Can lost Bitcoins be traced?

[jdarren]

Yes bitcoin can be traced as we've been shown in reports such as this one recently released by ciphertrace: https://ciphertrace.com/articles/q1-2019-cryptocurrency-anti-money-laundering-report/

[Malsetid]

Yes bitcoin can be traced as we've been shown in reports such as this one recently released by ciphertrace: https://ciphertrace.com/articles/q1-2019-cryptocurrency-anti-money-laundering-report/

It can be traced as to which wallet address it went to but as to who owns or the location of that wallet address is, i doubt it can be traced unless the owner registered it in a kyc prompt for an exchange or the wallet itself. If not then i don't think there's any use knowing which wallet it went to if you don't know the owner.

[Kelvinid]

Yes bitcoin can be traced as we've been shown in reports such as this one recently released by ciphertrace: https://ciphertrace.com/articles/q1-2019-cryptocurrency-anti-money-laundering-report/

It can be traced as to which wallet address it went to but as to who owns or the location of that wallet address is, i doubt it can be traced unless the owner registered it in a kyc prompt for an exchange or the wallet itself. If not then i don't think there's any use knowing which wallet it went to if you don't know the owner.

That would be the dark side of crypto, we can trace the transactions but sadly there is no way to recover it and bring back into our wallet once confirmed. A single mistake will be a mistake forever, it could be difficult to have a system like that but we know it since from the start (irreversible) and we can't further change it. We should just to be careful and double check address before we hit the send button.

[agatha90]

Tracking the wallet can be done, but tracking the owner's identity is very difficult. Therefore we must take care of our wallet, such as needing to be considered in storing the private key, and more carefully in the web exchange.

[Rahman11]

I think every transactions must be trackable, but it's decentralised and no need to address verifications like other banks for deal with anyone! so you can't track anyone which person get from which one! bitcoin could be traced but which person get it it's impossible to guess!

[bitcoinbitbitbit]

Yessss

[rmilly]

There is definitely a way to trace bitcoins according to ciphertrace cyber security firm however I am not exactly sure how you can trace the wallet to the person

[denzkilim]

As such, there might be a slight miscalculation on the total number of Bitcoin in circulation. If it's a lot more less than what's circulating, then I believe that Bitcoin's price should be higher due to its highly-limited supply.

I don't think so but the amount of lost Bitcoin's are also combined in the circulating supply and it does not matter. Circulating supply does not affect the price but the action of people if they keep on selling it the price might probably fall but if they keep on hodling it there is a higher chance that the value might go up, the higher the demand and the lower the sell orders makes the price soar high in my own point of view.

whatever the price is at any moment is the result of that real circulating supply, whatever the number is. calculating it isn't going to magically change that. for example if we know for 100% sure the circulating supply is 17 million or if we knew it is 10 million in both cases price would have still been $5448 as it is right now!

That's a correct explanation. Circulating supply does not make the price of Bitcoin higher but I do believe that the demand is the one that makes the price climb.

[DreamStage]

I know that in theory all BTC's can be traceable from at the beginning to today. Because the Bitcoin network has a fully transparent and traceable structure. All hash storing miners computer. If someone joins the network now, then that computer starts to work first downloading that history completely. So if you want to track any BTC moves for example at the second block, you can track it with blockchain block explorer easily. But don't forget there are a lot of transactions.

Still there are the transaction / addresses mixers where you won't be able to find so easily like that.
Also there's not a single option for us to know the respectfull coins' owner since Bitcoin and even any kind of network doesn't provide any relation between the sender and recipient.

[EdenHazard]

I know that in theory all BTC's can be traceable from at the beginning to today. Because the Bitcoin network has a fully transparent and traceable structure. All hash storing miners computer. If someone joins the network now, then that computer starts to work first downloading that history completely. So if you want to track any BTC moves for example at the second block, you can track it with blockchain block explorer easily. But don't forget there are a lot of transactions.

Still there are the transaction / addresses mixers where you won't be able to find so easily like that.
Also there's not a single option for us to know the respectfull coins' owner since Bitcoin and even any kind of network doesn't provide any relation between the sender and recipient.

Mixing service is a way to make the owned bitcoin can't be known. This service accept for every users who want to having bitcoin the new one which means the bitcoin that someone will accept is has never been contaminated with your old bitcoin address. This way will make someone who want to know the asset of other people faced with a difficult way. But sometime ago I read a thread about mixing service can be known by someone else through the IP address expect coinmixer mixing service that cannot be tracked.

