What about the lost BTC?

[LesterD]

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?

That is not possible. Those Bitcoins will be lost forever and will never be moved unless those users have a miracle and get access again with their wallets. When you say compensation for those lost BTC, do you mean they will get a replacement or the missing Bitcoins will be added again to the circulating supply?

Lost bitcoins can be recovered if someone finds the address's private key, is hard to find those keys, but is possible that someone will do so in the future. But is important to remember Satoshi's words about this topic:

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

So, lost coins isn't bad at all for the network.

That's exactly what I said. If there's a miracle that they happen to have access again with their wallets, or simply find the private key on it, they can recover their lost Bitcoin. If not, there is no chance for him to recover it. Even if he try multiple combination of private keys, nothing will happen.

[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?

Bitcoin system does not work like that, it is either you keep your coin very well and have access to it in your wallet(s) or you lose it forever. However, that's if you are using the self-custody arrangements. But if you are using the custodial arrangement, you may have no issues, you can reset certain passcodes, or contact their support for guidance on how to retrieve your coin. The choice is ours in either case.

Also, unless Satoshi is not a man of his word, no one will revisit anything when it comes to the capped 21 million market supply. This is one of what makes Bitcoin unique and not the lost coins can change this. Bitcoin is a different blockchain mechanism that is so different from other cryptocurrencies, but the moment they start altering it for whatever reason, the worse it will become.

[Z_MBFM]

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?

If someone can't recover his private key or hardware wallet, he has no chance to recover his bitcoins.because the security of Bitcoin depends entirely on the security phrase.so not your key not your bitcoin. So you must take care of Bitcoin and for that you take care of private key. Otherwise you will lose your bitcoins forever. so people who lose bitcoins will never get those bitcoins back if they can't recover the private key.

[Webetcoins]

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.

That can't happen because the supply of Bitcoin cannot be altered, you can't increase or reduce the total supply of Bitcoin, and the coins that are lost are lost forever, they will always be a part of the total supply of Bitcoin which is 21 Million, but they will never be a part of the circulating supply because they are idle and will remain so forever, until or unless someone manages to recover the wallets containing those coins which is nearly impossible, especially for some wallets that we don't even know the public address of.

So, what you are suggesting or asking about is not possible. Some people might say that what if satoshi himself reappears and makes such changes in the chain? However, I don't think he would do that even if he is around and watching everything, he can't ruin the fun by tweaking the ecosystem.

[$weetne$$]

If someone can't recover his private key or hardware wallet, he has no chance to recover his bitcoins.because the security of Bitcoin depends entirely on the security phrase.so not your key not your bitcoin. So you must take care of Bitcoin and for that you take care of private key. Otherwise you will lose your bitcoins forever. so people who lose bitcoins will never get those bitcoins back if they can't recover the private key.

Our private key is the most important thing about our non constodial Bitcoin wallets, before you send bitcoin to your receiving address you should make sure we have saved our private key or seed phrase in a safe location that isn't connected to the internet and offline so that hackers can't hack the server used in storing our private key and gaining access to our Bitcoin wallet. When Bitcoin are lost, they're lost forever unless we know the owner of the address that we sent out the Bitcoin to or there's a message included when mining or sending the Bitcoin. The lost Bitcoin are lost forever and taken out of the circulating supply of bitcoin therefore Bitcoin price keep adding value everytime because there is less amount of Bitcoin whenever Bitcoin are being lost due to sending them to a wrong address or address of users that are no longer active because of death or other reasons.

[Troytech]

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

Just like what centralized ripple (XRP) developers wants to do. It is not making any sense. Private key or seed phrase are used to prove the ownership of an address and that is also needed to spend the coins, which is enough.

That's absolutely nonsense, what if the owners of those coins finds a way of retrieving it in the future, then there will be more supply than the standard figure. That suggests non-authenticity of the coin. Those lost coins should remain that way, so that bitcoin will continue to be limited in supply and as simple economics tells us. "Decrease in supply will in turn cause an increase in demand"
This leads to the value of the commodity increasing and I think this is an added advantage for bitcoin.

