Around 4 Million Bitcoins lost forever!!

[ps]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons. The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long. These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much. Satoshi surely is the biggest HODLer himself.

Here is the article : http://fortune.com/2017/11/25/lost-bitcoins/

Sick to known I never holded more than 20 bitcoins in my life and these millions lost wtf..

[brushtooth]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons. The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long. These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much. Satoshi surely is the biggest HODLer himself.

Here is the article : http://fortune.com/2017/11/25/lost-bitcoins/

But holding bitcoin doesn't mean they are lost forever or out of circulation?

My immediate thought, they are not lost, they are just simply not in circulation at the moment. Lost would be those coins that can no longer be accessed by anyone. I would expect that to be a much much smaller number, probably around 1% of the 21m coins at most.

Actually there are some unknown numbers lost forever. As you could loose all your BTC holdings by forgetting password to your BTC wallet, and those coins are not be recovered... therefore there never are as many BTC out there as they are accounted as mined. One of disadvantages of decentralized aspect of all Cryptocurrencies.

I know and I referenced that in my response, I just do not feel that this number will be anywhere close to 4 million bitcoin. It would be interesting if we could one day find out definitively how many are lost but I don't think we will ever be able to do this.

[Triple]

First of all, I was under the impression that the last Bitcoin will be mined in 2140 not 2040. Also, just because people hold on to the coins doesn't mean that the coins are out of circulation. Whenever a whale decides to dump his/her coins, then the price will go down drastically. Also, Satoshi Nakamoto is rumored to be dead, so whatever bitcoins he had is now forever in some wallet that won't ever be moved.

[A Feeder]

Very nice article. Those bitcoins are good as junk. One must not overhold too long just to get immense amount of profit.

[n0ne]

First of all, I was under the impression that the last Bitcoin will be mined in 2140 not 2040. Also, just because people hold on to the coins doesn't mean that the coins are out of circulation. Whenever a whale decides to dump his/her coins, then the price will go down drastically. Also, Satoshi Nakamoto is rumored to be dead, so whatever bitcoins he had is now forever in some wallet that won't ever be moved.

Though they doesn't get into the circulation, they get added to the entire count of mined coins. This will add value based on the total coin supply to the market demand at present. If you look at the fork coins of bitcoin too, we've got similar volume of total supply of coins.

[bribed]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons. The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long. These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much. Satoshi surely is the biggest HODLer himself.

Here is the article : http://fortune.com/2017/11/25/lost-bitcoins/

Sick to known I never holded more than 20 bitcoins in my life and these millions lost wtf..

Definitely, I just read this story from that other guy that signed up to the forum just to ask if he made the biggest mistake of his life when he declined the offer to buy Bitcoins in 2010. He came to ask if these were the same Bitcoins that are now worth so much. Feelsbadman.

[winyau8888]

I believe some of the coins are missing as junk. However most of them are holding by only a few hardcore holders to wait for the day when BTC hit USD100,000. And what is the value? It is still have to hook up with fiat?

[HippiePyro]

Could you write a program to look at how many address have had no activity in X amount of time. Or only had 1 deposit no withdrawals, That would give you a rough idea of how many are lost without counting holders, who tend to stockpile.

[mk4]

Could you write a program to look at how many address have had no activity in X amount of time. Or only had 1 deposit no withdrawals, That would give you a rough idea of how many are lost without counting holders, who tend to stockpile.

If a wallet has only 1 deposit and no other transactions it doesn't mean the bitcoins are lost either. I personally have wallets with only deposit transaction. Also, the article says "likely to be lost", they're really just sort of frozen bitcoin, but not necessarily lost. The article title is just pure clickbait.

We're not really sure if they're lost or not, as there really is no way to know.

[Xabad]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons. The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long. These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much. Satoshi surely is the biggest HODLer himself.

Here is the article : http://fortune.com/2017/11/25/lost-bitcoins/

Then if they are just hodling it is not lost forever. It is just not included on today's circulation but will be in the future. There are really some lost bitcoins mostly lost because of owners unable to open their wallet and owner who died without them passing the password to their relatives.