[Abiky]

Maybe undervalued but not by a lot, imo the amount of lost coins we have now and more in the future seems like less of a factor in making it valuable since Bitcoin can be divided in to very small pieces on chain and possibly smaller off chain. 

In that sense, one could say that Bitcoin is virtually numerous in supply. But, compared to other cryptocurrencies, it's still one of the most limited cryptocurrencies (42 coin is limited too) in existence to date. Divisibility allows Bitcoin to expand itself into millions of satoshis, which makes it plenty for everyone. Because of this, lost Bitcoin shouldn't be much of an issue as the pioneer cryptocurrency is divisible up to 8 decimal places.

Still though, it would be interesting to know the number of Bitcoins lost on the Blockchain just to get an idea of how many coins are circulating now. Someday, it might be possible to do this, given the increasing growth of Blockchain surveillance/analytical software these days. The full transparency of BTC is well-suitable for tracking down every transaction made since the genesis block.

Nonetheless, it's normal to see Bitcoin being lost for many reasons (death, theft, etc). What matters is that Bitcoin is available to everyone because of the divisible factor. Maybe in the future, we'll be dealing more with satoshis rather than "Bitcoin cents". Just my thoughts

[salty]

Of course you can track everything.I use this site:https://www.blockchain.com/.At the top You just need to click on the magnifying glass icon and enter the bitcoin address.Good luck with your research.

[Jeborn]

Transaction can be tracked bitcoin can never be lost all number of coins are accounted for and can be viewed on the public transparnet ledger. However in a case of stolen bitcoin with the right resources the coin can be tracked to the fiat accounts but the chances are very slim

[mickeybuddy27]

I think every transactions must be trackable, but it's decentralised and no need to address verifications like other banks for deal with anyone! so you can't track anyone which person get from which one! bitcoin could be traced but which person get it it's impossible to guess!

Lost bitcoin is trackable but irreversible which you cannot see to whom it being receive. There are such issue about losing bitcoin but they cannot do anything to get it again. Even other coin can be track on exchange but only address is there and you do not know who is the owner.

[Nellayar]

If you lost your bitcoin, you can track that using the blockchain or the transaction history. But you only tract the activity of your lost bitcoin, in fact you will never see the person who hold it. So, you will just lost your bitcoin for the end of your life and you will never retrieve it. Unless, if you can tract the specific location of the address.

[imstillthebest]

I think every transactions must be trackable, but it's decentralised and no need to address verifications like other banks for deal with anyone! so you can't track anyone which person get from which one! bitcoin could be traced but which person get it it's impossible to guess!

Lost bitcoin is trackable but irreversible which you cannot see to whom it being receive. There are such issue about losing bitcoin but they cannot do anything to get it again. Even other coin can be track on exchange but only address is there and you do not know who is the owner.

Lost bitcoina can be recover depending on the situation . let say if you still have your private keys , password , seeds , etc  but if you lost your bitcoins without any back up of the wallet that you use or let say a hacker stole it then i think thats impossible to be recovered but its possible to trace the address that is being used to transfer the coins  .

[Janation]

There is definitely a way to trace bitcoins according to ciphertrace cyber security firm however I am not exactly sure how you can trace the wallet to the person

You can just look at Blockchain.info.

That site shows all the transactions being made by all of the wallets of Bitcoin. If you want to track anyone or any Bitcoin address you want to, you can just search that certain Bitcoin address to that site and you will be able to see the past and recent transactions of that address. Though you will not be able to tell whose wallet address is that.

[ralle14]

Of course you can track everything.I use this site:https://www.blockchain.com/.At the top You just need to click on the magnifying glass icon and enter the bitcoin address.Good luck with your research.

You can't track everything except for the transactions, explorers don't give out the names and location of the wallet owners unless they put a label.

Lost bitcoin is trackable but irreversible which you cannot see to whom it being receive. There are such issue about losing bitcoin but they cannot do anything to get it again.

It's not just lost bitcoin, everything is irreversible and it's not an issue we can't recover it because the pros and cons are weighted if a solution is created.

[yusupjatigumilar]

As far as I know, every bitcoin transaction recorded on a ledger, we can look for it using the bitcoin explorer, there we can see where bitcoin is sent, what number, and other information so that bitcoin transactions are transactions that are transparent and cannot be manipulated, but which are problems we cannot know who the owner of the address is, so it will be quite difficult to know who is the owner of a bitcoin wallet, for the case of bitcoin theft it is also quite difficult to reveal.

[Phantomberry]

No, Bitcoin is untraceable and it is impossible to traced you need to secured your private key in order to safe your bitcoin and mostly it is not easy to catch the thief who stole your bitcoin.