How many Bitcoins are left?

[minersday]

There have been almost 18 million Bitcoins created. We know that some have been lost over the years and can’t ever be recovered except potentially with quantum computers.  

18 million - lost coins = ?

My question is how many Bitcoins are left, which is really a question of how many have been lost?

Considering the nature of the Bitcoin blockchain network, you can't easily tell the number of Bitcoins lost. People usually classify inactive bitcoin addresses having Bitcoins in them which haven't been used for some time now.  These addresses can't really represent the number of bitcoin lost.  People will just speculate an assumption of Bitcoins they think are lost. For the real number of lost bitcoins, no one can really tell the exact amount of Bitcoin. It will be better not to think about the number of lost Bitcoins.

[NavI_027]

The only way on how to find how many BTC are lost or missing is if all BTC holders announces how many each of them have and then subtract that number from total BTC mined till date. In short that's not possible.

Will take too much effort on this and of course those who are dead already can no longer say how much bitcoin they have. Its not easy to know the accurate supply for now but one thing is for sure, the supply is getting smaller every year and the halving next year will make it more limited. We still need to have a better demand, and a better adoption to enjoy the price of a limited supply.

Aside from the deceased bitcoin holders, also put into consideration all the persons who are not even willing to participate in this survey (if that's the process to be called) and choose to working silently in the dark. That's understandable anyway because it's a kinda intimidating when it comes to money talks. So Yes! It was impossible to know every decimal of lost btc in the system but there are estimations tho. I just don't know if it's really close to the exact (I guess so) .

[Sadlife]

There are 2,932,450.0 left mine and the rough estimate of bitcoins that's been lost is 3-4 millions however this is all estimates there's no really accurate way in finding out the total bitcoin that's been lost. The real question is how long will it take for that almost 3million bitcoin to be mined ? i really hope it would last long so we can find better solutions in recovering them.

[FaithInCrypto]

Not sure how many are left since we can't really find out the exact amount now. I'm just a little worried about the lost Bitcoins, would it still be possible to retrieve them?

[yulionoo]

why should we think of a bitcoin coin that has been lost. I think this will be a waste of time. because even though we think hard bitcoin will still disappear and until now there is no way or technology that can restore the lost bitcoin. and also the lost bitcoin will not affect the market price.

[celot]

why should we think of a bitcoin coin that has been lost. I think this will be a waste of time. because even though we think hard bitcoin will still disappear and until now there is no way or technology that can restore the lost bitcoin. and also the lost bitcoin will not affect the market price.

Maybe if some one hold and save bitcoin on their wallet but lost private key make bitcoin supply have increase lower, I think many people pass away but he forget give their bitcoin account for his family and keep gone their bitcoin on market transaction.

[Lecam]

There have been almost 18 million Bitcoins created. We know that some have been lost over the years and can’t ever be recovered except potentially with quantum computers. 

18 million - lost coins = ?

My question is how many Bitcoins are left, which is really a question of how many have been lost?

Am not really sure but i think its only 4 million bitcoin left but its not an accurate number i read that in one article on 2016 so its not really sure if that is the bitcoin left.
But if that is the bitcoin left is bitcoin now is very small left and it will be gone if many investor invest in bitcoin.

[Darooghe]

We can't say that because we never know, when or if at all sleeping coins will be moved again. Perhaps we can tell something about the likelyhood. But that means nothing. although it's not a science but estimates are 3-4 million currently lost, means truly lost as in can never be moved again. this also assumes Satoshi doesn't have their private keys.

[bitvalak]

There have been almost 18 million Bitcoins created. We know that some have been lost over the years and can’t ever be recovered except potentially with quantum computers. 

18 million - lost coins = ?

My question is how many Bitcoins are left, which is really a question of how many have been lost?

Until now I still do not know how much bitcoin has actually been lost because very little information can be extracted related to it. Maybe some of the missing are now in the exchange or the market.

[adaseb]

Many but not all of those Coinbase 50BTC rewards which were never moved even once are probably lost forever.
Besides Satoshi I am sure there were individuals who downloaded the Bitcoin core software and mined with it for a few hours or days, found a few blocks and basically said "What is the point of this" and deleted the software. Then the hard drive was upgraded or thrown out and those are lost forever.

Even if someone still has private keys to those early mined coins I am sure they would of moved them at least once for security reasons. From what I understand the early Bitcoin clients didn't have password options even for the private keys. So they were very insecure. Most would of definitely sent them to a cold storage address instead of risking them and keep them there.

Another reason is the sheer value of 50BTC which at $10K was half a million dollars, why wouldn't you take some profit at least. Most would of sold at $10 a coin or $100 or even $1000.

