What happens when bitcoins are lost?

[AndrentMcNa]

What happen and what can I do if my Bitcoins are lost? 

[Bitfort]

Bitcoins does not get lost. You probably mean if you lost the private keys (and all wallet backups) ... then the only thing you can do is say bye bye to those coins (as you lost the possibility to move them ... aka made them worthless).

[the13thsymphony]

If you lost you bitcoins it will be lost forever that is why you need to secure you wallet because if you are not careful losing all of your coin or tokens will be the most likely outcome.

[katalol]

you lose your bitcoin means you have lost money 

[ZCoinTalk]

It is like putting your paper money in an industrial washer, the money is gone. Or at least, without a private key, there is no way to access it.

When you think of it, Bitcoin will probably become scarcer and scarcer as people lose their keys and the money becomes inaccessible.

[aardvark15]

What happen and what can I do if my Bitcoins are lost? 

Once Bitcoins are lost, they can’t be recovered. You can only get your Bitcoins if you have the private keys.

Lost Bitcoins are lost forever so there are obviously many that have been lost because of lost private keys, forgotten wallets, or someone dies and nobody knows that they had Bitcoins. These will all be permanently lost.

[AdolfinWolf]

Once lost they cannot be found... Ts a digital currency obviuosly eith no record at all

Well that's plain wrong.

If you lose access to them, they are still somewhere on the blockchain, in an adress on the ledger which is visible for everyone.

They aren't suddenly wiped out, or "gone", they're just no longer accessible, for you. Anyone can look up the adress they are stored in.

[jager]

There is no way to retrieve it. Its a painful lesson.

[darkangel11]

Once lost they cannot be found... Ts a digital currency obviuosly eith no record at all

Well that's plain wrong.

If you lose access to them, they are still somewhere on the blockchain, in an adress on the ledger which is visible for everyone.

They aren't suddenly wiped out, or "gone", they're just no longer accessible, for you. Anyone can look up the adress they are stored in.

And theoretically they can guess the private key.
In theory you can generate an existing private key, put it into your wallet and gain access to whatever is stored there. If you had an automated bot that would generate keys and check them to see if there are any coins stored on them it's possible to stumble upon a loaded address. I know this is a slow process, but given enough time and processing power it's possible. Remember that we're talking about BTC being used for another 10+ years.

[DennisStoff]

Bitcoin is like real gold in the real world, and like valuables, Bitcoin can not be created just like that. Gold must be mined out of the ground, while Bitcoin must be mined through digital means. Associated with the process, this is a provision established by the founders of Bitcoin and it has a fairly limited supply.

If you know, there are only 21 million total Bitcoin that can be mined. Once the miners have opened up a lot of Bitcoin, the supply will essentially run out, unless the Bitcoin protocol is changed to allow for greater supply. in my opinion bitcoin will never run out.

[sonali2015]

What happen and what can I do if my Bitcoins are lost? 

You question are not cleared but i think you want to tell about wallet address.Bitcoin have many kinds of wallet like as exchanger, destop wallet or private key enable account .SO if you lost pv key you canot recover it but you can recover if you use exchanger.thanks

[IAM-JOSEPH]

What happen and what can I do if my Bitcoins are lost? 

You question are not cleared but i think you want to tell about wallet address.Bitcoin have many kinds of wallet like as exchanger, destop wallet or private key enable account .SO if you lost pv key you canot recover it but you can recover if you use exchanger.thanks

So if you are using exchanger as your wallet, you can still recover your Key if ever you lost it right?

I'm still new in BTC ^_^

[Yunkathu]

Just drink couple of cold water.

[CookieGums]

What happen and what can I do if my Bitcoins are lost? 

if you lost your bitcoin. you must be so upset but do not waste your time to become upset, you must retrieve your bitcoin and earn more than what you lost. make that as a lesson and your motivation.

[Yunkathu]

I didn intent badly . If I disturb you sorry.

[tanxingwo1215]

In many cases, bitcoin can be lost forever, and given the public visibility of the bitcoin wallet, we can easily see the use of a bitcoin last financial transaction. But there is no way to determine whether a dormant bitcoin has been saved or has been withdrawn from circulation.

[stimliall]

You lost bitcoin, meaning your money is gone, and if no one can unlock your password, then this bitcoin talks about permanent dormancy!

[RektEx]

Once lost they cannot be found... Ts a digital currency obviuosly eith no record at all

Well that's plain wrong.

If you lose access to them, they are still somewhere on the blockchain, in an adress on the ledger which is visible for everyone.

They aren't suddenly wiped out, or "gone", they're just no longer accessible, for you. Anyone can look up the adress they are stored in.

Which is very painful if you've ever sent BTC to the wrong address. You can always go back and visit it as it's value grows.

[fukingnutz]

What happen and what can I do if my Bitcoins are lost? 

How is it that you've lost them? Transfered to the wrong address?

[Roofer111]

They are just lost foreveer. I've read that nearly 4 million bitcoins have been lost forever. Just as gold bars are lost at sea or $100 bills can burn, bitcoins can disappear from the Internet forever. When all 21 million bitcoins are mined by the year 2040, the actual amount available to trade or spend will be significantly lower.