Lost bitcoins

[Blitzboy]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

When talking about lost bitcoins there is a possibility that it cannot be recovered because the habit of losing bitcoins is caused by carelessness and negligence of people in saving seeds or keys to bitcoin storage wallets. Why should people be happy when the bitcoin price drops? If in theory you mean a drop in bitcoin only at the time of purchase and wishing the price of bitcoin to go down it might still look normal, because generally people would try to take advantage of the drop to buy it, so the theory you mean is weak and unprovable.

The supply and demand process plays a much larger role and will remain in effect throughout its journey. When bitcoins are lost because access to wallets is no longer affordable, they can no longer be used forever by anyone. Therefore storing bitcoins in a secure wallet and securing the seeds and keys is also very important.

Losing Bitcoin's seed phrases and keys is like losing a gold vault's keys. No one wants to lose their hard-earned riches. This misfortune deserves sympathy.

Markets are mysterious. You wondered why some could enjoy declining Bitcoin prices. This contradictory attitude has a rationale. As an avid market observer, I see price decreases as opportunities for new crypto entrants. They can buy Bitcoin at a discount and hope it rises again, as it usually does.

The hypothesis is weak, but its reinforced by "buy low, sell high." Supply and demand are the fundamental drivers, but market mood is influenced by such opportunities. We agree on protecting those keys and seeds.

[dezoel]

Bitcoin has a maximum total supply, which has already created and no additional Bitcoin is going to create, in time's of lost Bitcoin wallet has no meaning if it replaced as long no additional Bitcoin going to be created but rather using the reserve to feel the gab of the lost wallet, I don't think such can exist, because lost of Bitcoin is a result of lost of private key, password and devices used to store your Bitcoin, in the near future Bitcoin will taken advantage of lost to keep increasing in price, because of scarcity in the cryptocurrency market.

Before there are talks about extending the Bitcoins supply I think they will use a technology called Taproot if I am not mistaken. I wonder if that development are still on going but we will see soon if they are successful with that or not.

There is no such thing as reserved Bitcoin that will replace the lost Bitcoin of others. Once a private key is lost, there might be a recovery method that we can use to find them, if not then we can declare that the Bitcoins are lost completely. We shouldn't wish that many people will lose their Bitcoins even though it can make the price rise. That's evil. Besides it is still possible for Bitcoins value to grow the natural way.

[Minhxx]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

If it is recovered and sold on the market I think it will be affected for a few days and bitcoin will be stable again. Over time, bitcoin is still rare

[xSkylarx]

Bitcoin that is lost is already lost forever, but there are instances where it is not lost as they recovered their seed phrase and were able to unlock their wallet, which means it is not lost. If you ask if the price will drop, it will definitely drop if someone sells tons of Bitcoin, but the chances right now are very low and rare that those lost bitcoins were recovered.

[TheUltraElite]

If it is recovered and sold on the market I think it will be affected for a few days and bitcoin will be stable again. Over time, bitcoin is still rare

Very few of these are actually recovered. The majority are lost forever and we should not give much importance to that. While they are not recovered we have to consider them as sold at zero price and hence they make the total pool of available bitcoin lower and hence raise the price. But I agree that Bitcoin itself is rare and not much liquid even today and hence it's price is high. We should focus on increasing the amount of Bitcoin that we own and leave out the rest.

Also keeping the coins safe is an important thing as well. Don't lose your one coins thats the main thing.

[Fuso.hp]

Bitcoins that disappear from the market may never return to the market. The bitcoins that were said to be lost I think were deliberately taken out of the market to increase the value of bitcoins. If the amount of Bitcoin that disappeared from the market comes back into the market, the price of Bitcoin will go down a lot and people will lose faith in this coin. The main reason that the price of Bitcoin is at a normal level is that there is a certain amount of Bitcoin in the market that some people are buying or that some people are selling, that is, Bitcoin is not added to the market beyond the specified limit, but whenever it is added to the market beyond the specified limit, its demand will decrease a lot in the market.

