What about the lost BTC?

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I was reading about some cases of people who had many BTC at a time when it has low or no value at all, and didn't care about it, so they eventually lost their security phrases, or hard wallets and now it is lost probably forever.

I've read that the amount that is considered lost can be up to 5 million BTC. That is about 1/4 of the total amount available.

Knowing that BTC has a limit, and we're getting there soon, isn't it possible to have some compensation for those lost BTC?

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

Even if the bitcoin community wanted this, it's absolutely not possible to do, without a fork, bitcoin code is designed in a way that there is no way to mint more bitcoins, like it is with some shitcoins, what ever amount of bitcoin that is lost is lost forever unfortunately, there is no way to recover them, or compensate those who lost it.

If the supply of bitcoin was to be increased so as to replace the lost bitcoin, this can only happen through a bitcoin fork, and like you know, we've had a lot of forks in the past, all those bitcoin forks have turned shitcoins today, bitcoin it self still stand as the original and only true bitcoin.

[1714638952]

1714638952

[1714638952]

1714638952

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

Of course, that will not happen, the Bitcoins lost due to losing the private key will be lost forever. There is no compensation for that Bitcoin, because from the beginning Bitcoin was created in such a certain quantity and no one, not even Satoshi, can fix it. Because of this, Bitcoin has value, and the actual number of Bitcoins that can circulate on the market will be much lower than 21 million. This is an advantage for those who are holding Bitcoin, because I believe the price of Bitcoin will grow many times more than its current price.

[leonair]

Compensation, like, how? Do you mean rewarding those who have lost their bitcoin or adding those back to the supply?

I mean adding it back to the supply to be available for mining again.

Giving it back to the owners would be impossible, or if possible, it would be ridiculous, as each owner should take care of their BTC.

You're losing bitcoins means you've lost your bitcoin wallet. so if you can't recover that wallet, those bitcoins will be completely lost, it's impossible for anyone to recover it. and what miners can't recover by mining it somehow.  So the hope of lost bitcoins should be abandoned. Such is the concept of Bitcoin. This is how Bitcoin's algorithm works and no one can break this algorithm

[Iranus]

I was reading about some cases of people who had many BTC at a time when it has low or no value at all, and didn't care about it, so they eventually lost their security phrases, or hard wallets and now it is lost probably forever.

I've read that the amount that is considered lost can be up to 5 million BTC. That is about 1/4 of the total amount available.

Knowing that BTC has a limit, and we're getting there soon, isn't it possible to have some compensation for those lost BTC?

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

Even if the bitcoin community wanted this, it's absolutely not possible to do, without a fork, bitcoin code is designed in a way that there is no way to mint more bitcoins, like it is with some shitcoins, what ever amount of bitcoin that is lost is lost forever unfortunately, there is no way to recover them, or compensate those who lost it.

If the supply of bitcoin was to be increased so as to replace the lost bitcoin, this can only happen through a bitcoin fork, and like you know, we've had a lot of forks in the past, all those bitcoin forks have turned shitcoins today, bitcoin it self still stand as the original and only true bitcoin.

Bitcoin is open source and managed by the community, so I think that if there is consensus from developers, miners... then printing more bitcoins is possible. I think we can theoretically change the supply of bitcoin but doing so is very difficult and almost impossible. If someone makes a proposal about it, it will definitely cause fierce debate in the community, it is no different from an impossible task. If I remember correctly, we also had a discussion thread about this issue right on our forum.

[MusaMohamed]

Bitcoin is open source and managed by the community, so I think that if there is consensus from developers, miners... then printing more bitcoins is possible. I think we can theoretically change the supply of bitcoin but doing so is very difficult and almost impossible. If someone makes a proposal about it, it will definitely cause fierce debate in the community, it is no different from an impossible task. If I remember correctly, we also had a discussion thread about this issue right on our forum.

It is possible but the community don't want it. They know that part of Bitcoin value is contributed by its limited supply, 21 million bitcoins.

