Bitcoin out of circulation

[willmsnow]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

[jseverson]

They'll be out of circulation and are lost forever. Maybe you could try to brute force your way into them, but it's unlikely the lost coins will see the light of day with Bitcoin's security. Either way, it's one of the cons of decentralization. You're in charge of security and safe keeping and you yourself are the only one accountable.

[Kakmakr]

Why would you worry about that? The less bitcoins in circulation the higher the price. < based on a reduction in supply > This is why most people are saying the <1 000 000> Satoshi coins should stay out of circulation, because it will have a huge impact on the supply, if it was dumped on the market.

A lot of bitcoins are lost every year and this just increase the scarcity of the coins. ^smile^

[pooya87]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

no private key, no bitcoin.

yes, if the private keys related to any sum of bitcoin is lost due to anything like hardware failure, human mistakes, death,... they will be lost. and there are no way to recover those coins except to try and recover the private keys for example to try recovering your hardware or see if the deceased has any will.
however the amount is not that much to raise any concerns.

[Graphics]

That is not a problem but a strength of the coin.
It matters not because in the future it can be decided to simply divide every bitcoin to 20 decimal or more so it will simply increase the value of every bitcoin.

[nkarm1]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

They will be out in the circulation until someone created a software that runs in a super fast computer that can brute force hack their private keys. And right now it's extremely improbable, the security of the blockchain is way to hard to hack. So if you'd​ lost your keys, you will not recover it. This is the common mistakes of early birds in bitcoins, they taught that thousands of bitcoin is just a waste so they just threw their keys out. Now it is worth millions of dollars but they can't recover them.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Yes, that has already happened and it will keep happening but the good news is that those who keep their bitcoins and don’t forget their keys will have more value. If there is the same demand or more and there are less btc, price goes up.

There will be no problem for the use of bitcoin tough, because even if, like 15 million bitcoins get lost, satoshis will be used. Bitcoins could be subdivided even more so there would be enough bitcoin currency to be used by millions and millions of people around the world.

[faisalalex]

They'll be out of circulation. Maybe you could try to brute force your way into them, but it's unlikely the lost coins will see the light of day with Bitcoin's security. Either way, it's one of the cons of decentralization.

[The_prodigy]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

Its like you're in real life and you die with your wallet. And no one touched your pockets or anything. You'll have your money out of circulation and that there woould nobody be able to get them for you. If there is a way the user might hve to expressly detail it somewhere so that another can have access on it.

[djsugar]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

They'll be out of circulation. Only way to retrieve them is private keys. Unless anyone has it, nobody can do anything with those Bitcoins and will remain as it is. This have happened to many people who bought their Bitcoins in 2009-2010 and didn't expect much from it and now have forgotten their private keys. I have a friend who had a similar experience. He has almost 100 BTC in a wallet and now he has forgotten his wallet keys. This might not be a problem right now. But a backlog might be created this way after like 50-100 years from now if Bitcoin existed.

[hatshepsut93]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

To get access to Bitcoins you need to know corresponding private keys, and usually they are stored in special wallet files or printed on paper wallet. So it really depends on how that person was storing them - the easiest case if there is a paper wallet or a flash drive with unencrypted wallet file or a piece of paper with a wallet seed written on it. All this allows to easily recover bitcoins. But usually wallet file in encrypted, so you would have to crack it, which will depend on how strong the password was. But in the future (20-30 years from now), the AES cypher might be easily broken, so recovering bitcoins from wallet files will become viable. But aside from that, there's no methods to recover bitcoins, because there's no central authority to appeal to. And also, it's not a problem, because bitcoin can be split into 100 000 000 units, so there's no shortage of money supply.

[willmsnow]

If bitcoin can create more decimals then why they do forking?

[Nawaytes]

Yes of course it will disappear, no ways to recover and not be counted, but it will not give a big effect for bitcoin circulation unless all bitcoin users around the world lose their memories  - could not it all happen ? - I hope it will never happen.

[MAbtc]

Why would you worry about that? The less bitcoins in circulation the higher the price. < based on a reduction in supply > This is why most people are saying the <1 000 000> Satoshi coins should stay out of circulation, because it will have a huge impact on the supply, if it was dumped on the market.

A lot of bitcoins are lost every year and this just increase the scarcity of the coins. ^smile^

Well, I think that's why everyone wants to know exactly how much are lost. I think that, psychologically, when the market considers the price, we are considering a supply of 21 million coins. We all know that can't be the true supply, given all the lost coins, especially from the early days. But nobody really knows just how much BTC is being hoarded vs. BTC that simply will never move--ever.

Are Satoshi's coins "lost?" It could make a difference of, what, a few % of the entire supply? Pretty huge difference if a single BTC might be worth millions someday.

[Murloc]

The problem of the owner's death is even noticed in official bitcoin website. Pretty sure someone will make a service to help with that.
Untill that time every lost coin just add price to the other ones.

[Pursuer]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

Its like you're in real life and you die with your wallet. And no one touched your pockets or anything. You'll have your money out of circulation and that there woould nobody be able to get them for you. If there is a way the user might hve to expressly detail it somewhere so that another can have access on it.

actually it is nothing like in real life at all!
in real life if you die and have money in your pocket anybody can take it and use it, that money won't go out of circulation. it just goes into another pocket very simple.
and besides, in real life when you are talking about money (or cash) it means the centralize thing without any cap. the government can and will print more of it anytime they want. but with bitcoin you won't get anything more than the same 21 million that was planned on day 1.

[SUDARMONO]

all activities must have the risk of putting bitcoin in an offline wallet, if the use of death or loss of memory ascertained bitcoin owned will disappear from market circulation, and that also makes bitcoin increasingly rare existence and cause bitcoin prices are increasingly high as well because the more rare .

[CryptoBeefy]

There will likely be lots out of circulation and likely never used again. Imagine if you could uncover them though, you could retire instantly ha.

[Gaaara]

If some people has lots of bitcoin in their offline wallets and they die or lose memory.

Then those coins will be out of circulation right? Or is there any way to recover them?

There is so many incidents like this, one losing the key or the only way to gain access for their wallet and you can see some in blockchain who has so much bitcoin then suddenly stop and there is no any transaction that follows. They even search for it some wallet that has so much bitcoin then will sell it for money, even though it cannot be access unless you has something to remember.

[willmsnow]

There will likely be lots out of circulation and likely never used again. Imagine if you could uncover them though, you could retire instantly ha.

It has already been suggested that hacking bitcoin is not possible for next few decades but if it is then bitcoin price will be very high. Some will surely get rich.