[OcTradism]

Very few of these are actually recovered. The majority are lost forever and we should not give much importance to that. While they are not recovered we have to consider them as sold at zero price and hence they make the total pool of available bitcoin lower and hence raise the price. But I agree that Bitcoin itself is rare and not much liquid even today and hence it's price is high. We should focus on increasing the amount of Bitcoin that we own and leave out the rest.

What is lost is lost forever and it is almost impossible to find what you lost like private keys, passwords or seed phrase. Chance to recover a lost wallet, password, seed phrase is not big so very few assumed lost bitcoin will be recover.

Some old bitcoins woke up are not actually lost bitcoins. They are only dormant bitcoins and the owners still have access to those coins and they just did not move their coins in previous years.

For lost bitcoins I don't mind when they were lost and around what prices of Bitcoin on the market. It belongs to history and only the owners know real stories of their losses so with us, it does not make sense to guess their stories.

Also keeping the coins safe is an important thing as well. Don't lose your one coins thats the main thing.

Secure your wallets
Cryptocurrency security checklist

[Doan9269]

If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price

You should know this, that bitcoin transactions are one way forward actions that cannot be reversed, it's either the transaction gets confirmed and you lost your bitcoin through sending it to wrong address, if you sent to a wrong address, the coins are gone forever, if your transactions is unconfirmed, give it time to get confirmed because mempool might be busy atimes, now this is where people get it wrong, if you loose access to your private keys that allows you to have control over your bitcoin for yours doesn't mean your coins are lost, they will always be on that wallet till you have access to those keys or they remain there, that is not treated as lost coins.

[BenCodie]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

Lost bitcoins are not a voluntary donations to the network. They are involuntary. Irresponsible storage or the neglected necessity to take care of how you store your Bitcoins is one of the reasons that they will never be able to be recovered. I doubt many of those who lost their coins voluntarily destroyed their access to them.

There will never be a case where all lost Bitcoins suddenly become available to their owners, so there is no need to theorize how much the price would drop if that were to happen. Though yes, the price would drop as instantly a lot of Bitcoin would enter supply rapidly.

Should we be happy? Not really. It's better that Bitcoins are circulating and continued to circulate since that period of time. It creates more ecosystem activity, it creates more use-case and it makes the network more active. Is it economically beneficial right now that these coins are unlikely to ever be circulated again? Sure.

[erep]

We have to distinguish between lost bitcoins or suddenly active wallets because the owner holds bitcoins for too long, even though there are large amounts of bitcoin transactions to other addresses but that does not mean they can affect market prices, every day there are always large numbers of bitcoin transactions to other addresses that are detected by the bot system being developed.

Even though deposit transactions from addresses have recently been active but not large amounts, it is possible that wallet owners only use 10-20% to be sold in stages due to the financial need to develop their company, but their assets are focused on holding long term because of the potential for bitcoin prices to increase higher in the future.

[milewilda]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

Lost bitcoins are not a voluntary donations to the network. They are involuntary. Irresponsible storage or the neglected necessity to take care of how you store your Bitcoins is one of the reasons that they will never be able to be recovered. I doubt many of those who lost their coins voluntarily destroyed their access to them.

There will never be a case where all lost Bitcoins suddenly become available to their owners, so there is no need to theorize how much the price would drop if that were to happen. Though yes, the price would drop as instantly a lot of Bitcoin would enter supply rapidly.

Should we be happy? Not really. It's better that Bitcoins are circulating and continued to circulate since that period of time. It creates more ecosystem activity, it creates more use-case and it makes the network more active. Is it economically beneficial right now that these coins are unlikely to ever be circulated again? Sure.

There's no such thing about donation because those coins are totally lost in void and there's no way on getting those coins back unless if those privatekeys would be able to retreive or would be seen again then for sure
those coins would really be get on, considering on how long it had been idle then its impossible for its owners not to sell out on the time that they would really be getting a hold of it. 
Lots had been even trying to bruteforce a particular wallet but still failed up and this do proves out on how secure Bitcoin is. This is why if you do own Bitcoin then it would really be just that a common sense
on storing up those keys on a secure place but never ever tend to forget those keys because once those things are lost then say goodbye into your wallet and coins inside it.

