Can lost Bitcoins be traced?

[Naida_BR]

How is it possible to track lost or stolen Bitcoins? While public addresses are not directly linked to a person's identity, the Blockchain itself is widely transparent. Knowing how many Bitcoin are lost is key towards establishing a correct circulating supply of the cryptocurrency.

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.

Nonetheless, do you think it's widely possible to track lost Bitcoins? Your thoughts about this would be highly appreciated for educational/learning purposes.

I don't think that it is possible to made such a calculation.
Just imagine that a wallet is loaded once, some years ago and never again. Why these bitcoins should be calculated as lost or stolen? The investor just hodls them. Having said that, I don't think that the outcome will be accurate.

[Apaxy]

I think that everyone has already been convinced of the correctness of the answer to the question whether it is possible to return lost bitcoins.  If the owner loses secret keys, passwords, and can be lost personally and does not transfer access to his wallets to other persons, then no one can touch his possession.  And so, anyway, such Bitcoins should be considered lost forever.

[Wolfwar]

I think that everyone has already been convinced of the correctness of the answer to the question whether it is possible to return lost bitcoins.  If the owner loses secret keys, passwords, and can be lost personally and does not transfer access to his wallets to other persons, then no one can touch his possession.  And so, anyway, such Bitcoins should be considered lost forever.

If we consider the blockchain from the point of view of the bank vault, that is, whether to store gold in a bank cell and its owner simply disappears, then one day or another, someone will get access to this cell and take possession of gold.  not even a bank can last forever.  But how to deal with Bitcoin, which is somewhere lost wallets?  Maybe the same system will work when the coins will not move from the spot for a certain time.

[Abiky]

I think that everyone has already been convinced of the correctness of the answer to the question whether it is possible to return lost bitcoins.  If the owner loses secret keys, passwords, and can be lost personally and does not transfer access to his wallets to other persons, then no one can touch his possession.  And so, anyway, such Bitcoins should be considered lost forever.

Exactly. Bitcoin can often be seen as a form of "digital cash" where you can't recover it if lost or stolen. After all, that's the main purpose of the Blockchain (immutability). Rolling back transactions (like ETH did with the DAO hack) totally defeats the purpose of this revolutionary technology. Still, it would've been interesting to be able to easily keep track of lost/stolen Bitcoin, with the ability to identify the individual or person. Since now decentralized identities have been proven on the Blockchain, it can be put to use on a cryptocurrency project in order to identify malicious actors.

Despite this, we still cannot determine if "x" amount of Bitcoin is lost or stolen, since certain coins on an address could represent a cold storage wallet. But, with the increased development of Blockchain analytical tools, anything will be possible in the future.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin's transparency enables anyone to keep track of coins with ease. It's more of a benefit than a flaw, in which Satoshi designed intentionally. However, things would've become much more difficult for us if Bitcoin were a privacy coin like Zcash and Monero. Just my opinion

[Capt00]

It can be traceable since it has blockchain record but the problem is we can't bring it back into our wallet just like it happens to me last time.
It could be hard also to trace them if we are using bitcoin mixer. I know we are aware of this and every single mistake will seem to be our loss. This is one of the disadvantages of using cryptocurrency that is why we should be to check it before confirming transactions.

[Dannaey]

How is it possible to track lost or stolen Bitcoins? While public addresses are not directly linked to a person's identity, the Blockchain itself is widely transparent. Knowing how many Bitcoin are lost is key towards establishing a correct circulating supply of the cryptocurrency. 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. Nonetheless, do you think it's widely possible to track lost Bitcoins? Your thoughts about this would be highly appreciated for educational/learning purposes.

I am not expert on the technical aspects of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency for that matter but based on what I read and heard, yes all transactions in the Bitcoin ecosystem can be tracked as the records can easily be found and mined if you have the time. This is the reason why Bitcoin can be considered as transparent but also the reason why this is not so private and anonymous.

That is right. Bitcoin can be tracked in the blockchain but it cannot identify the real identity of the sender/receiver. Unlike in bank transactions, account numbers of either the sender/receiver are being identified. So if your Bitcoins are lost, you can track which wallet it was sent out, but you cannot know who owns that wallet.