They are smart enough to know that if in history, Bitcoin total supply can be voted by Bitcoin nodes, community members to increase its total supply, there will be more events like this to increase Bitcoin total supply many more times. Then, belief in Bitcoin and its fixed total supply will be broken.

This idea is only from people who don't have bitcoin and hesitate to buy bitcoins. They want to have more bitcoins in total supply to have cheaper price to buy. They are for their benefits, not for benefit of the whole community. They also miss a point that if Bitcoin total supply can be increased, they will not get benefit in a long term too.

How is the 21 million Bitcoin cap defined and enforced?
Can Bitcoin's Hard Cap of 21 Million Be Changed?

[BALIK]

Bitcoin is open source and managed by the community, so I think that if there is consensus from developers, miners... then printing more bitcoins is possible. I think we can theoretically change the supply of bitcoin but doing so is very difficult and almost impossible. If someone makes a proposal about it, it will definitely cause fierce debate in the community, it is no different from an impossible task. If I remember correctly, we also had a discussion thread about this issue right on our forum.

It is possible but the community don't want it. They know that part of Bitcoin value is contributed by its limited supply, 21 million bitcoins.

They are smart enough to know that if in history, Bitcoin total supply can be voted by Bitcoin nodes, community members to increase its total supply, there will be more events like this to increase Bitcoin total supply many more times. Then, belief in Bitcoin and its fixed total supply will be broken.

This idea is only from people who don't have bitcoin and hesitate to buy bitcoins. They want to have more bitcoins in total supply to have cheaper price to buy. They are for their benefits, not for benefit of the whole community. They also miss a point that if Bitcoin total supply can be increased, they will not get benefit in a long term too.

How is the 21 million Bitcoin cap defined and enforced?
Can Bitcoin's Hard Cap of 21 Million Be Changed?

Increasing the bitcoin supply is a terrible idea and I do not expect it to be proposed and passed under any circumstances. Although supply is not the only factor that makes bitcoin as valuable as it is today, and many people are also focusing too much on bitcoin's supply, because if bitcoin does not have any outstanding utility, then that supply is worthless. But we should not arbitrarily change or increase supply because if you change it once, it will happen next time. This will reduce the reputation of bitcoin thereby reducing the value it achieves.

[MusaMohamed]

Increasing the bitcoin supply is a terrible idea and I do not expect it to be proposed and passed under any circumstances. Although supply is not the only factor that makes bitcoin as valuable as it is today, and many people are also focusing too much on bitcoin's supply, because if bitcoin does not have any outstanding utility, then that supply is worthless. But we should not arbitrarily change or increase supply because if you change it once, it will happen next time. This will reduce the reputation of bitcoin thereby reducing the value it achieves.

For people who are Bitcoiners and already joined Bitcoin community, it does not make sense to increase total supply.

For outsiders, who dislike Bitcoin or hesitated to join Bitcoin community, they want to see total supply increase with some reasons. One can be their hope to see cheaper price for 1 BTC to enter. Another reason is simply because they dislike Bitcoin and want to see its price to fall.

So as insiders, we have no reason to satisfy outsiders because of their benefits or just because they want to destroy Bitcoin value and price.

[rodskee]

I was reading about some cases of people who had many BTC at a time when it has low or no value at all, and didn't care about it, so they eventually lost their security phrases, or hard wallets and now it is lost probably forever.

there is a office mate of mine that have had this experience when he was being paid
of 10 bitcoin back in those days but he did not pay attention or give importance because
those days the value is just a couple of dollars,not until 2017 when he have heard in news
about the increasing value of bitcoin and yeah regret everything.

I've read that the amount that is considered lost can be up to 5 million BTC. That is about 1/4 of the total amount available.

Knowing that BTC has a limit, and we're getting there soon, isn't it possible to have some compensation for those lost BTC?

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

nope there are no chance of adding more btc in the circulation not unless Satoshi
will return and  have some act on this.

