This is why I believe bitcoin will crush in the distant future

[serjent05]

Let's not forget that bitcoin is highly divisible, and can be more divisible through layer 2 solutions. Lost bitcoin only helps the scarcity part of bitcoin. Unless 95% of the population suddenly dies without being able to hand over the bitcoin to their families, it will be quite farfetched to think that this will be a problem any time in our lifetimes.

I didn't said it's the greatest possibility. But some bitcoins from few owners will get lost in the future. And I mentioned, overtime. Not tomorrow or next year.

Distant Future

Scarcity, if you know this term.  Taking a positive thought, it might probably skyrocket in price.  In accordance with the law of supply and demand, people losing BTC means BTC getting scarce.  As time goes by people will be educated about how precious Bitcoin is and they will, for sure, take an action to take care of them.  That includes making sure that when they die, there is a complete instruction on how to retrieve their BTC that can be pass to their children or grandchildren. Just ask yourself if you have a million-dollar item, won't you make documentation on how you will pass that item to your children?

[hahay]

Bitcoiners keep their coins in a private key. This has a disadvantage. Let's assume that someone with 1000BTC dies. If he hadn't given the wallet to someone then his bitcoins are lost. So in the distant future that lots of bitcoiners will be dead and they won't have given their private keys to others, many bitcoins will be lost. So the available bitcoins will be lower and lower overtime.

Bitcoin is not like a bank meaning that cannot be used as inheritance. So will it live only on our era? Will it be lost in the future?

No, do you think if you have a lot of bitcoin then you will only manage it yourself? I do not think so. Because when you own and store lots and lots of bitcoin, at least you will manage it with the closest people or those who are very close and so that bitcoin will still be used and will not be easily destroyed.

[thesmallgod]

I believe this has been discussed extensively within and outside the bitcointalk and many people have lend their own view about keeping bitcoin as an asset. Just like properties are being willed for families and friends, it is also important that anyone with huge amount of cryptocurrencies should print their private key and wallet information on paper and keep it as part of document with the lawyer just like other documents such as land, cars, houses. This will make it possible for the cryptocurrency to be successfully be assessed after the owner died.

[Sanugarid]

Bitcoin is not like a bank meaning that cannot be used as inheritance. So will it live only on our era? Will it be lost in the future?

Exactly the opposite from what you think, the fewer available Bitcoins on the market, the higher their price will be, assuming that there is a demand in the future. Probably today's price is also a result of the fact that maybe several million Bitcoins were lost in the first few years when people didn’t believe too much that the whole thing would literally explode a few years later. Yet I believe that people have become much more cautious especially after 2017, and that some new losses will not be as dramatic as in the past.

It only serves a purpose for bitcoins that is left when some of it were going to be missing and lost, that only means that these lost coins are going to be the foundation a price stability that we are looking for bitcoin to be a widely accepted currency in the future, wouldn't the OP be glad about it? We've already lost millions of bitcoins, thus it helps the scarcity of bitcoin which will pave the road for bitcoin in you distant future

In addition, some argue that there are ways that the lost coins can be recovered - truth or myth, judge for yourself

If it happens that lost bitcoin can be recovered by his ways then I'm quitting. If there's a way to break into bitcoin's security then it's futile to use it right?

This is kinda off the topic @Lucius  but I love your avatar, I'm fond of her beauty.

[DoublerHunter]

~snip~

That's a possibility because some people don't let their loved ones aware of their crypto investment, so there is a high chance that many btc will be lost due to this negligence, maybe soon many people will realize this and make preparations towards such things, make it as part of a will that can be given to the bearer or next of kin, well I guess you raise a valid point @op

^ Definitely right, since it is still in a distant future, bitcoiners may somehow evolve on their treatment on their BTC as inheritance people change as the environment does both sides keep on adapting to each change in order to survive. I must agree to you if 95% of bitcoiners die without giving their private keys to someone then we will lose a portion of 21 million bitcoins on the other hand your thread awakens the mind of those who were able to read this and might begin to find a solution. However, during the years back then when banks don't exist yet people find a way on how they can save their money or treasures that they can leave to their children when they passed away by putting their coins in a coin bank or in a treasure chest but they leave maps on how to find it and because most of the time it went to the wrong hand so that could be a reason why banking was made which could also happen to bitcoin that through time people will still be able to find ways on how to secure the turn over of BTC to the right one who will inherit it. Nevertheless, this might only be conjecture but at the end of the day, 95% of bitcoiners that will die together with their private key is also a surmising idea.

