves wont dissapear,if some extremely lucky soul manages to find the private key then they get the bitcoins. when all the bitcoins are mined i expect miners to run profitting on transaction fees.

[richardsNY]

As the topic's subject says my question is what happens to the bitcoins that were in deleted wallets? If they just dissapear what will happen when all the bitcoins will be mined? Bitcoins can't be printed out like banknotes isn't it?)

the bitcoins themselves wont dissapear,if some extremely lucky soul manages to find the private key then they get the bitcoins. when all the bitcoins are mined i expect miners to run profitting on transaction fees.

For pools to solely mine and get rewarded with just transaction fees the price has to be much and much higher. At least a few $K per coin. Glad we don't have to worry about that right now.

[chek2fire]

Satoshi has said never delete a wallet .dat