Number of bitcoins lost forever

[odolvlobo]

Hopefully taking the proper precautions can protect large investors from hardware malfunctions!

Nobody should use a wallet that is not backed up and encrypted.

[1715014712]

1715014712

[1715014712]

1715014712

[Proboscis]

Who would want to say "this item costs 0.0000000001 bitcoin" compared to "this costs a dollar"? No one.

So no, people do not want to deal with decimal points. They like dealing with whole numbers. I'd like to see someone go to a bank and request $0.00023 dollars. lol

Call them Satoshis or mBits. Go to the bank, transfer 100mBits, go to the store, buy groceries. "That'll be 72 mBits, sir/ma'am"

[SirWilliam]

I have seen wide ranging estimates of this, and I think it's a very important question to study the bitcoin economy. A few public cases have been reported of large sums of bitcoin lost due to hardware malfunction, lost keys, etc . I assume a good chuck of the coins from the early days of mining have been lost. For instance when you look up the first 1000+ blocks a lot of the 50btc that were mined are still in the same addresses (most of them are different)  , I would assume these are lost ? unless you think they are  just dormant waiting on Satoshi to awaken hi master wallet ....

Good question!

[bitconic]

It's likely that >10% of the non technical users currently buying bitcoins because of the hype will lose them . I think one of the major challenges to a mass bitcoin adoption is that there's currently no safe / insured way for the non technical user to protect their wallet. The solution might come from serious online wallet providers legally backed by large capital or insurance contracts.

[bitconic]

Great article about this exact subject :

https://bitslog.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/the-well-deserved-fortune-of-satoshi-nakamoto/