The effect of increases in the loses of Bitcoin

[Ishicryptic]

Bitcoin has a finite supply of 21 million and that means that it can not be manipulated like fiat currencies. It's limited supply means that no centralized authorities like CBN can mint more of it and cause a likelihood of inflation. Bitcoin was structured from it's creation as a decentralized digital cash with a limited supply which makes it an hedge against inflation.

Many people have lost their Bitcoin forever because they can no longer send it to another wallet from the Blockchain, this happens when a person loses the private keys of their wallet. These Bitcoin that are in the Blockchain but the owners can not sale them are parts of the 21 million finite supply.

If the amount of the Bitcoin that people holds begins to be lost because they have no control over it in the Blockchain forever, due to the lose of their private keys, the effect will be deflation. Although the amount of Bitcoin lost through this means might be insignificant compared to the amount that is in circulation now, but if the loses keeps occuring in the future, it will certainly lead to deflation

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

[Nwada001]

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

According to Satoshi, "lost bitcoins are considered donations," which means they will contribute to reduced the number of bitcoin in circulation.

In such a case, the possibility of the price increasing will be high and the possibility of the price decreasing will be low; the law of demand is real.
 
But the question is: what will keep making people lose access to their wallets? Won't they learn how to protect their assets? And if such things keep reoccurring, do you think the common people who will want to start using bitcoin will feel safe holding it?

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

If the amount of the Bitcoin that people holds begins to be lost because they have no control over it in the Blockchain forever, due to the lose of their private keys, the effect will be deflation.

Deflation is simply drop in market value as against inflation, bitcoin cannot go under deflationary trend all because of the lost coins to the blockchain technology, what you should know concerning these is that, every lost coins will be sent back to the network and not as if they were there somewhere hanging in wait of someone to claim them, indirectly, they have been redistributed back to the network and which is part of what we see influencing the market price and the demand and supply of what the bitcoin price gives through its volatility.

Although the amount of Bitcoin lost through this means might be insignificant compared to the amount that is in circulation now, but if the loses keeps occurring in the future, it will certainly lead to deflation

Just to add more on this for further clarification, i don't think its common for you to see someone making a huge amount of bitcoin transaction to afford making a silly mistake, i don't think the whales can afford to do this, maybe common to the little holders or newbies and these little amount were being returned back to the network in circulation to everyone holding.

[Hatchy]

But the question is: what will keep making people lose access to their wallets? Won't they learn how to protect their assets? And if such things keep reoccurring, do you think the common people who will want to start using bitcoin will feel safe holding it?

Though I can say that carelessness or lack of proper information on how to store their coins contributes to loss of Bitcoins. But then some other factors like natural disasters or death can lead to loss of such coins. A lot of people, keeps their privacies even till death. And lost times these kind of people owns large amount of Bitcoins and due to so many reason they hid it away from everyone even their loved ones doesn't even know about the amount of btc they hodl. Many of these are some reason why lost coins might be in the increase.

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

definitely from all these lose, and it's limited supply, the price of BTC will be on the rise in the nearest future.

[GeorgeJohn]

Lost of bitcoin start from the person who is the holder of bitcoin that been lost, many persons who lose their bitcoin some of loss it base on carelessness of investment and also exposing their seed phrase, so it's obvious that people who complained of losing of bitcoin, it's neither they invested in wrong way or they mistakenly misplaced their seed phrase

For me, bitcoin if we don't lose in bitcoin the price will not appreciate,  and greediness is one of the elementary things that makes people to lose in bitcoin, as someone who invest in Bitcoin have a duration when you will make a withdrawal and when you will not make, when you invest in bitcoin  you suppose have a limitation

So the best thing is to know the rudiments of bitcoin before you invest, so therefore if you don't want to lose in cryptocurrency investment mostly bitcoin try to learn and understand everything about bitcoin before you invest.

[Odusko]

Any bitcoin lose is an airdroyfpr the rest of the holders, AirDrop on the sense that it becomes a donation to every one since the lost of that bitcoin will increase the scarcity of bitcoin which results in increased in the value of bitcoin, so yes the more peopleise their bitcoin without possible recovery by anyone, the more bitcoin become higher in it value in the market so glad to tell you that when a bitcoin holder list his private keys and access to the wallet, only the holder himself lost but others will definitely gains from such lose no matter the fraction it is, between it good that we take bitcoin as for what it is and allow bitcoin to grow organically.

