Does Bitcoin Have a *Burn* Mechanism Like BNB's Periodic Burns?

[NeuroticFish]

OP, did you ever burn any of your BNB? I can guess you didn't.

As @dkbit98 said/started, BNB burn is something that can be done because it's not a properly decentralized coin (and afaik completely pre-mined). So Binance has a shitload of coins on their hands (pretty much created out of thin air) and sometimes they do this commercial stunt of "burning coins" to make it look attractive for investors.

On the other hand, Bitcoin is not pre-mined. People and companies spend a lot of effort (electricity and hardware) to mine it. All coins need effort. And then it's rather uncommon to see coins burned, although some people did that (on smaller scale and with less publicity) by sending coins to specific addresses known to have no private key (and I'm not telling here about mistakes!)


Some famous burn addresses are:

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE
1111111111111111111114oLvT2
1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa (this is the genesis reward address and cannot be spent).

[Myleschetty]

Greetings great and wonderful bitcoinlovers I'm a beginner from diving deep into Bitcoin basics lately, and something's been troubling me after reading about other coins,We all know BNB does those quarterly/auto burns,Binance burns some chunks of tokens regularly based on profits and trading volume, reducing supply over time Ethereum burns some gas fees too, making it deflationary sometimes.

Shitcoin uses the deflationary method as a naive tactic to entice long-term holders and give them the impression that their long-term holdings are rewarded, but this is merely a marketing ploy. Additionally, all tokens sent to the fictitious wallet address during the token burn may be susceptible to a quantum attack in the future.

But what about Bitcoin?  Is there any type of periodic burn mechanism built into BTC? ....Like fees that get destroyed or scheduled burns?

There's no burn mechanism on Bitcoin, but BTC is a POW crypto, and the miners reward are halved every 4 years to control inflation.

[hosemary]

But it's impossible to happen since it is a POW algorithm and it only has a 21m fixed amount, and Satoshi doesn't have a plan to change it even in the future.

It doesn't matter whether Satoshi has a plan to change the algorithm or not. Even Satoshi can't change how bitcoin works.
Satoshi created bitcoin and assuming they are still around, today they are just a regular user of bitcoin like everyone else.

[X-ray]

Not really a burn but there is always lost bitcoin overtime, you can say the circulating supply is decreasing when that happens.

Satoshi himself said to consider that as a bonus for holders if I'm not mistaken, since it increases scarcity and possibly prices. Burn mechanism is only needed for an inflationary altcoin with huge total supply.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Satoshi himself said to consider that as a bonus for holders if I'm not mistaken, since it increases scarcity and possibly prices.

You are right indeed.

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

Burn mechanism is only needed for an inflationary altcoin with huge total supply.

It's useless if they created billions of tokens which are useless and tried to burn their useless tokens while they can easily create less tokens since the start. Buy back and burn are used by altcoin founders, project teams as tools for showing their dedication and resources spent into their projects while effects on community, demand on the token, and price on the market are unknown.

[cr1776]

Greetings great and wonderful bitcoinlovers I'm a beginner from diving deep into Bitcoin basics lately, and something's been troubling me after reading about other coins,We all know BNB does those quarterly/auto burns,Binance burns some chunks of tokens regularly based on profits and trading volume, reducing supply over time Ethereum burns some gas fees too, making it deflationary sometimes.But what about Bitcoin?  Is there any type of periodic burn mechanism built into BTC? ....Like fees that get destroyed or scheduled burns?

If the US Fed or any central bank prints and extra US$100 billion and then decides to destroy $20 billion of that, it hasn't reduced supply, only reduced the increase in supply.  And no, bitcoin doesn't have that. 

[goldkingcoiner]

The only mechanism similar to burning that Bitcoin has is when people forget or lose their seed and can no longer access their wallet. As well as people who die without leaving any wallet access methods behind.

