Is the number of available bitcoins decreasing?

[elizabethqueen]

Let me explain.  Bitcoins are constantly being created (mined) but bitcoins are constantly being lost also.  The number of bitcoins created per year is decreasing (by design) and we could assume that the number of bitcoins lost keeps increasing every year.  If this is true, then at some point the total number of bitcoins available (not lost) would decease because more are being lost than being created.  If it hasn't started happening yet, it will sometime in the future.

i have a logic for this,as i know bitcoin can be lost forever,i mean one bitcoin not gonna death,even that happen,just some bitcoins who will death,and everyday bitcoin born,i mean bitcoin mined,and this is make bitcoins amount grow and decrease.

[Raimonn]

The number of bitcoins is limited, now he have 25 btc more avaiable every (on average) 10 minuts, on halving we will have 12,5 bitcoins mined every 10 minuts. But we can't know how many btc were lost (users that lost private keys). Its something that we can't control.

[jod_doj]

yes it is decreasing as people are losing their private keys with bitcoins by accidentally deleting them and so on

[gentlemand]

Bitcoin losses are surely a fraction of what they were in the early days. Back then they were incredibly plentiful and borderline worthless. A bit ironic really that the highest supply was at a time when no one valued them.

I'm sure a decent number are lost but people will be far more careful. I remember reading about a guy who couldn't find anyone to sell to him on the otc channel. Someone gave him 2000 coins out of pity.

[HeroCat]

Bitcoins will be more and more, look at BTC China mining farms. May be someone save a lot of BTC, because wait for price increase. 

[Laosai]

Bitcoin losses are surely a fraction of what they were in the early days. Back then they were incredibly plentiful and borderline worthless. A bit ironic really that the highest supply was at a time when no one valued them.

I'm sure a decent number are lost but people will be far more careful. I remember reading about a guy who couldn't find anyone to sell to him on the otc channel. Someone gave him 2000 coins out of pity.

Yeah right now nobody loses significant amounts of btc. Though I have no doubt that people still lose some satoshis from time to time.

Maybe in a few centuries we'll have to raise a little bit the bitcoin cap just to compensate the btc losses ^^

[aardvark15]

Yes. Given that majority of the early adopters gave up on Bitcoin after several hacking incident or market crash, they would have deleted their private keys. This can also happen due to a hard drive failure and the user having no backups. This isn't a huge problem with Bitcoin. The number of decimals can be increased to compensate for the lower market supply.

It is impossible to determine whether a coin is truly lost or just the owner using the address as a cold storage till sometime later. It wouldn't be practical for the network to automatically recover those lost coins.

Yes there would be no way to recover the lost coins, plus some may not be lost but just being held.  I think it's obvious that the total number of bitcoins will decrease over time because of the lost or zombie bitcoins.

[Laosai]

Yes. Given that majority of the early adopters gave up on Bitcoin after several hacking incident or market crash, they would have deleted their private keys. This can also happen due to a hard drive failure and the user having no backups. This isn't a huge problem with Bitcoin. The number of decimals can be increased to compensate for the lower market supply.

It is impossible to determine whether a coin is truly lost or just the owner using the address as a cold storage till sometime later. It wouldn't be practical for the network to automatically recover those lost coins.

Yes there would be no way to recover the lost coins, plus some may not be lost but just being held.  I think it's obvious that the total number of bitcoins will decrease over time because of the lost or zombie bitcoins.

Yeah decreased over time, but this amount is insignificant compared to the total number of bitcoins

[socks435]

It will reduce more after halving so expect for the price increase.. This is good for others that they want to increase the value of the bitcoin but more stocks are lost.. Some users they forgot using bitcoin from their wallet so few bitcoins are stuck on any wallet.. thats why i think that bitcoin are lost.

[BTCBinary]

considering that many coins are lost and everyday some more bits are lost it may be that in the future the cheer number of bitcoins in circulation become fewer and fewer.

[aardvark15]

considering that many coins are lost and everyday some more bits are lost it may be that in the future the cheer number of bitcoins in circulation become fewer and fewer.

Yeah that's what I was getting at.  In fact once all bitcoins are mined (21 million), there will be a permanent net loss every time someone loses a satoshi.

[KiwiParty]

considering that many coins are lost and everyday some more bits are lost it may be that in the future the cheer number of bitcoins in circulation become fewer and fewer.

Yeah that's what I was getting at.  In fact once all bitcoins are mined (21 million), there will be a permanent net loss every time someone loses a satoshi.

The net loss could happen every day, depends on how much BTC are lost/destroyed.
The mining of new BTC will become less every 4 years, until the capacity of 21 million is reached.

It could happen that someone loses 10000 BTC at once. This is going to have impact.
But I doubt it is all good. Every lost BTC hurts, as they are needed to keep the transctions flowing.
The less BTC, the less income from transactions.
Nope, loosing them is a bad idea.
And probably one reason why BTC wont survive the future.
A much better approach are DogeCoins.
The inflation will become less and less over time,
and if the capitalization is going to incrase steadily,
this will be the currency of the future...

[treeguard]

now it is not decreasing i think because the bitcoins are capped at 21 million, even though people lose bitcoins they still dont disappear and stay in the wallet

[aardvark15]

now it is not decreasing i think because the bitcoins are capped at 21 million, even though people lose bitcoins they still dont disappear and stay in the wallet

The lost bitcoins stay in a wallet but are not recoverable, so basically they are permanently out of circulation.  Even though they are always there, they are not available to use any more.  So the number of "available" bitcoins will start to decrease at some time.

[Hugroll]

Let me explain.  Bitcoins are constantly being created (mined) but bitcoins are constantly being lost also.  The number of bitcoins created per year is decreasing (by design) and we could assume that the number of bitcoins lost keeps increasing every year.  If this is true, then at some point the total number of bitcoins available (not lost) would decease because more are being lost than being created.  If it hasn't started happening yet, it will sometime in the future.

yes im pretty sure there are tons of bitcoins being lost every day. i saw this thread on this forum once where people actually tried to keep track of all the reported losses. and it was a really big number

[EdenHazard]

i dont think so,i just thing bitcoins amount keep increasing because many people mining bitcoins,and bitcoin burial not so many as bitcoin mined.

[n0ne]

i dont think so,i just thing bitcoins amount keep increasing because many people mining bitcoins,and bitcoin burial not so many as bitcoin .mined.

Now a days not much people are into mining because of increased bitcoin as well electricity price and reduced profit for miners. Due to this many has ended mining. This might cause decrease in bitcoin in the coming years.

[fricircled]

Bitcoins will be more and more, look at BTC China mining farms. May be someone save a lot of BTC, because wait for price increase. 

The number of bitcoin is limited. Every day, there are loss of certain coins. So the total number will decrease eventually.

[arbitrage]

I don't see how all those lost coins can influence on bitcoin?
They are as same as in cold wallet ,they're not in circulation.
We have lots ( Enough ) coins in circulation i think.

With rising demand only price can rise. Supply will increase but slower.
This will cause more price rise and more distribution.

[willope]

Well, when you send btc to an address for the first time, you should send a very little amount (0.0001btc). If you recieve it, then you can send safely to that address. If not, you may have missed tipping the numbers (ctrl+c, ctrl+v helps a lot).
This way I never have lost any bitcoins.
But i've lost with mtgox, even if I think Karpeles still have them, so they aren't "lost" for the entire market.