[BIT-BENDER]

Firstly this is a general group so when using terms like CBN it's best you define it also in full so people can understand what you are talking about. I believe the CBN you are talking about here is the central Bank of Nigeria. I would agree with you that the supply of Bitcoin having a finite price would help it not to be manipulated but that's not always 100%.

The price of Bitcoin like almost every other crypto-currency is volatile and so demand and supply goes hand in hand. I believe you understand what whale is and how they play a part in affecting the price of crypto-currency. Large holders in unionism can actually drop the price of Bitcoin if they decide to sell off, creating panic which can further affect the price negatively.

[I_Anime]

Lost of bitcoin can be due to many events like , one losing his seed phrase, one getting his bitcoin stolen from his wallet due to lack of proper security of their assets or due to death etc. Alot of folks lose their Bitcoin by losing their seed phrase, we all know that our seed phrase is like the key of our apartment without you can't get in but in this cases is irreplaceable once you lose it you have lost it forever till you are able to find it back .

While some bitcoin losses are due to death , some folks endup losing their lives without their love ones, knowing the where about of their seed phrase to Access the wallet, or sometime their love ones may not be aware of them having some bitcoin stashes.

So we should always be cautious with our bitcoin stashes so that we won't endup being a victim of losing our bitcoin due to careless keeping of our seed phrase, or  not securing our wallet properly.

[OcTradism]

Bitcoin has a finite supply of 21 million and that means that it can not be manipulated like fiat currencies.

Manipulation exists in all market and all areas. Bitcoin market is not an exception and it can be manipulated as same as other markets.

It's limited supply means that no centralized authorities like CBN can mint more of it and cause a likelihood of inflation.

Bitcoin is Proof of Work in design and to get more bitcoins, there is work to mine new blocks and get bitcoin from block rewards. Until 2140 and 21 millions of bitcoin in total supply mined all by miners, with each new Bitcoin block, there will be new bitcoins appearance and added to circulating supply.

Bitcoin was structured from it's creation as a decentralized digital cash with a limited supply which makes it an hedge against inflation.

Bitcoin by its design, is inflationary too but its inflation rate is less than fiat currency and inflation rate is fixed by Satoshi Nakamoto code. No one can change it, that is different than fiat currencies with manipulated inflation rates by governments and central banks.

[Dave1]

If the amount of the Bitcoin that people holds begins to be lost because they have no control over it in the Blockchain forever, due to the lose of their private keys, the effect will be deflation. Although the amount of Bitcoin lost through this means might be insignificant compared to the amount that is in circulation now, but if the loses keeps occuring in the future, it will certainly lead to deflation

Here is the quote from the man himself:

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

I wonder though, is there a point where the difficulty of generating a new coinbase is so high that it would make more sense to try to recover keys for lost coins or steal other people's coins instead?  The difficulty of that is really high so for now it makes a lot more sense to generate but I just wonder what the real figures are.. would that ever become more productive?  Maybe Satoshi can address this..

Computers have to get about 2^200 times faster before that starts to be a problem.  Someone with lots of compute power could make more money by generating than by trying to steal.

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

It's not abnormal, it is how Satoshi design it. It will not have any effect on the adoption and usage it. And that's what really separate Bitcoin is, only 21 million supply and so you really have to hold and it will really become scarce in the future.

[Ishicryptic]

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

According to Satoshi, "lost bitcoins are considered donations," which means they will contribute to reduced the number of bitcoin in circulation.

In such a case, the possibility of the price increasing will be high and the possibility of the price decreasing will be low; the law of demand is real.
 
But the question is: what will keep making people lose access to their wallets? Won't they learn how to protect their assets? And if such things keep reoccurring, do you think the common people who will want to start using bitcoin will feel safe holding it?

I guess that there is nothing any Bitcoin holder can do when they lose their coins, they have to accept the lose as a donation to the Bitcoin community, although no other holder can benefit directly from the "donation. That means that anybody that wants to hold Bitcoin must have sufficient knowledge about the importance of securing their private keys otherwise the inevitable of losing their coins permanently will happen and their only consolation is that they have donated it. I think that this is one of the major demerits of Bitcoin because aside from a holder losing his/her private keys, death, lose of memory, man made and natural disasters can also cause permanent lose because Bitcoin is not centralized, except the person shared the private keys with a trusted person or people.