Although we cannot really know how much BTC have been "burned" this way, over time the number will continue rising and this too, just like the 21 million cap, will contribute to the rarity of Bitcoin.

[livingfree]

While it's an automatic mechanism for these coins.

Other developers of big projects are also free to implement manual burning through sending to a burning address which was also a common thing in the past.

Actually, it's not burning because it still exists, just like what they do in Bitcoin. They thought that they burned BTC by sending it to a BTC address randomly or sending it to a well-known burn address, but the fact is it is not a burn address; they just called it like that, but the fact is the private key for these burn addresses still exists. If anyone is trying to brute all possible private keys in decades, they might hit these burn addresses.

That's possible in the future and I guess that description of burning is what the majority is believing.

Despite that these burn addresses are there and possibly to be cracked down and gain access depending if bruting forced them in the future is possible.

I guess that the developers understood it that it's highly unlikely that they're going to still have access with that when they've already thrown, or deleted the keys.

[Patikno]

Greetings great and wonderful bitcoinlovers I'm a beginner from diving deep into Bitcoin basics lately, and something's been troubling me after reading about other coins,We all know BNB does those quarterly/auto burns,Binance burns some chunks of tokens regularly based on profits and trading volume, reducing supply over time Ethereum burns some gas fees too, making it deflationary sometimes.But what about Bitcoin?  Is there any type of periodic burn mechanism built into BTC? ....Like fees that get destroyed or scheduled burns?

As many forum users have pointed out, "Bitcoin doesn't have a periodic burn mechanism", and Bitcoin has a halving mechanism to increase its scarcity.

Maybe, you meant to talk about scarcity, right? If so, I think Bitcoin halving mechanism is sufficient to increase its scarcity, and also serves to protect its value from the effects of inflation. Just look at how well Bitcoin has grown over the years, and you will see that, Bitcoin is always be the number one, with no other cryptocurrency even close to it in terms of market cap. So, what else bothers you about what you have read? I hope you understand my point. Cmiiw.

[Alphakilo]

Greetings great and wonderful bitcoinlovers I'm a beginner from diving deep into Bitcoin basics lately, and something's been troubling me after reading about other coins,We all know BNB does those quarterly/auto burns,Binance burns some chunks of tokens regularly based on profits and trading volume, reducing supply over time Ethereum burns some gas fees too, making it deflationary sometimes.But what about Bitcoin?  Is there any type of periodic burn mechanism built into BTC? ....Like fees that get destroyed or scheduled burns?

I don't think that Bitcoin has any known burn mechanism by design and functionality, but BNB and Eth has this burn mechanism wherein BNB has scheduled quarterly destruction and Eth has a portion of the gas fee destroyed permanently.
Bitcoin is quite different hence why it is considered the leading crypto currency among others, due to some of this features you are just discovering.
Bitcoin don't print in the first place, so what's the need for the burn, if I may ask, because the scarcity is already priced in with a cap of 21million coins.

[AmoreJaz]

Not really a burn but there is always lost bitcoin overtime, you can say the circulating supply is decreasing when that happens.

Satoshi himself said to consider that as a bonus for holders if I'm not mistaken, since it increases scarcity and possibly prices. Burn mechanism is only needed for an inflationary altcoin with huge total supply.

That is true, we don't need burning because the lost coins are already more than enough. Do remember, those early adopters forgot their coins and that's quite significant already. And besides, the seized bitcoins as well by the government and other authorities. With the limited and fixed supply, we don't need the burning scheme with btc.

[hosemary]

Do remember, those early adopters forgot their coins and that's quite significant already. And besides, the seized bitcoins as well by the government and other authorities.

There's a very big difference between the coins that have been lost because their owners don't have the private keys and those that have been seized by the governments.
Governments can auction the seized bitcoins at any time and if they do so, the coins will return to the market.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Do remember, those early adopters forgot their coins and that's quite significant already. And besides, the seized bitcoins as well by the government and other authorities.