[FinePoine0]

I was reading about some cases of people who had many BTC at a time when it has low or no value at all, and didn't care about it, so they eventually lost their security phrases, or hard wallets and now it is lost probably forever.

I've read that the amount that is considered lost can be up to 5 million BTC. That is about 1/4 of the total amount available.

Knowing that BTC has a limit, and we're getting there soon, isn't it possible to have some compensation for those lost BTC?

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

No, there is no way it can be fulfilled. Because your bitcoin is lost if you can recover then definitely try it. But it will never be possible for someone else to compensate you for this

If such a compensation system were in place, the value of Bitcoin would be much lower. Bitcoins have the highest value because lost bitcoins are not recovered.

[FinePoine0]

Bitcoin whitepaper purists should take note that the following things are NOT described in the whitepaper:

multisig
mining pools
21M coin cap
GPU & ASIC mining
10 minute block times
HD address generation
best chain = cumulative PoW, not longest chain
and much, much more...

Source & Click here: https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1023689161096785920?t=vTuu_ZedJIdymoFYCfr4UQ&s=19

[KingsDen]

I was reading about some cases of people who had many BTC at a time when it has low or no value at all, and didn't care about it, so they eventually lost their security phrases, or hard wallets and now it is lost probably forever.

I've read that the amount that is considered lost can be up to 5 million BTC. That is about 1/4 of the total amount available.

Knowing that BTC has a limit, and we're getting there soon, isn't it possible to have some compensation for those lost BTC?

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

Bitcoin model is the model of scarcity. If bitcoin is abundantly available for everyone, it will definitely lose its value. Even satoshi nakamato in the white pepper addressed this issue by saying that the lost bitcoins are advantage to the Bitcoin network because it increases it scarcity status. In his words, he is of the opinion that lost bitcoins should be regarded as bitcoin sent to everyone's addresses 
The bitcoin developers should and will not try to touch the 21 million fixed supply because that is the key to bitcoin success.

[BALIK]

Increasing the bitcoin supply is a terrible idea and I do not expect it to be proposed and passed under any circumstances. Although supply is not the only factor that makes bitcoin as valuable as it is today, and many people are also focusing too much on bitcoin's supply, because if bitcoin does not have any outstanding utility, then that supply is worthless. But we should not arbitrarily change or increase supply because if you change it once, it will happen next time. This will reduce the reputation of bitcoin thereby reducing the value it achieves.

For people who are Bitcoiners and already joined Bitcoin community, it does not make sense to increase total supply.

For outsiders, who dislike Bitcoin or hesitated to join Bitcoin community, they want to see total supply increase with some reasons. One can be their hope to see cheaper price for 1 BTC to enter. Another reason is simply because they dislike Bitcoin and want to see its price to fall.

So as insiders, we have no reason to satisfy outsiders because of their benefits or just because they want to destroy Bitcoin value and price.

I don't think these suggestions come from outsiders because they are not related to bitcoin, there is no reason for them to care about it. I think this idea comes from greedy people in the market. Just like the ideas of BRC20 once created a wave of fierce opposition from the bitcoin maximization community, but in the end it still happened for the benefit of the group behind it. I think sooner or later someone will propose increasing the bitcoin supply, but let's hope it never gets passed and becomes a reality.

[ndutndut]

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

Of course, that will not happen, the Bitcoins lost due to losing the private key will be lost forever. There is no compensation for that Bitcoin, because from the beginning Bitcoin was created in such a certain quantity and no one, not even Satoshi, can fix it. Because of this, Bitcoin has value, and the actual number of Bitcoins that can circulate on the market will be much lower than 21 million. This is an advantage for those who are holding Bitcoin, because I believe the price of Bitcoin will grow many times more than its current price.

Yes that's right. lost bitcoins there is no compensation for those Bitcoins because the final supply of bitcoins will not increase. Whether you admit it or not, a lot of bitcoins were lost, especially in the early days of Bitcoin, so many people didn't realize that the value of bitcoin would be what it is today, so many of them forgot. Seed Phrases, theft, and transaction errors.