[Apocollapse]

I guess that there is nothing any Bitcoin holder can do when they lose their coins, they have to accept the lose as a donation to the Bitcoin community, although no other holder can benefit directly from the "donation. That means that anybody that wants to hold Bitcoin must have sufficient knowledge about the importance of securing their private keys otherwise the inevitable of losing their coins permanently will happen and their only consolation is that they have donated it. I think that this is one of the major demerits of Bitcoin because aside from a holder losing his/her private keys, death, lose of memory, man made and natural disasters can also cause permanent lose because Bitcoin is not centralized, except the person shared the private keys with a trusted person or people.

Don't worry, these services will solve your problem Comparing Inheritance Services

Since you're see decentralization as demerits of Bitcoin, this will make your Bitcoin becomes centralized and other people don't have to remember the keys in order to retrieve your coins.

This is what the good thing in Bitcoin, it offers freedom, someone can use Bitcoin in centralized way and other people can use Bitcoin in decentralized way.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Bitcoin has a finite supply of 21 million and that means that it can not be manipulated like fiat currencies. It's limited supply means that no centralized authorities like CBN can mint more of it and cause a likelihood of inflation. Bitcoin was structured from it's creation as a decentralized digital cash with a limited supply which makes it an hedge against inflation.

Many people have lost their Bitcoin forever because they can no longer send it to another wallet from the Blockchain, this happens when a person loses the private keys of their wallet. These Bitcoin that are in the Blockchain but the owners can not sale them are parts of the 21 million finite supply.

If the amount of the Bitcoin that people holds begins to be lost because they have no control over it in the Blockchain forever, due to the lose of their private keys, the effect will be deflation. Although the amount of Bitcoin lost through this means might be insignificant compared to the amount that is in circulation now, but if the loses keeps occuring in the future, it will certainly lead to deflation

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

Well, this is a very good question you have brought up, and what I have to say is that..
First, the chances that the amount of bitcoin people loss access to continuing to Increase is very slim, not impossible, but also understand that sometimes, "slim" can be equal to "not possible".

Secondly, if a good number of bitcoins are lost by their owners, which simply means that those bitcoins are off the market,  which thereby increases the price of bitcoin as demand gets high and supply becomes very low due to the number of bitcoins that their owners have no access to, bitcoin can still be used for day to day transactions even with its high price, since one doesn't need a whole 1 bitcoin, bitcoin can be divided into smaller parts known as satoshi, and the lesser the parts (even down to 0.00000001), the cheaper it is.

[Pandorak]

The scarcity of bitcoin is increasing due to human error, it is estimated that around 7,800,000 BTC have been lost ^[1], other reports say there are around 3,840,000 BTC ^[2], this number even exceeds bitcoin that has not been mined.

[...] My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease? [...]

No one can resist innovation, bitcoin & crypto adoption will massively grow from year to year, in line with statistical data from Statista ^[3], the lack of actual circulating supply of bitcoin because lost bitcoins cannot be a benchmark for reducing bitcoin adoption in the future. That may happen if there are not many units in bitcoin, or the minimum transfer in a bitcoin transaction is 0,1 0,01 or 0,001 BTC.

Providing a little information regarding units in bitcoin, we have bitcoin (BTC), bitcent (cBTC), millibit (mBTC), bit (μBTC), finney (finney), satoshi (sat) & millisatoshi (msat). You can visit bitcoindata.science to make conversions for each unit ^[4].

Back to the discussion about adoption, because we have these units, of course a real reduction in supply due to human error will not reduce bitcoin adoption in the future, even now we have LN which can make payments as small as 0.00000001 bitcoin or 1 sat ^[5].

[1] https://coingape.com/blog/approximately-7-8m-bitcoins-have-been-lost-can-they-be-recovered/
[2] https://rewallet.de/en/blog/bitcoin-statistics-2023/
[3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1202503/global-cryptocurrency-user-base/
[4] https://bitcoindata.science/bitcoin-units-converter
[5] https://dci.mit.edu/lightning-network

[kryptqnick]

Deflation isn't an issue, in my opinion, but it is worth considering. So, first, we need to consider Bitcoin as money and Bitcoin as an asset. Bitcoin as an asset should increase in price, and it's beneficial to investors, so scarcity is a good thing. Bitcoin as money should be convenient to use. It seems that in general, economists believe that a slight controlled annual inflation is good for fiat because it motivates spending instead of hoarding. If we accept that perspective, it's a problem. But it's an ongoing concern, then, as Bitcoin keeps growing in price. As for a usability perspective, Bitcoin is divisible into satoshis, so there's plenty to go by even if the price per coin gets much-much higher.

