Bit of a noob question

[TIEro]

I was just wondering... what happens to all those bitcoins that are in passworded wallets, where people have lost their password? Are they just *gone*?

[backtrackit]

Yes  unless you can crack the password they gone forever, never to be seen again.

RIP lost coins

[hilariousandco]

Yes  unless you can crack the password they gone forever, never to be seen again.

RIP lost coins

Yup, but it doesn't matter as they'll just make the remaining coins more scarce and more valuable.

[DanielVG]

Well the private keys are not destroyed yet, just not accessible.
If you put your wallet on a USB stick, then slam it with a sledgehammer.
That's when your private keys aka coins are obliterated.

[RodeoX]

Sad, but yes. Stuck in the blockchain forever. You could see them sitting at an address, but without the private key no one can move them to another address. I suppose you could say that they are not lost, rather locked up.

 

[guybrushthreepwood]

Sad, but yes. Stuck in the blockchain forever. You could see them sitting at an address, but without the private key no one can move them to another address. I suppose you could say that they are not lost, rather locked up.

 

In Blockchain Prison or Limbo.

[Kiki112]

nothing..

they're lost forever, but it's a good thing for us because less coins in circulation means greater value for existing coins

[guybrushthreepwood]

nothing..

they're lost forever, but it's a good thing for us because less coins in circulation means greater value for existing coins

Maybe not lost forever if they finally remember their password or crack it  .

[Sonny]

Exactly as all the above guys mentioned, the bitcoin will be lost forever, if you do not have access to the private keys.

So, don't forget to use a good password to encrypt your wallet, and don't forget that good password lol.

[troy112]

Its just locked up until you get some new type of technology or a way to brute attack that wallet. Or some genius goes onto discover a way out of it. But hey you could add those to your asserts and get taxed :p

[Hilaryclok]

Hi!

[serje]

the password you put on your qt client is one thing and the private key is another thing!


we have 2 things here!

[moriartypants]

Heh, I think  some years from now, when bitcoins are worth quite a bit more than they are now, there will be a whole IT industry centered around finding abandoned wallets and cracking them.   

In fact, you should get in on the ground floor and invest in my bitcoin salvage startup.  1 million X ROI in 30 years. 

[johncarpe64]

I was just wondering... what happens to all those bitcoins that are in passworded wallets, where people have lost their password? Are they just *gone*?

Yes, gone forever.

[Sonny]

the password you put on your qt client is one thing and the private key is another thing!


we have 2 things here!

If you lost your password (a good password that is statiscally infeasible to brute force), your private keys will be lost (unless you have some unencrypted backups)...

[serje]

the password you put on your qt client is one thing and the private key is another thing!


we have 2 things here!

If you lost your password (a good password that is statiscally infeasible to brute force), your private keys will be lost (unless you have some unencrypted backups)...

Any password can be brute forced!
while private keys are something nearly impossible to brute force but with the correct algorithm they can be find out! !
Why I say nearly impossible?
Check this thread! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=427753.0

He is giving 1000BTC bounty to the guy that finds the value of k for a specific BTC address he owns
Also note that the value of k ranges from 1 to 2^256 and 2^256=115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,690,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

note that after 69 I've put only 0's so you can see how big the number is!

P.S. If you find the k you will get as bonus his BMW! Witch was around 100.000$