[Casdinyard]

Lots of stuff that affects the price of bitcoin, the ones at circulation are just a factor of it. If it were to be discovered and returned into circulation, depending on if it were to be sold outrightly, or if it were to be sold to be traded yields two different outcomes. The former causing the price to go down cause it depreciates the value of bitcoin by dumping some of it especially if it's a substantial amount, but the latter wouldn't do much cause at the end of the day, nothing of value is lost.

I would argue that the recovery of lost bitcoins would even be great for bitcoin cause at the end of the day, that's more bitcoin that would be in circulation with more people being able to buy and use it, so whether they sell it or not, the price change will be temporary, but the benefits will stay with us until bitcoin's gone.

[Z-tight]

I would argue that the recovery of lost bitcoins would even be great for bitcoin cause at the end of the day, that's more bitcoin that would be in circulation with more people being able to buy and use it, so whether they sell it or not, the price change will be temporary, but the benefits will stay with us until bitcoin's gone.

How would it be great for BTC when it is impossible to be certain that BTC in a dormant address is lost, this idea would defeat and possibly destroy the network because it will lead to stealing people's coins because they decided not to sell or move it. If BTC are lost, then let them remain lost, but there should be no way to recover BTC's that have not moved for a very long time.

[KiaKia]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

Happy that someone lost his or her life savings? No I am not, because I am also a Bitcoin holder, I won't like it if I manage to lost my Bitcoin, also there is no way we can know the numbers of lost Bitcoins, and not all sleeping wallet addresses are lost.

Even if no single Bitcoin are lost till date are you saying that the value ain't never going to be the same? Those who lost their Bitcoin for real might have sold them in the past years already, any old holders that have Bitcoin right now understood the game, and they are prepared to always be here for a longer period.

[Abiky]

Lots of stuff that affects the price of bitcoin, the ones at circulation are just a factor of it. If it were to be discovered and returned into circulation, depending on if it were to be sold outrightly, or if it were to be sold to be traded yields two different outcomes. The former causing the price to go down cause it depreciates the value of bitcoin by dumping some of it especially if it's a substantial amount, but the latter wouldn't do much cause at the end of the day, nothing of value is lost.

I would argue that the recovery of lost bitcoins would even be great for bitcoin cause at the end of the day, that's more bitcoin that would be in circulation with more people being able to buy and use it, so whether they sell it or not, the price change will be temporary, but the benefits will stay with us until bitcoin's gone.

I'd tell you Mr. Craig Wright tried to recover lost coins on his Bitcoin SV blockchain, only to face opposition from the community (as far as I'm aware). Don't expect BTC developers to do the same, especially when it's in their best interests to keep Bitcoin a deflationary cryptocurrency. As Satoshi stated before, “Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.” If lost coins are recovered, doesn't that make BTC similar to banks? I'm fine with Bitcoin just the way it is.

People should assume responsibility by protecting their Bitcoins from being lost in the long run. If they're lost, they're gone for good. Think of it as cash (paper money). Only that it's not controlled by a government or central bank, and it's deflationary by design. Who knows how much BTC will be worth in the future as coins are removed from the circulating supply? Just my thoughts

[AmoreJaz]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

Happy that someone lost his or her life savings? No I am not, because I am also a Bitcoin holder, I won't like it if I manage to lost my Bitcoin, also there is no way we can know the numbers of lost Bitcoins, and not all sleeping wallet addresses are lost.

Even if no single Bitcoin are lost till date are you saying that the value ain't never going to be the same? Those who lost their Bitcoin for real might have sold them in the past years already, any old holders that have Bitcoin right now understood the game, and they are prepared to always be here for a longer period.

there are various reasons why they are considered lost. owners forgot the keys, or simply forgot they had bitcoins. or some owners were already dead and didn't give it to their loved ones and so on. whatever the reason is, it won't affect anymore in the current market. i don't think recovering the lost btc will have an impact in the current market. we already reach this price level for years, so it is like establishing the foundation of this market considering all the other factors including these lost BTCs

[BenCodie]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

Lost bitcoins are not a voluntary donations to the network. They are involuntary. Irresponsible storage or the neglected necessity to take care of how you store your Bitcoins is one of the reasons that they will never be able to be recovered. I doubt many of those who lost their coins voluntarily destroyed their access to them.

