4.45 million bitcoin untouched for 5yrs,do BTC community can retrieve in future?

[Little Mouse]

We don't know if they arr lost or not. How do you know? It os very unlikely that there are BTCs which are stuck (lost). Owner/someone else can get private key too.
Imagine, in 2050, someone will dig soil and found a hardware wallet which will have X amount of BTC lol.

Regarding your questions, if someday some steps will be taken, that won't anymore be bitcoin blockchain. That will be another altcoin chain.

[teosanru]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

It's not possible at all, first of all how do you form a consensus that this money is actually all lost? There is a high possibility that this might not be lost, it's just that owner must have kept it safely and securely person saying he has the key and lost it might be lying even if you realise that it's true you'll have to cheat the system protocol in order to get this money which not only sound unethical but foolish at the same time, so I don't think such a thing would happen.

[Jody.Drummer]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

What for? in what way? and if it can why not now?

This is what is called complete control only in your hands. It's not impossible it's just that everything must have a probability rate above 5%. If I could, then I wouldn't tell you that I've taken the 99% lost Bitcoin and 1% just let it go live on Twitter. 

[AnotherAlt]

While on the subject of Forking, if I ever make a Fork, I'll call it BitcoinLV (BLV): Bitcoin Loyce Vision or Bitcoin Loyce Valenzuela. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

Would you mind getting negative tags from the Bitcointalk community and getting distrusted by 10K accounts for doing this? 

[carlfebz2]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

Nope, 2nd post of this thread does explain and this comes from the creator itself which means its the absolute rule when it comes or in talks about lost Bitcoins, thats why you should really be careful

on storing up your coins and never ever tend to forget your private keys or seeds which could really be the thing needed on accessing your wallet.
There's no way that community could make out retrieval and if you do tend to understand the basic concept of Bitcoin itself then you would clearly understands.

[KennyR]

We can't get into conclusion those bitcoins that weren't transacted for 5years is a lost one. Among that will be coins that are kept hold for years.

To retrieve bitcoins that are being lost is impossible thing. These days we've got some people claiming that they'll be able to get back stolen and lost bitcoins. Don't believe it.

If this gets added up to the circulation, we'll experience an increase in the volume as well as the dominance level.

James Howells accidentally threw his hard drive during an office cleanup in 2013. He have been struggling hard to find it, even reached NASA for help. Similar incidents can be found and this can be considered a lost one.

[Mahanton]

We can't get into conclusion those bitcoins that weren't transacted for 5years is a lost one. Among that will be coins that are kept hold for years.

To retrieve bitcoins that are being lost is impossible thing. These days we've got some people claiming that they'll be able to get back stolen and lost bitcoins. Don't believe it.

If this gets added up to the circulation, we'll experience an increase in the volume as well as the dominance level.

James Howells accidentally threw his hard drive during an office cleanup in 2013. He have been struggling hard to find it, even reached NASA for help. Similar incidents can be found and this can be considered a lost one.

Really hard to determine whether its a lost coin/wallet for a dormant account/wallet that we do see in the market and its true that we wont know if the owner is tending to hold it off for years
or simply those wallets are totally lost or cant be accessed by its owners or simply been forgotten thats why its really hard to determine.I remember that Hard drive which does have lots of
coins inside of it which is unfortunate for  someone to experience but there's nothing we can do and its just stressful on minding those situations back.

[Cookdata]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

The community is not built to retrieve any bitcoin for anyone, what is the assurance that the key to that bitcoin has lost as you said? There are people who have bought bitcoin for more than 7 years, they haven't spent a single sats from it, despite some soft fork like the use of native segwit address, they still prefer the first legacy wallet address to avoid chain surveillance from puting nose in their holdings.
If anyone do this, you are breaking the trust of the community, it will be impossible to even break into these wallet address except you have some tips about that wallet addresses like some missing part of the private keys or wallets dat

[AnotherAlt]

We don't know if they arr lost or not. How do you know? It os very unlikely that there are BTCs which are stuck (lost). Owner/someone else can get private key too.
Imagine, in 2050, someone will dig soil and found a hardware wallet which will have X amount of BTC lol.

I agree with you.

The Bitcoins remaining untouched doesn't mean they are lost. Maybe some of them are lost but not all of them. Often we see news that A Bitcoin dormant account wakes up with million worth of BTC. Here is some news you may want to check.

• Bitcoin Whale Wallets Dormant Since December 2018 Suddenly Add BTC Worth Rs. 62,789 Crores: All the Details
• This Dormant $720 Million Bitcoin Wallet Has Woken Up – But Who Owns It?
• Dormant Bitcoin wallet turns $29 million after 8.8 years
• Hundreds of Millions Worth of 'Sleeping Bitcoins' Woke up After BTC's Mid-November Price High
• Bitcoin Account Dormant for 9 Years Now Worth $33 Million Shows Why You Should Hold Cryptocurrencies Long Term

Also, There is Twitter Account named Whale Alert often Post Dormant account waking alert like This One.

[philipma1957]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

No.

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

Satoshi’s creation has had changes it will have more.

I am pretty much certain that a time limit forfeiture will be proposed around 2075.