[lobat999]

In case of death, I think we have our own plans of how we will introduce our private keys to our parents, children or immediate relatives.

You are right! I bet most BTC hodlers have a plan on how to convey their digital assets to their intended beneficiaries when the time comes. As a matter of fact, there are services and mechanisms that caters to these kinds of needs from these hodlers and at the same time, other digital assets have also plans to set up infrastructures to mitigate these kind of situation.

I did found an article that could enlighten us more about this matter.

Bitcoin Firms Report Uptick in Demand for Inheritance Services

So in essence, I disagree with OP's idea of BTC being crushed in the future on the premise of mishandled private keys alone. Imho.

[LbtalkL]

Worst case scenario If that will happen I am imagining it in a different way. Let's say lots of bitcoin are lost what do you think will happen? The circulating supply will decrease. Technically, if that happens the bitcoin price will increase if there is limited bitcoin supply that applies to everything a product in the market if there are few supplies the seller will sell at a high price. But if I will have a kid in the future I will educate them about blockchain and hardware wallets and I am working with that with my little brother now.

[Kelvinid]

It seems to be possible and yet we all dying for an instance but could we think that Bitcoin will die also together with us? Not, of course.
100 years, 1000 years, or more to come before we can experience too much scarcity because of the growing numbers of lost Bitcoin but does not mean that it totally brings Bitcoin to nothing instead, it becomes more valuable as it has today.

If that thing gives you worried and makes you not to invest Bitcoin, better have to leave that kind of thinking because it only bothering you. Bitcoin and crypto won't die for that reason alone. Or, if ever you have Bitcoins in your wallet this time, you start giving your wallets keys into your family maybe it could save you from this.

[Oilacris]

Bitcoiners keep their coins in a private key. This has a disadvantage. Let's assume that someone with 1000BTC dies. If he hadn't given the wallet to someone then his bitcoins are lost. So in the distant future that lots of bitcoiners will be dead and they won't have given their private keys to others, many bitcoins will be lost. So the available bitcoins will be lower and lower overtime.

Bitcoin is not like a bank meaning that cannot be used as inheritance. So will it live only on our era? Will it be lost in the future?

Come to think that there were 21M total supply of Bitcoin and the last block would be mined do happen in year 2100+ as far as i remember which means

it would still exist ahead of our lifetime since not all bitcoins were mined.There are indeed lots of coins even at this moment is already lost or in void
or we wouldnt know if there are just dormant for this time and would suddenly wake up if the price rose up in a particular level.
We do have all the rights on what we believe on because this had been always a speculative market and we know that nothing to last forever but
one thing would be assured if bitcoins demand would be either constant or even way more higher in the future then the crash you do say
will unlikely to happen.It all varies with the demand

[BuNga_cute]

I strongly agree that in the future bitcoin will eventually disappear. Because many people do not inherit bitcoin, including me
right now who know my private key only me. Maybe the solution so that bitcoin can be inherited, from now on we save it
private key that is easily found by our immediate family. But if doing that is also a big risk, it's likely that our bitcoin stolen
can happen. When talking about the future of bitcoin it will never end.

[lobat999]

I strongly agree that in the future bitcoin will eventually disappear. Because many people do not inherit bitcoin, including me
right now who know my private key only me. Maybe the solution so that bitcoin can be inherited, from now on we save it
private key that is easily found by our immediate family.

I think you must have overlooked previous posts which have pointed out remedies to this situation. Particularly, here is an interesting article that tackles that issue.

Bitcoin Firms Report Uptick in Demand for Inheritance Services

[pixie85]

I strongly agree that in the future bitcoin will eventually disappear. Because many people do not inherit bitcoin, including me
right now who know my private key only me.

Others have debunked this myth already.

Even if half of all Bitcoins in circulation become lost you'll only have to divide the remaining by 2 and treat 0.5 BTC like you used to treat 1. THis is also good news to all holders because their coins will become twice as valuable.

If we look at a very distant future, like 100 years from now, it's possible there will be too few coins in circulation for it to be used as a currency but it will still function as a store of value.
 
Also 100 years from now we won't care anymore because we'll all be dead.  

[hatshepsut93]

Millions of coins were lost because at the time Bitcoin wasn't worth much so no one cared if they lost a few bucks. Now that Bitcoin is worth thousands of dollars, the rate of loss is much lower than before. At current speed it will take millions of years until this will become a problem. It's like worrying that your gold bar will turn into lead due to background radiation or something - totally not a problem on a timescale that humans operate.

