How many Bitcoins are left?

[Dabs]

I think we need a different time frame to consider coins as lost, and it should be at least 5 years. Maybe even longer. 8 years maybe? Any coin that has not moved in at least 8 years, maybe could be lost.

There is no way to know for sure, but that's a pretty good guess.

There is also that 1 satoshi that was not mined by something midnight something; essentially a block was mined and less coins were mined than the maximum allowed, so those coins never existed and are effectively lost. That's not something most miners will do of course, they'll mine what they can.

[seramania]

There is no exact amount to determine the number of lost bitcoin coins. what is certain is that in my opinion the missing bitcoin is only a few percent of the total bitcoin supply, so I don't think it affects the percentage of bitcoin right now.

[DannyHamilton]

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.

This!  ^^^ . Exactly this! ^^^

I have coins that I have not moved since 2012.  That's 7 years.  I know exactly where the private keys are.  I can move them any time I want to.  Fortunately (unlike with a traditional bank or practically ANY other custodial service), I can store those bitcoins securely for decades and it won't cost me a single penny!

[DannyHamilton]

I think we need a different time frame to consider coins as lost, and it should be at least 5 years. Maybe even longer. 8 years maybe? Any coin that has not moved in at least 8 years, maybe could be lost.

Nope.

In just 1 more year, I'll have coins that haven't moved in 8 years.  I know exactly where the private keys are and I can move them any time I want to.  If that is true for me, you can be pretty confident that it is true for many other people that have coins from even longer ago than that.

Additionally, there are coins that are stashed with physical Casacius Coins which probably haven't moved (on the blockchain) for more than 9 years already today.  Those coins may have physically changed hands many times and could be accessed via blockchain at any moment.

There is no way to know for sure

Correct.  People really should realize this.  Looking at coin movement is a horrible way to determine coin ownership.

but that's a pretty good guess.

It really isn't.

There is also that 1 satoshi that was not mined by something midnight something; essentially a block was mined and less coins were mined than the maximum allowed, so those coins never existed and are effectively lost. That's not something most miners will do of course, they'll mine what they can.

There are more than 2,000 coins that are PROVABLY lost forever (see the link in my first post in this thread)

[Youghoor]

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?

I don't really think lost Bitcoins have some level of impact on the entire bitcoin market and the crypto market as a whole. Lost means it will never be found and will never be useful in the entire crypto space. Just like physical fiat which usually gets burnt and lost, it doesn't really matter because they are lost.  Trying to know the number of Bitcoins that are lost is just a futile journey.  

[Dabs]

Had a look at that thread, and just want to repeat this one:

Does a miner have choice for his reward ?

Yes.

The protocol allows the miner to claim any reward equal to or less than the sum of the block subsidy and all the transaction fees of all the transactions included in the block.

There's also a bunch of "no known private key" addresses ... it's not 100%, but those can't be spent either. 1CounterParty, 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, the "zero" address", ... (heh, yes I know you can't prove it, but pretty much someone somewhere out there is trying to, and they'll fail.)

[hulla]

Almost is not an exact expression, at any given moment we know the exact number of mined Bitcoins, this is public data available on lots of websites, and it says that there is 18,067,062 BTC at the moment.

With the capital market been accused of false information, before I don't believe their current circulation numbers. However, I don't think to know the number of bitcoins left to be mine is something hard since we already have a site where we can find all the necessary information needed.

[Dabs]

let's hope you are right about that last part, but why would someone even try, so you are wrong about that.

Because they can, or they are stealing someone else's computing power or resources and doing it anyway. Zombie nets and stuff.

[karanggatak]

I'm sure no one will know for sure how much bitcoin has been lost. because there is no way that can be done to restore the lost bitcoin.
the bitcoin that is lost mostly belongs to people who forget their e-mail and password so they can't access their bitcoin. and we don't know how many people have experienced this. so there is no way to count lost bitcoin. for now the bitcoin that has been circulating is 18 million BTC remaining that have not been mined means only 3 million BTC.

[Eugenar]

I'm sure no one will know for sure how much bitcoin has been lost. because there is no way that can be done to restore the lost bitcoin.
the bitcoin that is lost mostly belongs to people who forget their e-mail and password so they can't access their bitcoin. and we don't know how many people have experienced this. so there is no way to count lost bitcoin. for now the bitcoin that has been circulating is 18 million BTC remaining that have not been mined means only 3 million BTC.