There's a very big difference between the coins that have been lost because their owners don't have the private keys and those that have been seized by the governments.
Governments can auction the seized bitcoins at any time and if they do so, the coins will return to the market.

Exactly. Seized coins are not burned and never have been. They eventually get put back into the market through Gov auctions.

Most recent AFAIK was the German state of Saxony selling off 49,858 confiscated BTC. Before that the US Marshals were regularly auctioning off confiscated coins from Silk Road et al because existing laws back then required them to do it. It was treated no differently than other confiscated property that is regularly auctioned off such as precious metals/gems, jewelry, homes, autos, etc. Those laws had no mechanism to take into account the future $ value of any assets escalating like crypto has.

One of the few things Trumpolini has done right is ordering all seized crypto assets be kept in a single separate centralized gov run storage scheme aka "Strategic Crypto Reserves" for the Gov to decide what to do with at a later date. Prior to that many crypto seizures were held by different State & Federal agencies who had mandated sell-by dates for it just the same as any other seized property.

As a side bar about Strategic Crypto Reserves, you can bet that Trumpolini and many other Powers That Be around the globe that have also jumped onto that bandwagon already have many possible plans and wet dreams for tapping into said reserves when they see fit to. At least for now they have realized that, "hey - this could be a massive amount of possible Future Money that we are getting with no real further Public expense other than the Law Enforcement actions that generated it..... Hmmmm... )

Point is - one day those coins WILL be sold off. Cha-Ching!

[Rustam Meraj]

Beginners mostly get mixed up with idea that Bitcoin is compared to places such as Binance or Ethereum that burn to lower the total amount. To make it clear, there is no built-in system to burn or kill pieces of Bitcoin, but all dealing fees paid stay in system and go to miners as pay to miners to keep network safe. Bitcoin does not really burn coins, but guessed 3.7 million BTC can be said to be lost forever because of forgotten passwords or broken tools, and this naturally creates fake shortage.

I believe that such lack of forced burn is its main strength since it makes amount of Bitcoin completely known ahead of time and stops need for any human control or leaders to make decisions on killing of coins. By letting miners get fees instead of burnt coins, Bitcoin keeps the network safe and not owned by one group.

[yhiaali3]

No, Bitcoin doesn't have burns like BNB or some other altcoins because its supply is limited to 21 million coins, unlike BNB and other altcoins where the supply is in the billions. This limited supply makes a burn mechanism unnecessary.

While there are no systematic burns actually some Bitcoins are burned by being sent to inaccessible wallets like Satoshi's wallet or by losing private keys.

[btc78]

Greetings great and wonderful bitcoinlovers I'm a beginner from diving deep into Bitcoin basics lately, and something's been troubling me after reading about other coins,We all know BNB does those quarterly/auto burns,Binance burns some chunks of tokens regularly based on profits and trading volume, reducing supply over time Ethereum burns some gas fees too, making it deflationary sometimes.But what about Bitcoin?  Is there any type of periodic burn mechanism built into BTC? ....Like fees that get destroyed or scheduled burns?

the difference between bitcoin and the examples you’ve mentioned is that bitcoin has its supply fixed at 21 million. bnb has initially issued 200 million and is now trying to reduce it to remain deflationary. ethereum also has unlimited supply. bitcoin is scarce so no need to burn coins for it to stay deflationary.

[macson]

Bitcoin is not like those shitcoins. Bitcoin has a fixed supply that will never change. Whether today or in the future, it remains 21 million, no more, no less. And currently, more than 19 million Bitcoins are in circulation, leaving less than 2 million to be mined by 2140.

Unlike shitcoins that have token burn mechanisms or whatever, Bitcoin doesn't need one because its supply will remain at 21 million. However, with its scheduled halving mechanism, Bitcoin scarcity is created.

[nemesis_incarnate]

No, it doesn't, OP, and if you read into all the replies, you will understand why it's a good thing