What will happen to bitcoins in an online wallet with lost password?

[Kray]

Suppose a person have some bitcoins in his online wallet and he forget the password (or lose access to that online wallet in any way) then what will happen to that bitcoins?Will that be there forever or as the wallet providers have access to them and they will get them if they find no any owner for years.

At first your coin will be there forever and after years coin still there wihout user activity maybe wallet provider will access your coin

[Text]

At first your coin will be there forever and after years coin still there wihout user activity maybe wallet provider will access your coin

They will notice it later on and as they monitor the inactive accounts they will surely grab those coins left by the user so bitcoin is not lossing completely.
Imagine those hackers can steal your money even they are not the admin of the site how much more those owners who have the full control of it.

[jtipt]

Suppose a person have some bitcoins in his online wallet and he forget the password (or lose access to that online wallet in any way) then what will happen to that bitcoins?Will that be there forever or as the wallet providers have access to them and they will get them if they find no any owner for years.

If the online wallet gives access to your private keys such as blockchain.info, then if you lose the password and every other way to access that wallet then the bitcoin on that private key will be lost forever. websites such as blockchain.info don't have access to your private key so there is no way they will be able to recover the bitcoin. On the other hand if we tall about an exchange wallet such as coinbase then its a little different story as they do not give access to your private key so they  'may' have access to your bitcoin.

[el kaka22]

On the other hand if we tall about an exchange wallet such as coinbase then its a little different story as they do not give access to your private key so they  'may' have access to your bitcoin.

Hopefully they will not touch those bitcoins until they run their business legit. For the case of Xapo, we will have the same amount of bitcoins until they are into the business.

There will be no big differences for the case of forgetting password with online wallets nor standalone wallets. Our bitcoin will remain unspent in most of the cases.

I read our central bank has millions worth of money unclaimed on numerous accounts as account holders discontinue banking for various reasons.Hence this will not be a new situation just due to bitcoin nor bitcoin's online wallet functionality. If you ask your insurer about unclaimed insurance amounts, you might get shocked.

[Hassan02]

At first your coin will be there forever and after years coin still there wihout user activity maybe wallet provider will access your coin

They will notice it later on and as they monitor the inactive accounts they will surely grab those coins left by the user so bitcoin is not lossing completely.
Imagine those hackers can steal your money even they are not the admin of the site how much more those owners who have the full control of it.

I also think of it they have full control of your wallet they can easily remove it  if ever they  want . Buy also depends what kind of online wallet you use.

[jtipt]

I read our central bank has millions worth of money unclaimed on numerous accounts as account holders discontinue banking for various reasons.Hence this will not be a new situation just due to bitcoin nor bitcoin's online wallet functionality. If you ask your insurer about unclaimed insurance amounts, you might get shocked.

Yes that's true, there is a lot of unclaimed money than we think. It is a similar case with bitcoin, there are a lot of unclaimed and lost bitcoin on private keys to which no one has access.

[Taki]

I have an idea that the owner of such online wallets have something for that case. Just like mobile operators who remove the number from their base if it is not used for 6 months; and if you had some money on that number account they are automatically stays at the compain. But for the correct information I suggest you to write to a support of one of such wallets.

[choppork]

Suppose a person have some bitcoins in his online wallet and he forget the password (or lose access to that online wallet in any way) then what will happen to that bitcoins?Will that be there forever or as the wallet providers have access to them and they will get them if they find no any owner for years.

You can always use the "forget password" feature or if the account was verified, prove to them that it's actually you. The online wallet that I'm using allow doing video calls, you just have to set a time with the support staff. They are really active and you can talk to different support staffs, just in case the one that you contacted before is offline.

There are also online wallets that allow you to import private keys. If you only imported the address using the private key, you don't have to worry at all since you can just create another wallet and import the same address.

When you can't do any of this, then I'm afraid that your bitcoins are lost forever. The only way for your coins to move again is when the online wallet gets hacked and all of the coins are sent to the hacker's wallet or if the online wallet you used chose to run away all the coins. Otherwise, it's there forever.

[DoublerHunter]

There nothing to happen if someone's lost their wallet password because it will just stay their and it will become untouchable because the wallet is locked by losing the password. But there still a way to get access to the account if you lost the password. If you still have the email which most of the online wallets requires then you can get the bitcoins back.