Meaning to say that lost bitcoins are being stored at exchanges, wherein, the main access of the users is through their email and passwords and not from their public and private key. In this case, the bitcoins aren't lost at all, but there's a probability that if the exchange is faulty and some sort of fraud, then it will be added again to the liquidity pool of that particular exchange.

[ilovealtcoins]

According to Chainalysis (A blockchain analysis company), it's 4 Million coins (2017). This is clearly an estimation though. There is no way to know the accurate number.

in just 2 years 1 million Bitcoin was mined.  the rest will certainly be mined before 2100. Although Bitcoin is limited, we can divide Bitcoin into 10,000,000 Satoshi units, so rest assured that we still have plenty of Bitcoin to use.

[Getmon]

According to Chainalysis (A blockchain analysis company), it's 4 Million coins (2017). This is clearly an estimation though. There is no way to know the accurate number.

in just 2 years 1 million Bitcoin was mined.  the rest will certainly be mined before 2100. Although Bitcoin is limited, we can divide Bitcoin into 10,000,000 Satoshi units, so rest assured that we still have plenty of Bitcoin to use.

It is not before the year 2100. The last drop of Satoshi to be mined will be in the year 2140. That is 40 long years after 2100. That is going to be more than a couple lifetimes combined from now. There will be no problem about the value division of Bitcoin. There are several decimal points in there by design, one satoshi will take a very long time to grow into a huge amount.

[Lucius]

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.

Of course, it's interesting, but it's really just pure speculation because there is currently no reliable method to determine how much BTC has actually been lost forever. For all of us who own some of BTC, this is just something that will eventually increase the price - 21 million is total supply, and 99% of that amount will be mined by 2032. If the price continues to increase as has been the case so far, I bet we will see a lot of so-called lost coins moving to exchanges. I doubt that many will be able to resist the price of $100k or even $50k per 1 BTC.

[lionheart78]

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.

Or probably much greater.  At this point, this bad method you said is pretty much an assumption and simply a guess.  I am quite sure that there are also lots of people who are still losing their private key as of this moment. So whether it is greater or smaller is still a guess.   And I think there is no accurate way to found out how many Bitcoins are actually lost and will be lost in the future.

[ragavancoin]

2,930,137.5 Bitcoins are left to be mined

86.047% of Bitcoins have been issued

18,069,862.5 Total bitcoin in existence

1,800 New bitcoin mined per day.

For more information click here source link https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/how-many-bitcoins-are-there/

[nancy]

There are almost 1/4 of 18 millions of lost coins. incredible amount

[k@suy]

2,930,137.5 Bitcoins are left to be mined

86.047% of Bitcoins have been issued

18,069,862.5 Total bitcoin in existence

1,800 New bitcoin mined per day.

For more information click here source link https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/how-many-bitcoins-are-there/

Woah! Great number! There is still a lot of bitcoin that has not been mined. Wish i could have some mining rid ,anyway it is good to know that there is still a lot of bitcoin that has not been mined yet because we know that a number lf coins that has been circulated in the market really affects the market value, so if it will be all put in circulation I think bitcoin price will drop.

[akirasendo17]

its more or less 3-4 million bitcoin is lost forever, there are 2.9 million btc still to be mine

[Aikidoka]

its more or less 3-4 million bitcoin is lost forever, there are 2.9 million btc still to be mine

Is that can effect the bitcoin price in the future? I meant when those 2.9 millions bitcoin will be mined, what's going to happen later? I hope even if bitcoin will die after many years, then it should come a good alternative for this crypto.

[danherbias07]

Difficult to answer how many are lost.
Before all this price pumping happened like $360 per bitcoin there are already lost coins and it keeps on adding up whenever a user is creating a wallet then joining faucet websites.
I am one of that examples.
I have some wallets that are forgotten and I know there are satoshis left there.
I also knew that there were a lot of us doing the same faucet work since the deposit amount is being consumed everyday.
Imagine how many satoshis are out there in different wallets which was not withdrawn.
That could be a lot also when summed up.