[TheUltraElite]

Meh, when someone is holding crypto as an investment they are not doing it without knowing it. Most of them will have a method to tell their next generation about what to do with those assets in case of their demise which is obviously going to happen one day. Not doing so or not taking such precautions means that user is being careless with their money.

Also lost coins only make the value of the circulating coins more because those coins are never going to be recovered and thus are equivalent to have been lost from the 21mil total.

Again the OP seems to be stuck on to the "future apocalypse" things, but point is that precautions should be taken to pass on the coins. There are loads of problems everywhere, being nihilistic about them is not the solution but by working out the solution and keeping the delusional thoughts out.

[danherbias07]

Who knows? Will you believe in a quack if he or she tells your future?
I guess not.

About the lost bitcoin, it doesn't matter.
That means less bitcoin in the market and then a large value for just a little amount of it.
Satoshis will be worth something in the future. That is what I see.

For those who have lost it, it's their fault for not backing it up. A lot of options had been created for security and preservation already.
They should have read those before even buying bitcoin.

[Lucius]

In addition, some argue that there are ways that the lost coins can be recovered - truth or myth, judge for yourself

If it happens that lost bitcoin can be recovered by his ways then I'm quitting. If there's a way to break into bitcoin's security then it's futile to use it right?

I’m not technically savvy enough to see if it’s possible to do something like that, but the whole thing is actually based on luck and the power of mining chips this user is using for his treasure hunter device. The specific case is focused only on wallets up to 2012 and on Legacy addresses, but it definitely wouldn’t look good if it’s really feasible.

This is kinda off the topic @Lucius  but I love your avatar, I'm fond of her beauty.

I share your opinion about MM, and since I'm a big fan of her character and the movies she's acted in, this was just a small token of attention in her honor on the occasion of her birthday.

[Janation]

I think this will be lost.

I can't remember well but Satoshi Nakamoto said something about this, having a lot of lost Bitcoin as a gift. We all know that there is no way that these Bitcoins will be recovered, this means that the circulating cryptocurrencies are being decreased, right? So the price of Bitcoin has a higher possibility to skyrocket. It will increase the demand for it with that lost coins.

[Gozie51]

But if I will have a kid in the future I will educate them about blockchain and hardware wallets and I am working with that with my little brother now.

This is a better way to go instead of bothering ourselves when we are no more. Lost bitcoin means no access to its privacy and that can only lead to increase in price because of scarcity but the number gets limited. This is even dangerous when it keeps reducing as a result of not disclosing codes.

[btccoffee]

Bitcoiners keep their coins in a private key. This has a disadvantage. Let's assume that someone with 1000BTC dies. If he hadn't given the wallet to someone then his bitcoins are lost. So in the distant future that lots of bitcoiners will be dead and they won't have given their private keys to others, many bitcoins will be lost. So the available bitcoins will be lower and lower overtime.

Bitcoin is not like a bank meaning that cannot be used as inheritance. So will it live only on our era? Will it be lost in the future?

Most of bitcoin holder are already aware of that so i think thats not realy a big deal for them, simply because they already prepare there key and hard wallet in a very safe place and maybe some notes to help there family recover the traesure they had in case they accidentaly die.

[kryptqnick]

Bitcoiners keep their coins in a private key. This has a disadvantage. Let's assume that someone with 1000BTC dies. If he hadn't given the wallet to someone then his bitcoins are lost. So in the distant future that lots of bitcoiners will be dead and they won't have given their private keys to others, many bitcoins will be lost. So the available bitcoins will be lower and lower overtime.

Bitcoin is not like a bank meaning that cannot be used as inheritance. So will it live only on our era? Will it be lost in the future?

I don't think this alone is enough to crash BTC. First, many are already thinking of inheritance options. My spouse and I share all the assets, so we know each other's passwords and private keys. If one doesn't want to tell just yet, one can arrange a postponed Telegram message or something like that to share the keys in a distant future. Then there's also Locktime (check out this thread). Finally, I believe I've recently seen a company that offers to give BTC to them for storage and make arrangements for the event of death. But it's an intermediary and the keys don't belong to the person (I think it was something about China recognizing BTC inheritance). To sum up, there are plenty of ways to ensure that the BTC of people who die doesn't get lost forever.