Risk of holding bitcoin forever

[7juju]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

Those that are investing now are in better position because people are now aware of how valuable bitcoin is now. Unlike those early days when bitcoin was invented, and the price was nothing to write about. Many people bought bitcoin casually back then and didn't care about storing their passwords well because they never believed bitcoin will be this big. But people buying bitcoin now know that their password or Seed phrase is as important as their bitcoin so they will their time to securely it safely.

[Jostern]

I don’t think there is absolutely any risk involved in holding bitcoin for a long term, and what do you even mean by holding bitcoin forever, well I believe there are people who can decide to hold bitcoin for a very long time, and they will eventually end up keeping there bitcoin for all retirement benefits for there children or next of kin’s, holding Bitcoin for a long term, or holding bitcoin forever is literally a very good and awesome idea.

There are people who have been holding bitcoin ever since bitcoin came into existence and they have been successful with holding bitcoin ever since, and I don’t see any problem or challenges involved with holding bitcoin for a long term purpose, so whoever that wants to keep holding bitcoin I must say it’s a good idea and there is nothing absolutely wrong with that, I will also have to adopt that idea of holding bitcoin forever.

[macson]

Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

There are reasons why so many people lost access to their Bitcoin in the early years. First, it was because of a lack of knowledge about securing wallets at that time. Second, not many people truly believed that the price of Bitcoin could be as high as it is today, so they did not consider it to be that valuable in the future and neglected to make secure backups.

It's different now. You can easily access guides on how to secure your wallet. If only the people who lost their Bitcoin had access to the right guides on how to secure their Bitcoin, most of them probably wouldn't have lost their Bitcoin.

Therefore, there's no excuse for those long-term investment today not to prioritize their Bitcoin security from the start, as articles on securing their Bitcoin are readily available. Otherwise, they'll likely suffer the same fate as those who lost access to their Bitcoins in the past.

[Itz-prisigold]

I think when someone talks about the risks of holding Bitcoin, they always focus on the asset. That’s wrong. Bitcoin can’t disappear on its own, what can actually disappear is someone’s access to it. That’s what happened to the early investors who forgot their passwords. They didn’t lose it because they held it too long, they lost it because they failed to secure their private keys properly, that is a security and responsibility issue on the investor, not the long term holding strategy.

Investors now are actually in a better position,  but they have to learn from people's past mistakes. Presently now,  there is more awareness and understanding of things like hardware wallets, seed phrase backups,  multisig storage, and inheritance planning. The early adopters didn’t have the modern tools and knowledge that the investors of now have.

Holding forever can still be very risky when you do not have a good plan.  What happens if you were to die or something? Is it accessible to your family? Have you test your backup?  Long term holding Bitcoin requires far more planning around it.

I think it’s far more likely that the people who will have a negative experience with Bitcoin are the same people who will not take the time to learn and implement proper practices around Bitcoin custody,  holding Bitcoin is powerful,  but along with that power, a sense of responsibility is needed.

[ZAINmalik75]

I did not think about AI, you are right if you really want to learn more about anything, you can use AI and could probably get a good superficial knowledge about it. It would not be healthy because AI could be wrong too, but at least on the basics of it it would be a good idea to learn more about it.

I know that it is not going to be easy and we are seeing this be a bit difficult and different but at the same time we should be able to make as much money from this as possible by learning smartly using it very well.

AI can be wrong, but we should never depend only on AI results. I suggest you learn from different AI's like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. This way, the results you get will be similar, and you can confirm that the knowledge you are getting is correct. Your concerns are right, we can get wrong information from AI, and if we don't confirm it from other sources, that can cause a huge loss in the future.

That's why we need to get reliable and credible knowledge, and for that, we should use only famous and audited AI chatbots. We can't use any unknown or untrustworthy ones that are not official. I learned so much from them, and I also read articles for deep analysis, because when we learn something from AI, we can ask for references and then read the full article for proper understanding. But with these bots, we can discuss things like we are talking to someone experienced, which is why they are beneficial and can be healthy too.

[salad daging]

It's like the person is wasting money investing in bitcoin but all the while, it's like he's donating or eliminating the supply of bitcoin in his own way.

It's a bit strange if someone wants to plan to invest now but not enjoy the benefits but stay HODL until he dies, ah for me this is not sane.
Unless that person wants to invest, and his bitcoin is inherited for his descendants, maybe it's good, nothing bad, it's just that people investing now don't think long there.

[Rockstarguy]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

Nobody plans to hodl Bitcoin forever, whoever is still having some Bitcoin that was bought longtime ago, it is either the person have time on when to sell of the Bitcoin or the person misplace their password which the person is not able to have access to their bitcoin or the person is no to be alive.

Their is no point of investing bitcoin if you have plans to invest it forever. It is better to invest Bitcoin for decades and having that plan of selling in a particular time. The essence of investing bitcoin is to make profit and spend it, it is just a waste of money and time if you decides to invest in Bitcoin.

[sunsilk]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

If it's about the keys or wallet passwords, these people can also end up in the same situation of forgetting it.

But they're in a better position to avoid the same situation just as what they have experienced before.

The new generation of holders will do everything they can to avoid this mistake from the early adopters. I don't think that the majority's situation will be the same.

[Smartvirus]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

I don’t know how many Bitcoin hodlers you know from the genesis phase of Bitcoin either online or offline to have come to this conclusion that, the fate of long term hodlers is to have their coins lost to the network. A lot of those hodlers from the genesis phase still exist and from time to time, import and have access to their wallets. The fate of long term hodlers isn’t to have their coins lost to the network and over 15years of existence isn’t such a long time, wouldn’t you agree…
Mind you, no of us would live for ever so, that’s actually over exaggerated.

