Around 4 Million Bitcoins lost forever!!

[aardvark15]

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/

There are lost Bitcoins and then there are Bitcoins that are being held but not lost. To me these are separate things. I consider Bitcoins to be lost if they can’t be recovered due to a lost private key, death of owner of coins (with no one having the private keys), sending Bitcoins to the wrong unused address, forgetting the Bitcoins, or abandoning dust in a wallet. In those situations, you will most likely never be able to recover the Bitcoins.

Someone can hold Bitcoins for a long period of time like 30 years for retirement and to me they are not lost. These are just not actively in circulation, but they are eventually going to go into circulation.

[endlasuresh]

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/

They might forgotten to check that Bitcoin amount, since most of them here are inactive in forums and most accounts got hacked because of inactivity. I think they will spend when they want to use in real world, currently a lot of people uses for holding, but that is short time.

[iron talon]

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/

If bitcoins are hold by few people and they dont use them and keep them in their wallet, then it does not mean they are lost. They are just stored in the wallet and they can be used by the holder any time. This is just like we hold money on the bank and keep it in the bank for years until we need it.
So  4 million bitcoins are not lost.

It seems the price of bitcoin will go up always. Some portion of the total number of bitcoins are not presented on exchanges, this will make the value go up more and more as the time goes by.

[digaran]

I still have 0.00000099BTC lost for ever, I lost those 99 Satoshis 1.8 years ago, I can not stand the sadness it has brought upon me, don't blame me, I'm just a beggar and for beggars even 1 Sat is like a world. we still don't know if Satoshi was really jumped-killed by crypto jumper-killer Gavin and friends. Satoshi is waiting for $50,000 to dump every coin he has, when you see that happens, keep calm and don't panic. lol in magnitude of 3.

[Marucya]

I do not think that those bitkoyny, access to which for various reasons lost, that is, lost the digital keys to the purses, where they are, are lost to us forever. Technologies are now developing at a very high rate, and the lost bitcoins remain encrypted in the blockchein block chain and may someday be decrypted and returned for future use. So, many people are already talking about the possibility of quantum computers to decipher such large digital codes and that they will appear in a few years. True, such opportunities pose a serious threat to the security of all the crypto currency.

[HashFace]

How do they tell long term holders from people who have lost their wallets/passwords?  I know some people are saying Satoshi is sitting on 1 million BTC, and if he is dead and didn't share his keys, then those are out of circulation ... but no one can say for sure the status of those BTC.

[Maren]

I do not think that those bitkoyny, access to which for various reasons lost, that is, lost the digital keys to the purses, where they are, are lost to us forever. Technologies are now developing at a very high rate, and the lost bitcoins remain encrypted in the blockchein block chain and may someday be decrypted and returned for future use. So, many people are already talking about the possibility of quantum computers to decipher such large digital codes and that they will appear in a few years. True, such opportunities pose a serious threat to the security of all the crypto currency.

Quantum processing isn't really good for breaking sha256. Maybe they will figure out another way to do it, but it will always be way easier for the good guys to change the algo than for a malicious entity to crack it.

[CryptoParadigm]

OMG! Thanks for sharing the article. There should some way to delete bitcoin from accounts that are not being used and be put again in circulation.

Are you asking to centralize bitcoin which means no BTC value... unless they wright a code if an account is untouched for so many years for that wallet empty out in a given wallet. Can you guess who or which country would want control of that? Most likely world war 3 be on the way.

[1Referee]

How do they tell long term holders from people who have lost their wallets/passwords? 

It's impossible to tell. They dumbly assume that if a coin hasn't moved for a certain period of time, that it is lost, which is something even noobs here seem to disagree with. Large holders nowadays are sitting on a decent chunk of BCC, which they very likely have claimed, or plan to claim. In order to do so, they first send their Bitcoins to a new address, and this means that these coins have been moved. In their eyes it means that they are back into circulation again, while these coins will probably keep sitting in their wallets for plenty of more years. These articles are rubbish.

I know some people are saying Satoshi is sitting on 1 million BTC, and if he is dead and didn't share his keys, then those are out of circulation ... but no one can say for sure the status of those BTC.