This is just an assumption as an example, if 5 million bitcoins can never be recovered again, then that would lower the maximum limit from 21 million to 16 million. So it is true as you said that the price of bitcoin will increase many times because the number of bitcoins is increasingly limited.

[Smack That Ace]

()
 So it is true as you said that the price of bitcoin will increase many times because the number of bitcoins is increasingly limited.

Are we too focused on bitcoin supply? If we think that the more bitcoins we lose and the less the supply, the more the price will rise, then should we pray for more bitcoins to be lost?

Personally, I don't care too much about the supply, what I care about more is the convenience, features of bitcoin more than anything. Because creating an asset with limited supply is not that difficult, and with an asset with limited supply but no use case, how can it increase in price? Look at ETH, it has an infinite supply but its value is not low.

[DabsPoorVersion]

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

Of course, that will not happen, the Bitcoins lost due to losing the private key will be lost forever. There is no compensation for that Bitcoin, because from the beginning Bitcoin was created in such a certain quantity and no one, not even Satoshi, can fix it. Because of this, Bitcoin has value, and the actual number of Bitcoins that can circulate on the market will be much lower than 21 million. This is an advantage for those who are holding Bitcoin, because I believe the price of Bitcoin will grow many times more than its current price.

Yes that's right. lost bitcoins there is no compensation for those Bitcoins because the final supply of bitcoins will not increase. Whether you admit it or not, a lot of bitcoins were lost, especially in the early days of Bitcoin, so many people didn't realize that the value of bitcoin would be what it is today, so many of them forgot. Seed Phrases, theft, and transaction errors.

This is just an assumption as an example, if 5 million bitcoins can never be recovered again, then that would lower the maximum limit from 21 million to 16 million. So it is true as you said that the price of bitcoin will increase many times because the number of bitcoins is increasingly limited.

Correction, the maximum supply of Bitcoin will not decrease from 21 million to 16 million just because there are 5 million Bitcoins that was considered lost forever or that can never be recovered. Those 5 million Bitcoins will only be treated as less amount in the total circulating supply. The total supply will remain at 21 million and will not decrease due to the lost Bitcoins.

[Ayers]

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

Of course, that will not happen, the Bitcoins lost due to losing the private key will be lost forever. There is no compensation for that Bitcoin, because from the beginning Bitcoin was created in such a certain quantity and no one, not even Satoshi, can fix it. Because of this, Bitcoin has value, and the actual number of Bitcoins that can circulate on the market will be much lower than 21 million. This is an advantage for those who are holding Bitcoin, because I believe the price of Bitcoin will grow many times more than its current price.

Yes that's right. lost bitcoins there is no compensation for those Bitcoins because the final supply of bitcoins will not increase. Whether you admit it or not, a lot of bitcoins were lost, especially in the early days of Bitcoin, so many people didn't realize that the value of bitcoin would be what it is today, so many of them forgot. Seed Phrases, theft, and transaction errors.

This is just an assumption as an example, if 5 million bitcoins can never be recovered again, then that would lower the maximum limit from 21 million to 16 million. So it is true as you said that the price of bitcoin will increase many times because the number of bitcoins is increasingly limited.

Correction, the maximum supply of Bitcoin will not decrease from 21 million to 16 million just because there are 5 million Bitcoins that was considered lost forever or that can never be recovered. Those 5 million Bitcoins will only be treated as less amount in the total circulating supply. The total supply will remain at 21 million and will not decrease due to the lost Bitcoins.

Yes, the bitcoin supply would not change even if more bitcoins were lost, but those bitcoins that are lost and have no way to get them back, that would also leave the circulating supply of bitcoins 21 million bitcoins lower. So, there is nothing wrong if people think that the bitcoin supply is lower than 21 million bitcoins. What we need to care about is the amount of supply circulating in the market, not the total amount of supply, and the less supply circulating, the more value will increase.

