Can bitcoin quantity go down?

[housebtc]

The quantity of Bitcoin in circulation is less than the actual number in theory, some people have lost their private keys, Hard Disc crash and so on.  It can be lost and destroyed but we can have less than 21 million so the quantity has actually  go down

[ranochigo]

Bitcoin quantity can go down. In the early days, miners accidentally used a faulty software and claimed the reward that is less than 50BTC at the start of Bitcoin. The reference nodes will however, now reject transactions that has a coinbase that does not claim the full rewards+fees. This put a stop at the problem. The actual total possible Bitcoin is about 20.9Million BTC.

Coins are still being lost with people losing private keys and some burning it. The smaller denomination of Bitcoin will simply be worth more.

This  is  new  to me and   thanks  for the  info, can you show  a  link regarding  on this  information? On  how  bitcoin could  possibly go down its  quantity.

The rounding off of the block rewards will eventually introduce a slight problem. You can calculate it yourself, starting from halving 50BTC to the bottom.

The problem I highlighted was addressed in BIP30[1]. My apologies, I missed out on the fact that the block reward can be less than the expected amount. Corrected it in my original post.

[1] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0030.mediawiki

[CraigWrightBTC]

I have some bitcoins in an exchange and I found today that, without any transactions being made, the quantity has gone down.

I have contacted the exchange who have said:

the balance varies according to the prices that are floating

Is this correct? In my view the quantity of bitcoins I have should not fluctuate, only the value of said coins. Or am I missing something?

Any explanations would be great!

Should amount of bitcoins are stay if you don't trading to altcoins,withdrawal or losing some coins in trading. But your problem is strange where do you put the bitcoins? I think you must tell us it will give us more details, and if you have valid proof you can make open post on scam accusations.

[croutonhexagon]

If you wish you could leave bitcoin network with available bitcoin in your wallet and that amount would never be used by anyone and that amount would be called dark amount because it's useless and no one will use it again. So this would reduce the quantity of bitcoin in circulation

[bikbik2]

Overall,yes.
Bitcoin supply is planned to get lower as years are passing,because some private keys of addresses that contains bitcoins are getting lost over the time by people who just forgot about their wallet,lost their private key, or were just dead and got their bitcoins lost.

Everytime a bitcoin is being lost it is a pure benefit to the community as it makes less bitcoins in circulations which will always make the price go higher.

It is difficult to imagine the difficulties of such a scale. It is not surprising that many have begun to complain about the safety of their wallets. But to disappear there is no place. How to legally defend themselves in such a case.

[olyaru]

If you wish you could leave bitcoin network with available bitcoin in your wallet and that amount would never be used by anyone and that amount would be called dark amount because it's useless and no one will use it again. So this would reduce the quantity of bitcoin in circulation

Why then write your bitcoin forever if you can still use coins for their own needs, I do not care if they do not want more to apply.

[Mirconome]

I have some bitcoins in an exchange and I found today that, without any transactions being made, the quantity has gone down.

I have contacted the exchange who have said:

the balance varies according to the prices that are floating

Is this correct? In my view the quantity of bitcoins I have should not fluctuate, only the value of said coins. Or am I missing something?

Any explanations would be great!

Should amount of bitcoins are stay if you don't trading to altcoins,withdrawal or losing some coins in trading. But your problem is strange where do you put the bitcoins? I think you must tell us it will give us more details, and if you have valid proof you can make open post on scam accusations.

I think this is empty talk, and came to nothing lead. If someone accuses someone, you need evidence to make us believe, but on the other hand, we do not solve the problem and demand can not do anything.

[xIIImaL]

If you wish you could leave bitcoin network with available bitcoin in your wallet and that amount would never be used by anyone and that amount would be called dark amount because it's useless and no one will use it again. So this would reduce the quantity of bitcoin in circulation

circulation will be affects when the wallet is holding with big funds else nothing will affect. Due to halving mining only will become half. this is only thing can go down nothing else.

[crairezx20]

I have some bitcoins in an exchange and I found today that, without any transactions being made, the quantity has gone down.

I have contacted the exchange who have said:

the balance varies according to the prices that are floating

Is this correct? In my view the quantity of bitcoins I have should not fluctuate, only the value of said coins. Or am I missing something?

Any explanations would be great!

Should amount of bitcoins are stay if you don't trading to altcoins,withdrawal or losing some coins in trading. But your problem is strange where do you put the bitcoins? I think you must tell us it will give us more details, and if you have valid proof you can make open post on scam accusations.

I think  there is no exchange site are saying this thing and maybe you are scammed by that exchange site it is impossible to reduce or deducted it without using it is impossible what site you are holding your bitcoins better to share it with us to know if it is scam or not..

