We should forget that there'll be 21M BTC

[GreatArkansas]

(....)
What do you think?

If you are learning the core of Bitcoin or what Bitcoin is, people must know by the beginning, there will be only 21 million Bitcoin will be generated.
You got a point that for that Bitcoin who already lost like wallets or private keys already lost and impossible to access anymore.
What's my take here is somehow they are "burned" which will help the supply of Bitcoin will decrease and by that, I believe it will also a good help somehow that it will increase the price of Bitcoin.

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[Darker45]

Why should we forget about it? That number is the strongest argument against fiat. 21 million represents what fiat is not. 21 million means Bitcoin couldn't be devalued the way governments and central banks do with their currencies.

As a matter of fact, on the contrary, you could forget about lost coins and focus on 21 million. Many lost coins are lost until they're found or recovered. If some coins are lost for good then, as Satoshi Nakamoto mentioned, they "only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more" and we could think of those lost coins "as a donation to everyone" of us.^[1] But is there a way to determine whether a Bitcoin is forever lost?

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198.msg1647#msg1647

[worle1bm]

This types of threads has been created many times if you look to search for them and we all know about that there will never be 21M coins in circulation due to lost coins and that owned on Satoshi's address.We can't make more because it will change the whole algorithm and disturb the network.So the world will still see the coins till 2140 which is huge time gap from current one so care about other things.

[smartaction]

Individuals should completely disabuse themselves of the notion that there will ever be 21 million Bitcoins
.....................

What do you think?

Yes it is true that many bitcoins have already been lost.  Many bitcoins have been locked due to unconsciousness And if Bitcoin has a specific supply then why isn't Bitcoin growing much? This is because Bitcoin has not yet spread to everyone.

It is estimated that only 3.9-4% of people worldwide use crypto from 100%.  And with approximately 18,000 businesses accepting crypto. The Bitcoin prices have risen 540,000% from btc release since only 4% of people worldwide use cryptocurrencies.  Bitcoin has reached an annual growth rate of 274% So have you ever wondered what the price of Bitcoin would be if 50% of people worldwide use Bitcoin?

[Mauser]

What do you think?

I agree with you, while the total amount of mined bitcoins will eventually reach 21m, it doesn't mean that the world has full access to all these 21m. Due to theft and people losing access to their wallets the number of available bitcoins will be lower. That shouldn't be a big concern right now though. You could argue that the price should be higher, but that's just a matter of time.  The finite numbers of Bitcoins is what will make the price rise over time. As long as new bitcoins are being mined there exists a minimum price for bitcoins, given by the energy and running cost of miners. We are of course well above that price. So the rise in mining cost together with the halving means that prices have to rise more and more. At the moment its hard to say what the real price is, because the world is facing such uncertain times.

[jaberwock]

Why should we forget about it? That number is the strongest argument against fiat. 21 million represents what fiat is not. 21 million means Bitcoin couldn't be devalued the way governments and central banks do with their currencies.

As a matter of fact, on the contrary, you could forget about lost coins and focus on 21 million. Many lost coins are lost until they're found or recovered. If some coins are lost for good then, as Satoshi Nakamoto mentioned, they "only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more" and we could think of those lost coins "as a donation to everyone" of us.^[1] But is there a way to determine whether a Bitcoin is forever lost?

21 million supply of btc is one of the facts where btc is known so it's impossible for it to be forgotten but in fact this is always in the discussions. I always seen everyone talks about it either in the new topics/threads or just a random reply of a user. Lost coins is also important but not as important as the 21m supply of btc.

Lost bitcoins can be called to as a blessing of disguise because it makes the rest of btc more scarce but not all lost bitcoins are completely lost. I have seen news where are user suddenly recovers a lost btc or a crypto wallet that has a btc on it. The only way to determine that a btc is completely lost forever is when a user intended to lose it and he let anyone know.

[coolcoinz]

I'd expand this thought to include coins that are going to be lost (irretrievable) by the time we get to mine the last coin about more than 100 years from now.

If you think about it, we are 12 years into the process and nearing 19m mined bitcoins and in this short time we've managed to lose between 2.8 and 3.8 million coins. This means that if the lower number is correct, people were losing BTC250k a year! At that speed we'd need 40 years to lose half of the total supply of bitcoin, making it impossible to even have a circulating supply in 100 years, when the last coins are to be mined.

I don't expect bitcoin to survive 100 years in its current form, but something will have to be done along the way to make sure it doesn't self destruct. 

[darkangel11]

It's a funny opinion by OP because we all know that you and I could make it so that there's never 21 million BTC. I could make a new wallet, send 0.001BTC to myself and delete the whole thing. Being the troll that I am I could claim that I broke Bitcoin because now there's never going to be 21 million in circulation

We don't need a million or 5 million to be lost for it to never actually reach 21m in circulation, but does it matter?

I don't expect bitcoin to survive 100 years in its current form

That's it. In 120 years when there's 20900000 coins mined we'll have quantum computing to worry about and maybe space exploration or alien invasion.
Also by that time half of the supply will probably be lost and 1 coin will be worth more than 1 million USD if fiat money even exists.

[darewaller]

This is actually good thing as well. If we do not have 21 million but only 14 million that means there are a lot less of it, and that means each of them should be valued even more. I mean right now we calculate it based on what the market shows how many there should be, but if there aren't that much, than it means we should be even higher in price when you calculate it with the right amount.

This is definitely a greater way to get out more value for bitcoin hence it should never be seen as a bad thing. Still, I am not sure when investors and traders will start speculating bitcoin value with "new" circulating supply ans once that kind of approach kicks off then we can see bitcoin prices to be flying higher than usual in every 4 year cycle.

[slackovic]

I'd expand this thought to include coins that are going to be lost (irretrievable) by the time we get to mine the last coin about more than 100 years from now.

If you think about it, we are 12 years into the process and nearing 19m mined bitcoins and in this short time we've managed to lose between 2.8 and 3.8 million coins. This means that if the lower number is correct, people were losing BTC250k a year! At that speed we'd need 40 years to lose half of the total supply of bitcoin, making it impossible to even have a circulating supply in 100 years, when the last coins are to be mined.

I don't expect bitcoin to survive 100 years in its current form, but something will have to be done along the way to make sure it doesn't self destruct. 

You can't compare losing your Bitcoin wallet now and 10 years ago. Now if you have 1 BTC in your wallet, you will surely remember that you have it. But 10 years ago I'm sure people were deleting wallets with hundreds and thousands of Bitcoin in it just because they weren't worth anything at that time.