Risk of holding bitcoin forever

[nemesis_incarnate]

Today, those of us who are investing, we know that Bitcoin is a high-value asset. We would never want it to be lost from us. That is why investors are very aware from the beginning. But in the early days, since it was in the experimental stage. At that time, no one was very serious about the financial value of Bitcoin, so they did not give much importance to private keys or wallet backups. Many considered it a digital toy,,,As a result, forgetting or losing it is not uncommon.

But now most investors want to keep Bitcoin investment for life. And if they are physically disabled, they want to live using it. It is even a resource for the next generation. So now everyone is very aware.

Their ignorance cost them everything. Lessons learnt

[Blaq_e12]

First off forever is a very very long time... Or maybe you have a subjective meaning of what forever is but If we go by the definition of forever you may not live to know where the price of bitcoin is or what bitcoin is doing.

For those that invested when it was launched

One of the downside of holding bitcoin long term is loosing your access, for context... say you held for 14 years now and you were 25 at the time add that to you age you would be 39. You have a family, businesses and everything life offers you going on. There's a high chance you may forget you access and I do not think at the time it was launched there was a backup for it. so yeah high chance.

For those that are investing now.
where almost everyone is now bitcoin woke , having the same fate of someone that invested a long time ago and now has a very low chance of loosing your access  especially with improvements of access backups, and the frequent use of bitcoin platforms. So yeah they are in better position

But if anyone wishes to hold bitcoin forever  What's the point?

[Bitcoin_people]

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 ?

Basically, those who will invest forever must plan in such a way that their wallet keys are stored. Those who invested in the past and later lost their keys must have lost a lot of money. That is why those who will invest now must plan their investment in such a way that future generations can enjoy it. If the wallet keys are saved, it will be possible to access it again later even if the device is destroyed in the future. Moreover, it is best to use hardware and software by investing in Bitcoin. If the wallet keys can be saved here, there will be no fear of losing money in the future.

[purple_sparkles]

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 ?

Basically, those who will invest forever must plan in such a way that their wallet keys are stored. Those who invested in the past and later lost their keys must have lost a lot of money. That is why those who will invest now must plan their investment in such a way that future generations can enjoy it. If the wallet keys are saved, it will be possible to access it again later even if the device is destroyed in the future. Moreover, it is best to use hardware and software by investing in Bitcoin. If the wallet keys can be saved here, there will be no fear of losing money in the future.

I know people who simply forgot the seed phrases to their wallets. Of course, they regret their carelessness, but our psyche adapts to everything, if you keep tormenting yourself over it, nothing will change, unless someone somehow enjoys that. I think that if I had taken bitcoin seriously when I first learned about it and started accumulating it in an electronic wallet, I’m 100% sure I would have lost my seed phrase too. At that time, it really seemed like something silly, like coins in a game. When it gains real value, your attitude toward storing it and keeping it safe becomes much more serious.

[Yablee0]

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 write up is some how contradicting , holding Bitcoin forever and for an investor to be unable to access his Bitcoin portfolio due to the misplacement of his wallet login details are two different thing all together, if someone didn't sell off is investment for several years due to him not being able to access is asset it's somehow understandable but for an investor to hold his coin forever probably till he gets old and die is something that am just hearing for the first time.

Furthermore, i don't think their is any investor that can actually hold  forever perhaps their must be a time he should meet up is target maybe between five to ten years time and possibly sell some portion of it if not all in other to put up one or two in place.

[ndutndut]

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 ?

Basically, those who will invest forever must plan in such a way that their wallet keys are stored. Those who invested in the past and later lost their keys must have lost a lot of money. That is why those who will invest now must plan their investment in such a way that future generations can enjoy it. If the wallet keys are saved, it will be possible to access it again later even if the device is destroyed in the future. Moreover, it is best to use hardware and software by investing in Bitcoin. If the wallet keys can be saved here, there will be no fear of losing money in the future.

I know people who simply forgot the seed phrases to their wallets. Of course, they regret their carelessness, but our psyche adapts to everything, if you keep tormenting yourself over it, nothing will change, unless someone somehow enjoys that. I think that if I had taken bitcoin seriously when I first learned about it and started accumulating it in an electronic wallet, I’m 100% sure I would have lost my seed phrase too. At that time, it really seemed like something silly, like coins in a game. When it gains real value, your attitude toward storing it and keeping it safe becomes much more serious.

I also often read about people's experiences of losing access to their BTC wallets. This happened in the early days of BTC existence because it was easy to obtain and very cheap, so they took wallet security too seriously. When BTC started to rise, they couldn't access their wallets because they weren't serious about storing their BTC assets.

From cases like these, we can learn that when investing in digital assets like Bitcoin, the most fundamental thing to learn and not to underestimate is wallet security. Regardless of how much or how little you own, you must be serious and meticulous in storing your Bitcoin assets.

With wallet security guaranteed holding it for a long time will be no problem. Investing in bitcoin is getting better and better over time but I doubt anyone would want to hold it forever and never sell because the goal of investing in bitcoin is to seek profits and seek financial freedom in the future.

[Hardyrobust]

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 ?

Basically, those who will invest forever must plan in such a way that their wallet keys are stored. Those who invested in the past and later lost their keys must have lost a lot of money. That is why those who will invest now must plan their investment in such a way that future generations can enjoy it. If the wallet keys are saved, it will be possible to access it again later even if the device is destroyed in the future. Moreover, it is best to use hardware and software by investing in Bitcoin. If the wallet keys can be saved here, there will be no fear of losing money in the future.