[Blitzboy]

People who use bitcoin web wallet suppose to keep their password safe and securely because there is only a small chance that you can recover your accounts especially to people who live in non-supported countries. That is why we should never use third party wallet. They can still our Bitcoin if they want to. Lol

[naughty1]

It's hard to say what will happen, I've used it and still use it, although it's not often. Online wallets always find the risk of losing money, because most of them use cloud data, and hackers can easily hack, steal information or get your money clean. This is really dangerous, I still use it because of the convenience, however, I only have a small amount of money there, that is the best way to ensure safety.

[Dmitry.Vastov]

You can still reset it. Online wallet are using email to receive notifications and confirmations. I reset my passwords very often lately because i dont remember them. Just go to "forgot password?". And the confirmation will receive thru your emal. Just make sure the email you registered is valid and functioning. You can contact also their support. If you use XAPO wallet. Be patient. They respond very late.

[doomistake]

Suppose a person have some bitcoins in his online wallet and he forget the password (or lose access to that online wallet in any way) then what will happen to that bitcoins?Will that be there forever or as the wallet providers have access to them and they will get them if they find no any owner for years.

It is easy to recover your online wallet password by your email that you have used on making that online wallet of yours, that is why it is important on remembering every details when you made an online wallet. You could just simply save all the important details in your PC or in your cellphone, as long as you know that it is safe.

Also, if you forgot the email that you have used, you can try to contact their Support team on that certain wallet, for you to ask help on retrieving your lost password.

[joshy23]

I don't think that they would be issue if you lost your password in an online wallet. My online wallet I'm using will make you enter you email or the phone number you used to register and then they'll just send a verification code to reset your password. The problem arises here if you change your phone number and forgot to update the information in your online wallet. Or if you can't remember the password of the email you used to register in your online wallet. So make sure you don't lose both information.

[SvenBomvolen]

I don't think that they would be issue if you lost your password in an online wallet. My online wallet I'm using will make you enter you email or the phone number you used to register and then they'll just send a verification code to reset your password. The problem arises here if you change your phone number and forgot to update the information in your online wallet. Or if you can't remember the password of the email you used to register in your online wallet. So make sure you don't lose both information.

It's all ok if you forgot the password and the site sends it to your e-mail. But I am wander what to do if a person died, for example? How in this case take his bitcoins? Maybe this bitcoins stays unlocked forever? Does anyone have an idea for this point?

[ivanst776]

Suppose a person have some bitcoins in his online wallet and he forget the password (or lose access to that online wallet in any way) then what will happen to that bitcoins?Will that be there forever or as the wallet providers have access to them and they will get them if they find no any owner for years.

There are many scenarios for this situation, for example if this person used coinbase, xapo or any other online wallet which does not provide private key then these bitcoins will move from one wallet to another within the company as they do this regularly.

So the balance to a user of these services is only in digits as a reference to their database, so whenever the user gets logged in back and requests to make a withdrawal or a transfer of these funds then the funds will be taken from the hot or cold wallet as regular.

[ethereumhunter]

Suppose a person have some bitcoins in his online wallet and he forget the password (or lose access to that online wallet in any way) then what will happen to that bitcoins?Will that be there forever or as the wallet providers have access to them and they will get them if they find no any owner for years.

i think the amount of bitcoin will stay in that online wallet without any one can access and maybe for the owner of the online wallet can not access unless the owner have your id and your password so he can login into your account. but i don't know what exactly will happen because i am still need learn about this later.

[SikatBray]

Online wallets are more or less can be retained. All you need to do it click 'forget password'. But in case you lost complete access to account, I think it will stay in your address but company can easily claim it as its own fund when it wishes so! So no disappearance of funds.

[jovs]

Tricky situation but the coins doesn't necessary have to be lost. Many web wallets have ways to,recover your funds, even if the password is lost, like blockchain. The best way is to contact the customer service, explain what happened and I'm sure there will be some kind of solution.

I guess the best answer on that problem is to always have an memo on your phone or even have a trust person to know you password. But i also think that the situation stated is impossible to happened especially to people with only one wallet or two. And if you are going to have multiple accounts i suggest that just pattent all your password acount as one for easy and for you to not forget your password.

[Rude Boy]

When a user loses his wallet, it has the effect of removing money out of circulation. Lost bitcoins still remain in the block chain just like other bitcoins. However, lost bitcoins remain dormant forever because there is no way for anybody to find the private key/keys that would allow them to be spent again. Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available, the ones that are left will be in higher demand and increase in value to compensate.