[Eclipse26]

I don't think the data are one hundred percent accurate about the number of bitcoin lost. Since it is lost, we can't really tell the exact bitcoin a signlr person have lost. Me either don't know the exact amount if bitcoin lost but I know it's a lot... But even with the amount of lost bitcoin, we shouldn't think of it so much because it might bring negativity on us.

[bounceback]

There have been almost 18 million Bitcoins created. We know that some have been lost over the years and can’t ever be recovered except potentially with quantum computers.  

18 million - lost coins = ?

My question is how many Bitcoins are left, which is really a question of how many have been lost?

basically the total supply of bitcoin that we know is 21 million in total and circulating now only amounts to 18,054,212 BTC.

so it is very possible that the current available bitcoin inventory is only 2,945,788 BTC.

[conex]

Less than 3 millions left and the last one will be minned around 2110 or something. Question here is what happens to miners when the last block will be done?

[Murat]

Though this amount is not calculated but it's really an interesting issue that how could you know about the actual figure, I think no one can state the actual number of Bitcoin ever, because how many Bitcoin we have lost it's not a knowing issue for other, it's too difficult to figure out the original number of Bitcoin still exits. not only that but also in considering the mining issue it's not possible to see the actual figure, another thing is that there is no way to measure or any tool to find this number.

[Lucius]

Op is talking about the lost coins, not about the total bitcoins less the mined bitcoins. So, your little task is wrong,

So, as OmegaStarScream say, around 4M bitcoins are lost, and one of those millions are satoshi coins.

I may have misunderstood it, but that doesn't diminish the more important question, how many BTC will be available when the last coin is mined. All the analyzes that give some answers are based on someone saying that something was lost because it was not moved for x years, which is a very stupid method. Some of my coins are not moved 4 years, is that mean they are lost? 4 millions of losted coins is just an assumption based on a bad methodology, the actual figure is probably much smaller.

My little task can actually help OP to understand some things, there is no almost 18 million coins, there is an exact number of mined coins.

[owengtam09]

There have been almost 18 million Bitcoins created. We know that some have been lost over the years and can’t ever be recovered except potentially with quantum computers. 

18 million - lost coins = ?

My question is how many Bitcoins are left, which is really a question of how many have been lost?

No one knows how much coin has lost and left and I don't think there is someone who knows it here and will answer you right. I don't also think we need to know the exact amount have lost, what's more important to me here is to earn and to save it and wait until the right time comes to sell.

[tungaqhd]

There have been almost 18 million Bitcoins created. We know that some have been lost over the years and can’t ever be recovered except potentially with quantum computers. 

18 million - lost coins = ?

My question is how many Bitcoins are left, which is really a question of how many have been lost?

According to coinmarketcap, the current Bitcoin supply is 18,068,150 which means there are 21,000,000 - 18,068,150 = 2,931,850 Bitcoin left for mining. But they won't be mined all soon because the difficulty is increased.

[Astvile]

There is no exact amount on how much bitcoin was really lost by the users, but there are a lot of estimates saying that it is around 3-4million coins some say 5million.
If you are pertaining to the total supply of bitcoin, just get the total amount and the amount of mined bitcoin then subtract it and it will give you somewhere near this amount 2,931,687.5‬ bitcoins still left for mining.

[virasog]

Not sure how many are left since we can't really find out the exact amount now. I'm just a little worried about the lost Bitcoins, would it still be possible to retrieve them?

There is no way to retrieve the lost bitcoins, if someone has lost the private key then the coins stored there will be lost forever. Also if is impossible to find out if a wallet owner does not spend his coins. It can be either he has lost the key , or he is Holding the coins with no need to spend, or he is dead without given the private key to anyone. There is no way to judge this.

[aardvark15]

Op is talking about the lost coins, not about the total bitcoins less the mined bitcoins. So, your little task is wrong,

So, as OmegaStarScream say, around 4M bitcoins are lost, and one of those millions are satoshi coins.

I may have misunderstood it, but that doesn't diminish the more important question, how many BTC will be available when the last coin is mined. All the analyzes that give some answers are based on someone saying that something was lost because it was not moved for x years, which is a very stupid method. Some of my coins are not moved 4 years, is that mean they are lost? 4 millions of losted coins is just an assumption based on a bad methodology, the actual figure is probably much smaller.

My little task can actually help OP to understand some things, there is no almost 18 million coins, there is an exact number of mined coins.

I get what you are saying. I would point out that both variables in the equation are constantly changing. The number of Bitcoins mined keeps increasing but the number of lost coins has to also be increasing.

I realize that we don’t know how many coins are lost but my point was to get people’s opinions about how many they think may have been lost so far.  Obviously there is no way to know, but it’s fun to speculate.