[kotajikikox]

Like satoshi nakamoto till now we never know him and hardvto traced.for me also losing bitcoin is hard to trace.but I dont believe that bitcoin can be stolen by some one.this will just happen if some one knows your password and he manipulate your account.personally you will never know in the process of blockchain you can not traced  your losing bitcoin.beside for me no bitcoin cant be lost it is digital currency who no ones holding it.probably can lost only by the error of the person but still bitcoin in process by digital wallet.

[elisnrj]

no bitcoin has ever been 'lost' deleted
but there is a reason while the balance has not been moved or spent by the user. If your Bitcoin suddenly disappears there must be an email notification if you save your Bitcoin in an online Wallet. just look at the email you use to register your wallet, there must be a notification from the wallet you are using.

Bitcoin bit by bit, lately many have reported coins in my wallet, I think that all happened because of the airdrop bounty program, because there are lots of cheats in the airdrop like data theft and so on.
The biggest possibility is to get phishing ... it can be from the typo of the wallet address, or click the fake wallet link whose mode is sent via email.
As long as our private key does not fall into the hands of others, our wallet should still be safe.

[Duzter]

How is it possible to track lost or stolen Bitcoins? While public addresses are not directly linked to a person's identity, the Blockchain itself is widely transparent. Knowing how many Bitcoin are lost is key towards establishing a correct circulating supply of the cryptocurrency. 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. Nonetheless, do you think it's widely possible to track lost Bitcoins? Your thoughts about this would be highly appreciated for educational/learning purposes.

I am not expert on the technical aspects of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency for that matter but based on what I read and heard, yes all transactions in the Bitcoin ecosystem can be tracked as the records can easily be found and mined if you have the time. This is the reason why Bitcoin can be considered as transparent but also the reason why this is not so private and anonymous.

That is right. Bitcoin can be tracked in the blockchain but it cannot identify the real identity of the sender/receiver. Unlike in bank transactions, account numbers of either the sender/receiver are being identified. So if your Bitcoins are lost, you can track which wallet it was sent out, but you cannot know who owns that wallet.

Technically blocks get added and it isn't possible make modifications. When transactions were made it can be traced, but the same can't be retrieved as identity is unknown. With banks if you've got solid proof of your funds have got stolen or transferred without your knowledge you can claim it back. Here it isn't possible until the receiver has a mind to send it back.

When it comes to lost bitcoin, with the help of recovery phase it is possible to get it back. If the recovery phrase too is lost then the wallet funds go unused, but it gets added to the entire sum of bitcoin into the market.

[DarkIT]

I think it's very difficult to do that, even more so when the bitcoin has been entered into the market, or the mixer. it will be very difficult to trace it. other than that, I think it's a futile job. I've lost bitcoin, and of course I gave up on that, and tried from the beginning again 

[Nellayar]

no bitcoins are ever 'lost' 'deleted' every coin still exists and is trackable on bitcoins ledger

however there are reasons where some UTXO's (unspent balances) are not moved, used, circulated between users regularly.

all bitcoin can be tracked. there is nothing secret or special. so tracking bitcoins is not a question.
the question should be judged as which bitcoins should be deemed as unusable currently, meaning what defines 'lost'

many come up with different lists such as:
UTXO's linked to public keys which have an obvious sign that the key does not have a private key someone knows of
UTXO's with dust amounts so small,, to move/spend them would cost more than the value of the UTXO
UTXO's coin-age is more than 6 year old

however even these cases are not 100% proof of those coins being 'lost'. thus when tracking the bitcoins that meet the criteria list of what most would deem as 'lost' should not be treated as a guaranteed lost value, but more of a idea/suggestive stat/estimate.

after all some UTXO's are of only 1sat. meaning people dont bother including them in spends. but in a few years if 1 sat is worth more than a chewing gum. people might want to spend it. thus bringing it back into regular use

If bitcoin is able to track then we can also retrive the bitcoins that wad hacked? If we can locate the person who hacked bitcoin from a wallet or exchange, it can simply arrest in order for him to return what he stole. However, I think it is hard for lost bitcoin to track specially hackers can use vpn also.