Yeah I just see that these top companies are trying everything to spoil the original plan to somehow benefit themselves, if those lost coins were to be added back in anyway these companies would either buy up half of it to increase their holdings and that would too off the balance of the supply and demand especially now that we are in the bull run.

And what if those lost seed phrase were recovered on any way then we would have a real issue with the total bitcoin in circulation.

[NewRanger]

Our private key is the most important thing about our non constodial Bitcoin wallets, before you send bitcoin to your receiving address you should make sure we have saved our private key or seed phrase in a safe location that isn't connected to the internet and offline so that hackers can't hack the server used in storing our private key and gaining access to our Bitcoin wallet. When Bitcoin are lost, they're lost forever unless we know the owner of the address that we sent out the Bitcoin to or there's a message included when mining or sending the Bitcoin. The lost Bitcoin are lost forever and taken out of the circulating supply of bitcoin therefore Bitcoin price keep adding value everytime because there is less amount of Bitcoin whenever Bitcoin are being lost due to sending them to a wrong address or address of users that are no longer active because of death or other reasons.

In this case, what you said is absolutely correct, apart from that, the phenomenon of Bitcoin disappearing also greatly contributes to the increase in the value of Bitcoin as a whole. those that have been lost due to negligent users will be out of circulation forever, this is because there is no additional supply, only 21 million and that creates an automatic decrease in the number of circulation. The more demand, the faster the price rises and this is very common to know. this is why investors come and buy as much BTC as possible and  BTC has great potential and increases over time.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

No, lost bitcoin are gone forever. If you want to recover any lost bitcoin, try all possible way to recover back the private key or the seed phrase.

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

Just like what centralized ripple (XRP) developers wants to do. It is not making any sense. Private key or seed phrase are used to prove the ownership of an address and that is also needed to spend the coins, which is enough.

Some or lost forever.
I personally have btc that are lost forever because 2 phones died (in 2014 and 2015) with some btc in a wallet. I didn't bother because it was just some $ back then, which would be some thousand now.
At that time I also didn't really have clue about all the stuff with seed phrases and so on. I was a btc virgin so to speak.

These btc will never be recovered because the wallet is lost in nowhere.

[m2017]

I personally have btc that are lost forever because 2 phones died (in 2014 and 2015) with some btc in a wallet.

It was possible to repair the phones or restore access to their memory, right?

Several bitcoin (parts) were lost on one wallet, several on another. As a result, it turns out that an impressive amount was lost from the total turnover of bitcoins. And the number of people who want to own BTC is only growing.

I didn't bother because it was just some $ back then, which would be some thousand now.

You'll remember this in 10 years and bother because those couple of $ bucks will be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands.

At that time I also didn't really have clue about all the stuff with seed phrases and so on.

It is with seed phrases and the problem of safety of this that need to begin interaction with cryptocurrencies.

These btc will never be recovered because the wallet is lost in nowhere.

What is now lost forever may no longer be impossible in the future (recovery).

Also, how do you know that thesoftware  developer of that wallet didn’t leave a loophole for himself?

[moneystery]

why do you think about bitcoins that are already lost? i mean it wasn't yours in the first place, why would you want the developer to compensate 5 million bitcoins as a replacement for those lost bitcoins, that's just unreasonable. moreover, bitcoin was designed from the start to only have a supply of 21 million and that will not increase at any time in the future. because just imagine the impact that would be caused if bitcoin developers added 5 million new coins, that means the supply on the market would increase and possibly reduce the price of bitcoin. so the limited bitcoin supply as it is now is the right thing and no longer needs to be disturbed.

[Onyeeze]

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?

we don't need to be afraid of people who lost their Bitcoin because I know quite well now whatever thing you do you must loss something else, understand that losing your Bitcoin is something that can happen to anyone and it happens when you have not be secured your seed phrase very well, so I believe that we have to learn how to secure our seed phrase because its something that has to do with security and when you fail to protect your seed phrase you will lose your bitcoin, that is why they said we should be conscious of our seed phrase so that we will not lose our coins or complain for sudden disappearance of coins in our wallet

[Mahanton]

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?