There will never be a case where all lost Bitcoins suddenly become available to their owners, so there is no need to theorize how much the price would drop if that were to happen. Though yes, the price would drop as instantly a lot of Bitcoin would enter supply rapidly.

Should we be happy? Not really. It's better that Bitcoins are circulating and continued to circulate since that period of time. It creates more ecosystem activity, it creates more use-case and it makes the network more active. Is it economically beneficial right now that these coins are unlikely to ever be circulated again? Sure.

There's no such thing about donation because those coins are totally lost in void and there's no way on getting those coins back unless if those privatekeys would be able to retreive or would be seen again then for sure
those coins would really be get on, considering on how long it had been idle then its impossible for its owners not to sell out on the time that they would really be getting a hold of it. 
Lots had been even trying to bruteforce a particular wallet but still failed up and this do proves out on how secure Bitcoin is.

I disagree that there is no such thing as a donation. I am sure in the years of 2008-2012 people who held Bitcoin may have had the idea that by destroying supply in some way, would positively contribute to the economics of Bitcoin due to reducing the supply. These actions would be considered donations to the network. It's very unlikely that this still happens with similar amounts. Maybe similar things happen today, though it just seems less likely due to value difference at that point until now.

Those who irresponsibly held their coins and then lost access to them did not voluntarily donate to the network like the above, rather their own actions and unfortunate circumstances led to an involuntary donation to the network, as their loss becomes beneficial to the economics of Bitcoin (again, less supply).

I agree that bruteforcing is unlikely to ever be successful and if it ever is near, a patch will be implemented prior to it being deployed against Bitcoin....I hope.

This is why if you do own Bitcoin then it would really be just that a common sense
on storing up those keys on a secure place but never ever tend to forget those keys because once those things are lost then say goodbye into your wallet and coins inside it.

We can always remind ourselves and others about the precautions and steps to make sure that holdings are secure to prevent loss, though I'm sure that there will always be mistakes and irresponsibility (both are human nature after all) and therefore Bitcoin will always receive involuntary donations.

[dlightag]

Bitcoin has a specific number created which everyone has already know total supply as a Bitcoin users, in other words Bitcoin is Lost is gone for ever, because the private key or password doesn't share to anyone, which is a individual risk holding in a private wallet and that is why is good to go for knowledge before enroll Bitcoin business.

[hitsnorth]

Bitcoin has a specific number created which everyone has already know total supply as a Bitcoin users, in other words Bitcoin is Lost is gone for ever, because the private key or password doesn't share to anyone, which is a individual risk holding in a private wallet and that is why is good to go for knowledge before enroll Bitcoin business.

You just posted a Wikipedia page just with your words. Yeah, we all know that. It's kinda sad that it can't be recovered at all. Yeah, Bitcoin requires preparation and security, but it's not just you losing Bitcoin, it's lost forever for everyone.

[justdimin]

We can always remind ourselves and others about the precautions and steps to make sure that holdings are secure to prevent loss, though I'm sure that there will always be mistakes and irresponsibility (both are human nature after all) and therefore Bitcoin will always receive involuntary donations.

I agree with that, I do not think that they donated to make sure that the supply drops and the value would go up. I think they just involuntarily did that by making a mistake. I have done that before, there is some money out there somewhere in the world that I used to own. I am fine with it and at peace because it was about 10 dollars back then, and probably somewhere close to 3k today, and will probably be more later on.

However, I had the chance to get more of it when I can and decided not to, so it is going to be a different situation. In the end we are talking about a situation where it is going to be difficult and we need to learn to live with it and can't really make a big difference in the end when the time comes.