People blindly assume that Satoshi was the only entity minting back in the days, but there might have been several people having done so. The only way to almost accurately claim that these coins belong to Satoshi, is that he first signs from the address the genesis block reward was sent to, and then do so with every address (thousands and thousands of addresses) each containing 50BTC block rewards.

[Emerge]

If they are lost that means a less volume wich result a higher price.

[littlewizard]

It is difficult to say they are lost just because they havent been moved for a long time. They could be in cold storage that can be transferred anytime.
On the other hand, it is certain many bitcoin in the early days are lost forever, so maybe a wild guess is 1/2 of the four million is lost.

[CryptoParadigm]

How do they tell long term holders from people who have lost their wallets/passwords? 

It's impossible to tell. They dumbly assume that if a coin hasn't moved for a certain period of time, that it is lost, which is something even noobs here seem to disagree with. Large holders nowadays are sitting on a decent chunk of BCC, which they very likely have claimed, or plan to claim. In order to do so, they first send their Bitcoins to a new address, and this means that these coins have been moved. In their eyes it means that they are back into circulation again, while these coins will probably keep sitting in their wallets for plenty of more years. These articles are rubbish.

I know some people are saying Satoshi is sitting on 1 million BTC, and if he is dead and didn't share his keys, then those are out of circulation ... but no one can say for sure the status of those BTC.

People blindly assume that Satoshi was the only entity minting back in the days, but there might have been several people having done so. The only way to almost accurately claim that these coins belong to Satoshi, is that he first signs from the address the genesis block reward was sent to, and then do so with every address (thousands and thousands of addresses) each containing 50BTC block rewards.

And no one knows if Satoshi is made up by actual creator, or who is he? I guess he/she like to avoid assassination...

[MSdosOutput]

I don't know whether your provided information is true or not. But if bitcoin is out of circulation, it does not mean that it has lost forever.

[arseaboy]

How do they tell long term holders from people who have lost their wallets/passwords?  I know some people are saying Satoshi is sitting on 1 million BTC, and if he is dead and didn't share his keys, then those are out of circulation ... but no one can say for sure the status of those BTC.

Good argument mate, if that million of coins who allegedly holds by satoshi is no where to find since its claimed that he's already dead
that numbers will no longer exist in any circulation but who knows the truth behind that, if this coins still exist it can  be a big threat
to this current value since it can affect the price if this coins will be dumped.

[RodeoX]

OMG! Thanks for sharing the article. There should some way to delete bitcoin from accounts that are not being used and be put again in circulation.

Ok, let's start with your bitcoin. I don't think you are spending them fast enough.  I'll just take them so I can circulate them.
  This is Taboo. There is a 0% chance of this happening.

... we still don't know if Satoshi was really jumped-killed by crypto jumper-killer Gavin and friends. Satoshi is waiting for $50,000 to dump every coin he has...

So even though you have never met either of these guys you know their most guarded secrets? How?

[kimochidesh]

Amazing Fact to know. Estimate BTC mined till now is about 16.5Milliion that means 25% of the current supply is dead and only 12.5M is in circulation. I think this is the further increase BTC value as demand keeps on increasing and actual supply is less than we estimate to have.

[dogandogru]

I don't think this article has any authentication with its facts.
Its true that some people has lost their private key at very early stage but 4 million is hard to believe. I feel that maximum BTC that could be lost till now would be around 1.5million. $4k is very big amount to amount which is hard to believe.

[jvangeest001]

BTC will only go up in value the the less bitcoin is out there on the market.

IF you ask me I hope more btc gets lost

[salihno71]

Those bitcoins are not lost, just not accessible. They are in the blockchain and anybody check the balance and the transactions related to them, just nobody can spend them. The number will probably slowly grow over the time for a various reasons like various mistakes. And forever part is probably true.

[chenwdzw]

I saw this article yesterday and what I figured out is I think now most people just hold a little bitcoin due to its scarcity. So for my opinion, whoever hold the bitcoin not to sell them easily. Btc is just like gold in real world. Hold is the most safe way to make your monry.