Who would really be the ones be giving out that compensation?
Adding up more BTC in equivalent on what we do have lost? It cant be just possible. Supply is totally fixed and there's no way that there would really be some add up.
Why would really be that bothered on adding up on which people could eventually be able to buy up in fractions? It isnt really that necessary for someone to have that whole coin
for them to be considered to be a holder or someone do have that kind of title or whatever that they do have in mind.

We do have those tons of lost coins in void and there's no way on getting back. If you are someone included into those who have lost their precious coins
then there's no way that you could really be able to take it back. Just simply move on and go for further worthy actions that you would really be
needing to make so that you would really be able to at least making some profits into other method.

[synchronym]

When we invest in bitcoin not only that we will profit by investing in bitcoin of course we can lose money by investing in bitcoin risky but we have to be patient and know enough about investing in bitcoin knowing that if we can invest in bitcoin then surely we will be proper success. But before investing in Bitcoin, if we are afraid that we will face loss if we invest in Bitcoin, then we can never invest in Bitcoin with this attitude. We can lose money as we can gain in Bitcoin. So we also worry about losses. We have to invest by doing that if we invest patiently we will surely get some good from Bitcoin. Of course, we have to have a long term plan in Bitcoin investment. Investments cannot be too hasty. If we have a long term plan, it is definitely very positive in Bitcoin investment.

[Moreno233]

del

[Moreno233]

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?

Compensation for their carelessness or what? Most people who lost their Bitcoin were as a result of their mistakes not that there a natural disaster or something that made them lose those coins different from their own fault. I think records has it that most of those incidence occurred when Bitcoin was not worth anything so they never believed Bitcoin could be anything of value else they would have protected their assets with everything within their powers. If there will be compensation to them, who will pay the compensation and from which treasury? Their Bitcoin is lost and lost forever so that others can learn to be more careful with their assets.

[Moreno233]

del

[The Cryptovator]

You can't ask for compensation from your government if you lose a fiat bank note. If your lost bank note is somehow destroyed, the government even can't reissue that bank note. So how do you expect compensation from a decentralised currency? There is no way to reissue. If you lose Bitcoin, then that will be considered a community donation. Because lost Bitcoin reduces circulation from the total circulation supply, It means increasing the demand, though it is very small. I wish no one lost their bitcoin, because it's irreversible anyway. 

[MusaMohamed]

You can't ask for compensation from your government if you lose a fiat bank note. If your lost bank note is somehow destroyed, the government even can't reissue that bank note. So how do you expect compensation from a decentralised currency? There is no way to reissue. If you lose Bitcoin, then that will be considered a community donation. Because lost Bitcoin reduces circulation from the total circulation supply, It means increasing the demand, though it is very small. I wish no one lost their bitcoin, because it's irreversible anyway. 

Compensation from a blockchained-cryptocurrency is very bad idea. It is rolling back a blockchain to any block that contains hacked money related transactions, it will cause of lot of chaos on that blockchain. By rolling back, it makes nothing is solid on the blockchain and dust can not settle down and you can lose your money even days after you received it.

There is such thing with bank transfers, Paypal if you file a report with enough evidence to banks, police, Paypal and that transaction can be charged back. Transactions through stable coins can be affected by stable coin companies but they are not better than Bitcoin blockchain.

Secure your wallet, backup and double check details before you finalize your transaction broadcast. When that transaction has one confirmation, you are done and safe.

PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets

[Xampeuu]

You can't ask for compensation from your government if you lose a fiat bank note. If your lost bank note is somehow destroyed, the government even can't reissue that bank note. So how do you expect compensation from a decentralised currency? There is no way to reissue. If you lose Bitcoin, then that will be considered a community donation. Because lost Bitcoin reduces circulation from the total circulation supply, It means increasing the demand, though it is very small. I wish no one lost their bitcoin, because it's irreversible anyway. 

We really have to be careful in looking after our bitcoins, because losing them means we won't be able to find them again, so by donating to the community the supply of bitcoins will decrease in the field, and that means they will become increasingly scarce, so if demand increases this will increase the price of bitcoins. continues to increase, of course it will be a blessing for other bitcoin investors

[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.