[EarnOnVictor]

I was reading about some cases of people who had many BTC at a time when it has low or no value at all, and didn't care about it, so they eventually lost their security phrases, or hard wallets and now it is lost probably forever.

I've read that the amount that is considered lost can be up to 5 million BTC. That is about 1/4 of the total amount available.

Knowing that BTC has a limit, and we're getting there soon, isn't it possible to have some compensation for those lost BTC?

Something like adding more BTC in an equivalent amount for those lost BTC, or something similar.

Would it be positive for the currency or could bring some caos?

No, there is no way it can be fulfilled. Because your bitcoin is lost if you can recover then definitely try it. But it will never be possible for someone else to compensate you for this

If such a compensation system were in place, the value of Bitcoin would be much lower. Bitcoins have the highest value because lost bitcoins are not recovered.

I believe the OP did not know the mechanism of operation of Bitcoin, that is the only reason why he can be asking that question. If the structure and the operating system are left as it is now and based on the initial plans, then nothing can be done as the OP wanted and your advice will be so correct in that regard. Well, all hope is not lost yet, we can only say that we can talk with the present mode of operation, but later in the future if Satoshi shows up again, maybe there can be some upgrades, addition and subtraction and unbelievable things that people did not believe is possible and also which people are clamouring now but for unheard.

Bitcoin is a project like never before and Satoshi had his plan though the plans are now known to be very faulty, and that is why projects like Ethereum are getting more relevance if not for the pioneer status of Bitcoin that is helping it. For now, we should enjoy it while it lasts and the Bitcoin you lost is lost forever since it is a decentralised system. No way such can be recovered, not even with Satoshi's intervention in this current Bitcoin system since it is an open-source, nothing is hidden.

[$weetne$$]

This is just an assumption as an example, if 5 million bitcoins can never be recovered again, then that would lower the maximum limit from 21 million to 16 million. So it is true as you said that the price of bitcoin will increase many times because the number of bitcoins is increasingly limited.

The more Bitcoin are being lost the more the supply of Bitcoin is reducing, it won't reflect officially on the total supply of Bitcoin that is 21 millions but we can't have 21 million Bitcoin trading in the market because some of them will be lost by early users and future users and there are some individuals that'll die without anybody being available to claim their Bitcoin as they didn't tell anybody about their investment in Bitcoin because of security reasons. The lost Bitcoin are lost forever and will never be recovered. The price of Bitcoin will always increase because halving reduced the reward for miners and it reduced the supply of Bitcoin being introduced into the market. The lost Bitcoin also helps to make the Bitcoin will hodl to be valuable and this is why we have to keep holding the Bitcoin we own.

[Natsuu]

This is just an assumption as an example, if 5 million bitcoins can never be recovered again, then that would lower the maximum limit from 21 million to 16 million. So it is true as you said that the price of bitcoin will increase many times because the number of bitcoins is increasingly limited.

The price of Bitcoin will always increase because halving reduced the reward for miners and it reduced the supply of Bitcoin being introduced into the market. The lost Bitcoin also helps to make the Bitcoin will hodl to be valuable and this is why we have to keep holding the Bitcoin we own.

This is technically true. Well according to price history f bitcoin, for every halving marker the price of Bitcoin creates a new floor price and makes the price higher. Talking about the lost BTCs, it wasn't proven yet that it was truly lost. It just happened that there is about 5 million BTCs that are not flowing. Which means it is not being transferred or circulated in the market. If the lost wallets and BTCs are proven to be right, then I would take that as a bullish sentiment because it just really decreases the limited amount of BTC to 16mil.

[LDL]

Lost Bitcoin means that Bitcoin is lost forever and that Bitcoin can never be recovered. Bitcoins from Bitcoin wallets that have been inactive for a long time and have not yet been accessed and the owner is unknown will be considered as lost Bitcoins forever.
These lost bitcoins will never replace the total supply (21 million bitcoins) but rather the lost bitcoins will be removed from the circulating supply of bitcoins. Again if the lost bitcoin owner becomes active then the active bitcoins will be added to the circulating supply.