Is there a long-term strategy to deal with "lost" bitcoins?

[isen]

I'm not aware of all online wallet's policies but my guess is that some of them will open their users accounts after some years of inactivity anb get their coins.

[Wendigo]

Sounds like its actually a good idea to open up some sort of business helping people with lost passwords ect. You could charge a fortune but is it even possible. How long can it take to try and crack the wallet.

I don't think passwords can be randomly brute-forced without providing a hint first for a combination of possible words used in the creation of the password. Forgetting the password would mean the Bitcons in that wallet are simply not recoverable with conventional means unless people use the immense calculating power of quantum computing. However right now we can't do much to rescue the 'lost' Bitcoins ourselves but we could use the services of people who specialize in lost data recovery. I believe there was one guy particularly skilled in Bitcoin wallet recovery but I can't remember what his website was called. He has done some gigs for a lot of Bitcoin companies though and his website was posted here before.

[franky1]

I'm not aware of all online wallet's policies but my guess is that some of them will open their users accounts after some years of inactivity anb get their coins.

if you hand over funds to an online service. the funds are no longer your "property".. but instead "credit" held on an sql database

imagine it this way
imagine you had FIAT in your checking account. but you decided to let someone 'manage' it for you. first deposit into their account
then later
you do not personally reach into their pocket and sign the checks for them to just to post. instead you tell them (withdrawal request) how much you want to move and where you want it moved.

they then check their little book to make sure you have credit(sql database). and then they sign the check with their handwriting moving funds from their holdings to the destination..
if they cannot identify you as the credit holder(forgot password). you will not be able to request funds moved. and you definitely cant sign a transaction because the funds are on only recognised by signatures made by the other person. not you

in short
do not rely on online services. dont rely on passwords.. unless you have the private keys, you have nothing

[Amph]

they are a good donation to the comunity, they increase the value of the remining coins, soit's not a bad thing

now if the whole majority would be lost, that another thing, problably it would start to be a problem, if millions of coins were lost

[franky1]

Sounds like its actually a good idea to open up some sort of business helping people with lost passwords ect. You could charge a fortune but is it even possible. How long can it take to try and crack the wallet.

I don't think passwords can be randomly brute-forced without providing a hint first for a combination of possible words used in the creation of the password. Forgetting the password would mean the Bitcons in that wallet are simply not recoverable with conventional means unless people use the immense calculating power of quantum computing. However right now we can't do much to rescue the 'lost' Bitcoins ourselves but we could use the services of people who specialize in lost data recovery. I believe there was one guy particularly skilled in Bitcoin wallet recovery but I can't remember what his website was called. He has done some gigs for a lot of Bitcoin companies though and his website was posted here before.

passwords are indeed brute forcable..
however the "entropy" (amount of characters) of a private key is far far far larger then most people use for a password
passwords are weak
passwords that only let you have access to your "credit" while the service providor holds the real private keys makes it even worse

this is why you should store your private keys.. and why HDwallet seeds are much better. because you only need to store one high entropy collection of words once, to have access to a whole supply of more private keys then youll ever need

[bones261]

This will not even be a problem for quite sometime since the amount of new coins mined will exceed the amount possibly being lost for quite a while. The first problem may very well be the time when computing becomes so fast, that using a brute force attack, generating private keys to steal coins, actually becomes feasible.

[crazyivan]

Why should there be any strategy? People need to take care of their property. BTC lost means less BTC in the market which translates to a higher price.

One of the biggest strong BTC points is scarcity and limited number.

So, PLEASE make sure to protect your property.

[Edwardard]

People will forget/lose their wallet passwords. For some multisig wallets, some funds will never be released due to disagreements. Over time, the number of BTC in circulation will decrease because of these things. I don't want to use the word "risk" because this is more like an inevitability, but has a mitigation strategy been planned for this?

i think this strategy should work: check your wallet everyday or atleast once in a week but dont spend anything from it. it will help you remember your password every week you log in. i follow this strategy for long term holding.

[bones261]

Why should there be any strategy? People need to take care of their property. BTC lost means less BTC in the market which translates to a higher price.

One of the biggest strong BTC points is scarcity and limited number.

So, PLEASE make sure to protect your property.

Unfortunately, every way to store your Bitcoins is not fail safe. The data can be destroyed or stolen. You could try redundancy, so that your risk of it being totally destroyed is negligible, however; each copy that you make increases the chance of theft...
Also, if you make it too safe, if you die unexpectedly, no one will be able to recover your coins. However, if you share the access of coins with other(s), betrayal can be a bitch. Remember, the person in the best position to betray you, is the one you trust the most.

[Rubberduckie]

thats honestly the biggest problem I have in getting new people involved
with bitcoin.

Everyone is so worried they will lose the wallet or not back it up properly

[c789]

Thanks all, good replies, esp. franky1. I agree tail emissions or other ways of creating additional BTC in the future should not be created.

It sounds like the consensus answer to my OP is essentially "nothing should be done because the value of the 'free' BTC should increase since it would be  more scarce."

Sounds good to me. Thanks all!

[pedrog]

That's the plan, they get lost, more valuable the rest of our coins are.

Think of it as a donation to the rest of us.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198.msg1647#msg1647

[StoreBit]

hearing about this from the people but not conform. i think it will take a little more time to do so. i have a friend who is really expert in bitcoin i think he will know better about this.

[Rizky Aditya]

You just need to be smart about what you do. Keep your passwords safe and don't get into any disagreements. It is pretty simple.