[LiberOptions]

The only way for the quantity of bitcoin to go down is if many of the bitcoins owned become unaccessible by their owners. If they loose the private keys for their coins those coins will no longer be moved. As for the protocol it will ever bethe same no matter what, so only 21 million coins will be ever produced

[error08]

The only way for the quantity of bitcoin to go down is if many of the bitcoins owned become unaccessible by their owners. If they loose the private keys for their coins those coins will no longer be moved. As for the protocol it will ever bethe same no matter what, so only 21 million coins will be ever produced

Have you guys read front page of the thread, I think the OP question already answered and consider solved.
The exchanges 'Bleutrade' seems strange which charge fees to balance that stored so the quantity go down (not bitcoin in circulation he mean)

[Velkro]

Any explanations would be great!

a little apart from your question, in general and in theory bitcoin quantity can't go down, because its fixed 21 000 000 thats it
in reality, quantity goes down all the time, because some people loosing access to their bitcoins, other passing away without giving their private keys to ancestors, bitcoin are sent to addresses that noone own, so can't be retrieved etc.
So real quantity of bitcoin is not 21 000 000, actually is around maximum 17 000 000, 4 000 000 lost already

[BlokF4No27]

The quantity of Bitcoin in circulation is less than the actual number in theory, some people have lost their private keys, Hard Disc crash and so on.  It can be lost and destroyed but we can have less than 21 million so the quantity has actually  go down

Yes, many peoples lost their bitcoin, so it can make bitcoin quantity go down. If someone have bitcoin and save in offline wallet and die, the bitcoin is never found again.

[kidoseagle0312]

I think it does not go down. This thing only happens during halving as far as  i know developers will make a halving period in order to minimize the over sized of bitcoin's amount so they decided that during halving  the bitcoin quantity will be divided into half.

I agreed with you,  the quantity of bitcoin is not the basis to make bitcoin go down. If ever bitcoin go down it means there is no bitcoin enthusiast left in cryptoworld. But for what is happening now is not like that instead, bitcoin getting more stable as time past by.

[thejaytiesto]

Bitcoin quantity goes down constantly, people lose them accidentally, they lose them by losing their hard drives, trezors, cold storage wallet papers... this will keep happening again and again, there's no stopping on those accidents. The good news is: if you take care of your bitcoins and do backups, you will enjoy the supply shrinking as the price goes up. Soon the generation of mined bitcoin reward will be too low and the amount of lost bitcoins will be higher, thus pushing the price higher.

[clickerz]

The quantity of Bitcoin in circulation is less than the actual number in theory, some people have lost their private keys, Hard Disc crash and so on.  It can be lost and destroyed but we can have less than 21 million so the quantity has actually  go down

Agree and it always happen that some people lost their private keys and cannot retrieve their wallet. The coins is lost forever. Hard disk crash, it happens to me on other coins.

[hurain]

The quantity of Bitcoin in circulation is less than the actual number in theory, some people have lost their private keys, Hard Disc crash and so on.  It can be lost and destroyed but we can have less than 21 million so the quantity has actually  go down

but to me the quantity is not going down, it is faxed, for example i have 100 BTC so its number cannot decrease, it will remain 100 for ever, so i will  like to say that its price cannot decrease.

[serjent05]

Bitcoin quantity goes down constantly, people lose them accidentally, they lose them by losing their hard drives, trezors, cold storage wallet papers... this will keep happening again and again, there's no stopping on those accidents. The good news is: if you take care of your bitcoins and do backups, you will enjoy the supply shrinking as the price goes up. Soon the generation of mined bitcoin reward will be too low and the amount of lost bitcoins will be higher, thus pushing the price higher.

Well I think someone should define something here.  There is a difference between total bitcoin in circulation and the actual total quantity of bitcoin.  There maybe a total of 21 million bitcoins when all bitcoins were mined but there will be less than 21 million in circulation (movable) because many users have lost their private key or just as the other said, died without anyone knowing that the person has bitcoin.

[mace15]

i think that bitcoin  quantity will never  go down because bitcoin is very useful and and everyone using bitcoin for online shopping and many people use bitcoin as investment so bitcoin are going ahead and every company are adopting bitcoin for their own business.

I agree with you bitcoin quantity cannot goes down. As bitcoin is becoming
popular in every country and it is being used by bitcoiners. However,
bitcoin has a massive adoption through its community.

[eternalgloom]

The quantity of Bitcoin in circulation is less than the actual number in theory, some people have lost their private keys, Hard Disc crash and so on.  It can be lost and destroyed but we can have less than 21 million so the quantity has actually  go down

Agree and it always happen that some people lost their private keys and cannot retrieve their wallet. The coins is lost forever. Hard disk crash, it happens to me on other coins.

It's also pretty safe to assume that all of the coins mined by Satoshi himself in the beginning will never be spent.
That's already a huge chuck.