[UmerIdrees]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

Your question is a bit confusing. Holding Bitcoin forever is indeed a good step and you will be rewarded the most. However that doesn't mean that you forget about Bitcoin. Since you are long term holder it is still important to monitor the btc price regularly and also see the developments being made in Bitcoin ecosystem. This way you can always exit if you think that Bitcoin isn't worth holding anymore but that stage won't come.

Now the second part, you hold Bitcoin and you forget the private keys. This is negligence on your part and no one can help you on it. Be responsible with your money.

[bhadz]

Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

I think there is a misconception when we say that we plan to hold forever. This is the same with people telling that we've got diamond hands even if we don't have. This is all about holding for a long time and we can sell anytime we want to. We're in a better position if we're like that because we've bought Bitcoin earlier than the others. But we do understand that nothing lasts forever and even if we're a solid holder, at a point of our lives we're going to sell for any reasons that we would love to or even there's no reason but simply by just taking some profits out of our patience.

[Peanutswar]

At the first place those people who already forgot their seed and lose access to their coin consider this already as gone, so right now as long as you have a your coin and access of it create a backup, because once you lose this you cant have your money back anymore. 
 
There are people holding their coins for a long time because they see the potential of the bitcoin for a long term purpose but others know their strategy and risk management having a plan with your trades is a good setup this will avoid you for holding forever, again taking profit is not a sin. So enjoy the gains and wait for the next market opportunity.

[Cryptomann4562]

Many early Bitcoin investors did indeed lose access to their funds due to lost private keys or passwords, and this became a kind of "forever storage" risk. Today, investors are in a slightly better position thanks to more convenient wallets, hardware storage, and recovery services, but the underlying risk still remains. If a person loses a private key or seed phrase, access to their coins is lost forever, regardless of how long they held them. Therefore, long-term investing is only safe with proper storage and data backup

[Judith87403]

Those who buy Bitcoin early and forgot their passwords were not unlucky, they were just not prepared. Awareness concerning private keys and having backups was low back then.

Those who are investing today are in a more better position as they are more educated, there's better wallets, hardware devices, and guidance on self custody is now clearer. Yet the risk remains the same: when you lose you seed phrase or private keys, all your coins are gone.

To hold forever only works when security also last forever. Long-term investors that properly back up their seed phrases, make use of secure storage, and make plans for inheritance are far less likely to repeat those early mistakes. In crypto, only time do not protect your wealth, discipline is what does.

[Queen uloma]

You stated it clearly that they lost there password, which is automatically there seed phrase, you won't classified this act as investment, but as carelessness and poor storage not because they hold it long, will I say those days there were no clear understanding on how important their seed phrase where, forgetting your seed phrase means you have lost your money, those who are investing now are better because they have more knowledge on what seed phrase means, most people write there seed phrase on a note and hide it were nobody will see it, which makes it more safer.

[john_egbert]

You stated it clearly that they lost there password, which is automatically there seed phrase, you won't classified this act as investment, but as carelessness and poor storage not because they hold it long, will I say those days there were no clear understanding on how important their seed phrase where, forgetting your seed phrase means you have lost your money, those who are investing now are better because they have more knowledge on what seed phrase means, most people write there seed phrase on a note and hide it were nobody will see it, which makes it more safer.

Today we have all the tools needed to avoid such situation and make the hodling so much easier and better. This part of the process is only in our hands and nobody's else.

[maydna]

Those who are investing now and hodl for long term should be better than the early investor. They learn before start investing in Bitcoin so they know how to protect their wallet and all relate things.

But if they lack of knowledge, they will repeating the same mistakes from the early investors. They will lose the coins because they can't access the wallet.

But decision to hodl forever, spend some amounts, or hodl for long term will be on their hands. They should have their own reason why they do that.

[melinoe]

Those who are investing now and hodl for long term should be better than the early investor. They learn before start investing in Bitcoin so they know how to protect their wallet and all relate things.

But if they lack of knowledge, they will repeating the same mistakes from the early investors. They will lose the coins because they can't access the wallet.

But decision to hodl forever, spend some amounts, or hodl for long term will be on their hands. They should have their own reason why they do that.

Believe me, the first error would tell if they are going to stay in the space or learn their way out.. People either tag crypto as scam when such thing occurs to them or they change their ways properly, they don't try it out all over.

[Plutomanian]

Bitcoin is so designed in a way that not everyone of us will eventually end up holding it forever, we have the stipulated time we may decide to hold until sale, once we are profitable, we are good to sell and also continue the process over and again, at the end, there is nothing like risk in holding because we are mostly going to make more profits over time.

Who told you that there's no risk in holding bitcoin? It' have become one of the main project in the crypto space and we just have to be extremely careful because its filled with volatility. I've encountered investors who solely depended on the project and they also exercise patience but triggering the buy in of bitcoin during the bullish market and when the market start to dip, it cancel their buying entries and their portfolio dip heavily. Not everyone can survive this market especially when the market is ruins.

We're here for the profits and doing everything within our reach to ensure we sealed good runs in the market. Do you know how unstable the market can be but most of us are already acquainted with the market.

[retreat]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

Whether they're in a better position or not depends on their understanding of the security of their wallets. If they don't have a proper understanding of that, they could lose their Bitcoin, just like those who lost theirs due to their failure to secure their assets. So, we don't know what their fate will be, whether it's better or worse. But those planning to invest long-term should be more aware of the security of their assets, especially if they're on this forum - there are so many tips for securing their wallets, and that will help them minimize the potential for loss due to personal negligence.