[samcrypto]

Bitcoins are infinitely divisible and that means that if the hackers attempt to mix the coins, then it can be very difficult to track them. For example, lets say that BTC10 is stolen from a Bitcoin user by a bunch of hackers. One BTC can be divided in to 100 million Satoshi, and 10 BTC can be divided to 1 billion satoshi. Now how can you track these one billion fractions, if the hackers move them from one wallet to another multiple times?

This is the job of the mixers, they have to cut bitcoin so no one can know the history of your transactions aside from them. Lost bitcoin can never be traced, you might have the address of the hackers but yes they can do a lot of things just to mislead the real identity of the hackers. This is the reason why government thinks bitcoin are being used for terrorism, well it can be and we really don't know as far as blockchain technology is concern.

[maianh09]

As far as I know, this is not possible. There are a lot of Bitcoin that has been stolen by many people, but no one has ever known where those Bitcoin now moved. You can tell where Bitcoin goes through the address but if it transferred to the exchange and then retracted to another storage account. You cannot control and find your bitcoin.

[Kensyin]

I think it's hard to find out, bitcoin can be tracked but which people get it is hard to find out! that's the main reason why the world government can't legalize officially. that's my opinion

[Upgate]

I do think it can be traced but requires a professional to do such task. You can find out how the transaction went about. But what am not sure about whether you know where the transaction is been operated from

[mitchr4]

Bitcoins are infinitely divisible and that means that if the hackers attempt to mix the coins, then it can be very difficult to track them. For example, lets say that BTC10 is stolen from a Bitcoin user by a bunch of hackers. One BTC can be divided in to 100 million Satoshi, and 10 BTC can be divided to 1 billion satoshi. Now how can you track these one billion fractions, if the hackers move them from one wallet to another multiple times?

This is the job of the mixers, they have to cut bitcoin so no one can know the history of your transactions aside from them. Lost bitcoin can never be traced, you might have the address of the hackers but yes they can do a lot of things just to mislead the real identity of the hackers. This is the reason why government thinks bitcoin are being used for terrorism, well it can be and we really don't know as far as blockchain technology is concern.

That is why before joining and using Bitcoin we have to know the risks. If it's lost then leave it alone, it's impossible to know who hacked it. Especially if they use mixing services.

[NeverSop]

I don't think it can be tracked. just a minute. If this is confirmed the traces I would like to know is 9001BTC of Binance has gone to the secret wallet for some reason. and why they did not publish but only urged the community not to panic (FUD) or this action showed that they were ready for the effects of the G20.

[Abiky]

I think it's very difficult to do that, even more so when the bitcoin has been entered into the market, or the mixer. it will be very difficult to trace it. other than that, I think it's a futile job. I've lost bitcoin, and of course I gave up on that, and tried from the beginning again 

Without a doubt, mixers and tumblers would make it harder to trace lost or stolen Bitcoin. I guess that's why most governments have been against privacy solutions for cryptocurrencies since it's nearly impossible to track money launderers, thieves, and hackers alike. Still, the openness of the Bitcoin blockchain allows most of us to determine how are coins were spent within any point in time.

Given that coins within a Bitcoin public address could indicate that they're either in a cold storage, or lost, there's no way to determine what exactly happened with them. The main reason for this, is because the Blockchain doesn't hold identities of each person using the network. That's a flaw, but at the same time, a feature since it allows anyone to use Bitcoin as a sort of "digital cash".

For centralized Blockchains, it'll be much easier to track lost or stolen coins if they store a database of people's identities. Other than that, it's nearly impossible to determine what happened with "x" amount of coins in a Blockchain network.

Nonetheless, lost Bitcoin would add some benefit to the Blockchain, as the supply of coins in circulation will be lesser over time. Which means, that prices will become a lot higher as Bitcoin becomes scarcer each day. Just my opinion

[markgayamo]

You can traced your bitcoin by looking for the hackers address but you can't retrieve it when it is stolen. It is possible to retrieve or get back your coins when it was stolen from your wallet. Always be careful when it comes to your funds there is a lot of phishing sites that can monitor your wallet funds and your emails. When someone is attempting to hack your wallet make an extra wallet address and put your funds there quickly.

[Austin_Lord]

Well this is very difficult to trace any bitcoin.. but i am sure that all bitcoin has saved any database.. there should be a proper system in which we can trace any lost bitcoin..