I will be dead and since I have no kids I don’t care one way or another.

My guess is the rule will be simple.

block 1 stays frozen 🥶

any addresses after that one with 60 years or  more and  no withdrawal will be forfeited.

You need only move a little out of the address and clock starts again.

I would think that well under 2 million are lost not 4.5 million.

Many disagree with me and say it wont  happen.

[BitFinnese]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

At the current configuration of the Bitcoin protocols, it is a NO, but who knows, maybe one day a consensus can be agreed upon where idle Bitcoin for x amount of time can be retrieved but of course, it needs a fork for that.  I am not into forking Bitcoins just for the sake of retrieving "lost Bitcoins" because this may cause a huge problem when one day the owner of those "lost Bitcoin" decided to move or use it.

[avikz]

I will speak for myself, as I don't know what's the others' opinion (neither do I care): I will never configure my node to do such thing.

Can it really be done by configuring a node? Then what about the security of the coins of a long term holder? You never know when a person decides to use their bitcoin that is untouched for years.

My understanding was, if we need any such changes, a consensus needs to happed and a fork should follow after that. Is that not the case?

[Kakmakr]

Let's turn the table for a moment....

Imagine that some of those coins was yours... will you like it if someone "touch" your coins, just because you hoarded those coins for 5 years? Do you think Bitcoin will be embraced and trusted by the public, if uncirculated coins are moved, without the owners permission?

The Banks will "lock" inactive accounts, if you do not use them, because they want you to use that money... so that they can charge you fees. In Bitcoin ..YOU are your own Bank and you have FULL control over your own coins. 

[davis196]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

Just ask yourself, why would the Bitcoin community decide to do such thing?
Will this bring some sort of benefit for the entire BTC community? Some Bitcoiners might recover their access to lost BTC(if they provide sufficient proof, which is highly unlikely to happen, in 80% of the cases), but the Bitcoin price will go down. We as a community will lose money, just because we want to help the people, who were irresponsible enough to forget their passwords, sees phrases, private keys, sent BTC to the wrong address, etc. Rewarding the irresponsible people and punishing the responsible people? This sounds like dumb socialism to me.

[worle1bm]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

The coins lost cannot be retrieved as you need the keys for the same and only the owner of the funds have it which is why it's said you need to secure it properly on your end.The supply is shrinking due to these lost coins and we all know there will never be 21 million coins in circulation which will boost the prices even more when demand gets too high.

[mindrust]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

How do you know these coins are lost? Maybe they are just "holding" these coins? BTC community can't do anything about this at all. The system is decentralized and immutable. Meaning you can't retrieve lost coins and you don't know if they are lost in the first place. This is the beauty of blockchain. A mistake or not, once it is done, there is no turning back. People may try to fork bitcoin off but all they'll have is a worthless chain which nobody will be using.

[South Park]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

To begin with the fact there are coins which have not moved for a long time does not mean those coins are lost, we have seen many cases of coins that were thought to be lost eventually moving, so unless someone which was the confirmed owner of the private key of a particular address later stated they had lost their private key we cannot know for sure if the coins are lost or not, also what you are proposing goes against the spirit of bitcoin, which is that no can spend their coins without the private key, and if something like this were approved I can guarantee you bitcoin will stop existing, as at that point it would not be different than fiat at all.

[decodx]

My questions is that ' is there any possibility that some point in time in future BTC community might decide something which can retrieve this lost BTCs?

The act of allowing anyone to spend coins that they do not own, for which they do not have private keys, would mean that Bitcoin has failed in its primary function, and ultimately that would be the end of Bitcoin. The reason that Bitcoin has survived for so long is because the blockchain is immutable and untamperable.

[BITCOIN4X]

Let's turn the table for a moment....

Imagine that some of those coins was yours... will you like it if someone "touch" your coins, just because you hoarded those coins for 5 years? Do you think Bitcoin will be embraced and trusted by the public, if uncirculated coins are moved, without the owners permission?

The Banks will "lock" inactive accounts, if you do not use them, because they want you to use that money... so that they can charge you fees. In Bitcoin ..YOU are your own Bank and you have FULL control over your own coins. 

The OP knows that once the owner of a bitcoin wallet loses access to his wallet, he will no longer be able to move bitcoin. But I think he just wanted to know if there is any possibility that bitcoins from that wallet could be moved especially as technology advances.

We're probably pretty sure that it can no longer be moved because no one else has the private key to access the wallet, so the answer is probably pretty self-explanatory as satoshi says in the quote.

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

[NeuroticFish]

The OP knows that once the owner of a bitcoin wallet loses access to his wallet, he will no longer be able to move bitcoin. But I think he just wanted to know if there is any possibility that bitcoins from that wallet could be moved especially as technology advances.

Since he was asking about the funds getting redistributed back for the community (at least that's how I see his question), the problem is that you don't know if an untouched fund it like that on purpose or because one has lost access. And even if it's on purpose, one should not be forced to move his coins away (again, see collectibles).

If he was asking about "technology advances", (afaik) the oldest generation of addresses is considered relatively unsafe. But, as you can see, they are still pretty much safe enough. Satoshi's funds are still there.