[bloodyvio]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons. The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long. These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much. Satoshi surely is the biggest HODLer himself.

Here is the article : http://fortune.com/2017/11/25/lost-bitcoins/

But holding bitcoin doesn't mean they are lost forever or out of circulation?

Yes, I think so.
Holding does not mean getting out of circulation.
it is only temporary and at times can re-enter the circulation of transactions.

[Duzenn]

A few years ago, it was easy to get a lot of bitcoins, and then many people forgot about it, lost their private keys and lost a great fortune.

[pooya87]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons.

it is purely speculation, there are actually a topic in this board with a better speculation about this.

The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long.

that is not called "lost forever" as your title suggests. that is always accessible and ready to be used with just one click. if so these holders choose.

These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much.

just holding does not increase the price. the increasing demand is increasing the price. more people buy, more money comes in, price goes higher.

if it was just because of holding, all the altcoins would have been worth millions of dollars because they have too many bag holders.

[Fox-111]

Thos being held long term does mean there are less being traded, which means the whole "supply Vs demand" argument rings true with current price surge.
If these held coins came on the market, price would almost certainly react accordingly. However its very unlikely they are all coning out for use and trade any time soon, nor at once.

[howard.ashoul]

It is hard to tell, maybe they are from true hardcore hodlers or are just gathering virtual dust in old computers, waiting to be discovered by someone.
Also many bitcoins will never go to market because many early investors have more bitcoins than they could justify to IRS, so they will never spend everything they have. The out of market bitcoins surely are more than 4 millions

And the article is wrong, the last bitcoin will be mined by 2140, not 2040

That's quiet stupid.

Why couldn't I cash out my BTC? Just because it's worth too much and I made huge gains?  

Is Bill Gates making $80,000 per year. Because he wouldn't be able to justify to IRS higher salary?

[Sithara007]

Can't really say that they are lost for ever. Not even Satoshi's coins. What if Satoshi is alive and he is just waiting for prices of $100,000 per coin? Also, if coins haven't moved for 6-7 years, that doesn't mean that they are lost. It can also mean that these coins are in cold storage.

[13abyknight]

Even if the 4 million or more coins haven't been moved for a long time, it cannot be excluded from the circulating supply. This is mainly because even if holders lose their private keys for unknown reasons, we might have technological developments in the future which could brute force or crack the private keys and regain access to those coins which could've been deemed 'out of circulation'.

[exstasie]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons. The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long. These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much. Satoshi surely is the biggest HODLer himself.

Here is the article : http://fortune.com/2017/11/25/lost-bitcoins/

That's a silly conclusion. Clearly, people are hoarding bitcoins. "HODL" is the mantra of bitcoin investors, so it should be no surprise that a good deal of coins never move.

I'm sure there are many lost coins, and there could even be millions (Satoshi's coins obviously factor into this). But "4 Million Bitcoins Gone Forever" seems like a clickbait title with no basis in reality. If Satoshi reckoned that one BTC would be worth millions someday, I'm sure others do too. Those people are treating their private keys like their firstborn -- the coins aren't lost.

[cashaa]

Just came across this article today says that 4 million out of the total supply of 21 million have already been lost due to various reasons. The most popular reason are the HODLers who are holding it for quite long. These people have reduced the supply of bitcoins in market which has upsurged the price of bitcoin so much. Satoshi surely is the biggest HODLer himself.

Here is the article : http://fortune.com/2017/11/25/lost-bitcoins/

Man, feel bad for the British man who threw away the hard drive with 7.5M of bitcoins in there.

[Granxis]

4 million Bitcoin is a huge amount, I think these Bitcoins will not be able to join the network anymore, this is actually a matter with good sides and bad sides, I think the lost Bitcoins should be included in the network after a while, thus ensuring a constant Bitcoin traffic . This period can be quite long, maybe 25 or maybe 50 years.