[Text]

The security and permanence of Bitcoin mean that users must be diligent in protecting their private keys. However, this also introduces the challenge of making Bitcoin more accessible and user-friendly, especially for those who are not tech-savvy. If more people start losing their Bitcoin due to mishaps like forgotten passwords or lost keys, it might deter some potential adopters. The fear of permanent loss could make Bitcoin less appealing to new users, especially those unfamiliar with the necessary precautions.

I think the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin might depend on the community’s ability to educate new users and develop solutions that can mitigate the risks of loss without compromising the core principles of decentralization.

[Obim34]

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

According to Satoshi, "lost bitcoins are considered donations," which means they will contribute to reduced the number of bitcoin in circulation.

In such a case, the possibility of the price increasing will be high and the possibility of the price decreasing will be low; the law of demand is real.
 
But the question is: what will keep making people lose access to their wallets? Won't they learn how to protect their assets? And if such things keep reoccurring, do you think the common people who will want to start using bitcoin will feel safe holding it?

I guess that there is nothing any Bitcoin holder can do when they lose their coins, they have to accept the lose as a donation to the Bitcoin community, although no other holder can benefit directly from the "donation. That means that anybody that wants to hold Bitcoin must have sufficient knowledge about the importance of securing their private keys otherwise the inevitable of losing their coins permanently will happen and their only consolation is that they have donated it. I think that this is one of the major demerits of Bitcoin because aside from a holder losing his/her private keys, death, lose of memory, man made and natural disasters can also cause permanent lose because Bitcoin is not centralized, except the person shared the private keys with a trusted person or people.

There is also another way of loosing Bitcoin, and that way is by sending ones Bitcoin into a mysterious address mostly by wrongly inputting the address before activating the transaction. A lot of Bitcoin has been lost already and more are still going to which entails that we have to be careful enough to secure our wallets likely from theft or cyber hacking.

A minimal and basic knowledge on Bitcoin can save a person from lossing his/her portfolio, it will be much disastrous if the portfolio has been grow into a full size. Knowledge on where and how to hold is essential in other not to be victimized.

[Zaguru12]

But the question is: what will keep making people lose access to their wallets? Won't they learn how to protect their assets? And if such things keep reoccurring, do you think the common people who will want to start using bitcoin will feel safe holding it?

I think this is seriously a question that will remain unanswered because of the multiple conditions on it. First off, most of this coins are not done out of carelessness, some are of lack of proper knowledge and then we have the biggest amount of loss which is due nature, either the owner lost memory of where the offline back up is before natural or due to health conditions or probably he dies while not been able give a trace to the recovery seeds place. Most of these things are things I don’t think can be changed, luckily it adds to other value.

A minimal and basic knowledge on Bitcoin can save a person from lossing his/her portfolio, it will be much disastrous if the portfolio has been grow into a full size. Knowledge on where and how to hold is essential in other not to be victimized.

Although the possibility is very hard but I don’t considered that been lost in totality because there is a faint chance that the address can be generated by someone else or probably someone else has the address generated already and has access to the keys belonging to it, but the possibility is just too small.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Well, what I actually think on this matter is that people will not continue to lose Bitcoin now and in the future. As a matter of fact, every new and old investor in Bitcoin already knows the worth of the asset, and as such, they are always very careful now compared to in the early days of Bitcoin when it wasn't worth any reasonable amount and some people were just taking it for a joke until the price spiked. That was when some people started looking for where they kept their private key and couldn't find it, and their coins were lost forever. The rate at which people lost their Bitcoin ten years ago is not the same as what is happening today. Bitcoiners are more informed now than before. 

The only way people are losing their Bitcoin this time around is that their Bitcoin gets stolen by scammers or hackers. 

[Pandu Geddon]

The effect of deflation is abnormal increase in price which can cause Bitcoin to be overpriced in the future. My question is what do you think will be the adoption and usage rate of Bitcoin then, whether it will increase or decrease?

when more and more people are finally aware of Bitcoin assets, then when they have them, of course, they will be more aware of protecting their assets from the risk of losing wallet access.
the situation may have been different when Bitcoin was still not so popular and its price was still cheap in the past. because its ownership was considered not so large, there was a tendency for them not to consider the security of their wallet storage.

the adoption and use of Bitcoin in the future is real. currently, people are more open to Bitcoin even though they still use fiat. however, currently, the use of Bitcoin is still limited. But when it is successfully used en masse, its adoption will continue to increase even though its price will definitely increase.