To invest in bitcoin forever sounds some how strange to me . People can invest in bitcoin for a long term like 10years or more and still sell to make profit when they have reached there investment timeline. So talking about forever is something that is really confusing, infact no one can invest in bitcoin forever. Moreover there is no investor or anyone that will live forever, therefore people cannot invest in bitcoin forever.

[Somegory]

In the past Bitcoin was almost worthless, you can mine with p4 CPU and get good numbers of Bitcoin per day, so yes it's easier for people to get careless about the coins then, but today no one will do the same again because Bitcoin is very valuable.

The price they pay is been careless, my question is why they mine or bought in the first place if they can't even hold it the right way, it shows that some old holders don't really believe in Bitcoin, they just do it because others who believed told them to hold.

If you believe in something you will take it very seriously, revealing your private key or keeping the keys on a cloud services is just been stupid.

[BitGoba]

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 ?

Bitcoin is digital money and distributed software, which means it can only be changed through consensus. Even though it has monetary properties that are better than gold, it is not like gold, where you can bury it somewhere, walk away, and know it will still be there unchanged 50 years later. With Bitcoin, you have to stay involved. You have to run your own node, support the network, protect the system from rule changes that go against your interests, and update things when necessary, for example if quantum computing ever becomes a real threat. In that sense, Bitcoin requires more attention than gold.

[Donk1]

Well if I may say we can't properly identify lost coins from long term holders because the system doesn't know if a person's seed phrase was lost or not. But still I like to believe that every lost coin makes the rest more valuable because Bitcoin has a limited scarcity of 21 million coins.​That said holding long for about 10 to 15 years or more isn't bad because as we all know Bitcoin is a store of value and those who have held longer can testify. Basically losing your keys to your wallets is one of the issues in the crypto space which is caused by the investor's inability to be responsible for their coins. That's why it's advised to write your seed phrase on a piece of paper or engrave it on a steel and keep it somewhere that only you can remember.

​Overall nobody is holding Bitcoin for ever. Like holding Bitcoin for long is good but when you say the word forever is it a family investment or a generational investment? If you even think about it like what is the purpose of investing if it's forever and you won't touch it? Well to me it's easy to say Bitcoin as a digital asset is meant to be used if it's kept forever it is either the owner / investor died or the key got lost still all this aren't caused by holding for long That's all bro.....

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Those early investors that lost their coins didn't plan for it like that and some didn't also know that Bitcoin was going to turn to $100k per coin, else they would have protected the private key of their address very well. Now, the people that are investing today have learned from the mistakes of the old time investors and they have plans of how to already protect their keys, to pass it down to their heirs if that was what the person wanted.

[Nwada001]

But now most investors want to keep Bitcoin investment for life. And if they are physically disabled, they want to live using it. It is even a resource for the next generation. So now everyone is very aware.

I agree with the fact that people are now wiser and more cautious in terms of saving their private key and don't allow it to get exposed or forgotten, but I disagree with the fact that you said people now consider bitcoin to be an asset that they will keep for life. I don't think anyone out there wants to save coins for a lifetime; rather, they are accumulating and holding them for as long as they can while expecting profit. Maybe they could probably pass it down to their children or use it for retirement; lifetime holding sounds like a joke to me.

[Mahiyammahi]

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 ?

Did you know that a large portion of Bitcoin is marked as lost Bitcoin because many miners initially forgot their wallet security keys or passwords?
I think you should never wait for the right time to invest in Bitcoin. Every time is the right time to invest. So you can invest in Bitcoin with your eyes closed according to your fund management. It is not that just because I told you to invest with your eyes closed, you will invest with all your money. In this case, we always say that after meeting all your needs, then invest the extra money you have in Bitcoin.

[famososMuertos]

OP; There's a bit of ambiguity in your idea, but it's understood that the longer you hold onto it, the greater the chance of losing the information. Well, that depends on the security measures you follow; that's relative to the user. Now, what I find curious is that you used an expression in your title that implies a simple answer: if you hold onto Bitcoin forever, you don't enjoy it. Bitcoins can last forever, but your life isn't eternal. 

[Hardyrobust]

OP; There's a bit of ambiguity in your idea, but it's understood that the longer you hold onto it, the greater the chance of losing the information. Well, that depends on the security measures you follow; that's relative to the user. Now, what I find curious is that you used an expression in your title that implies a simple answer: if you hold onto Bitcoin forever, you don't enjoy it. Bitcoins can last forever, but your life isn't eternal. 

It is even funny for the OP to think that it is possible for  an investor to hold bitcoin forever. Long term holders can only be able to hold bitcoin for a long time, that is for a limited numbers of years. It can either be for 10years, 20yrs or more. However, talking about holding bitcoin forever when no can live sound very odd. There is no way anyone can hold bitcoin forever even if they pass there bitcoin ls to there next generation, they may decide not to continue holding and then sell it off.

[Pi-network314159]

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 ?

yeah i agree with you that many lost access to their wallet holding a large number of bitcoin, but that was not intentional but as a result of misplacement of seed phrase. but one thing about bitcoin is that each lost coin is creating scarcity in the network and adding value to the existing ones. so tactically it is not a waste because it has helped bitcoin gain momentum but it is a big lost to the owner. but apart from that, i dont think if anyone plans to hold bitcoin forever. there is always a plan for every investor, maybe for long or short time purpose. but if by chance they lost access to it or they die why holding bitcoin, its never their intention to hold forever. 

[betswift]

OP; There's a bit of ambiguity in your idea, but it's understood that the longer you hold onto it, the greater the chance of losing the information. Well, that depends on the security measures you follow; that's relative to the user. Now, what I find curious is that you used an expression in your title that implies a simple answer: if you hold onto Bitcoin forever, you don't enjoy it. Bitcoins can last forever, but your life isn't eternal. 

We need to enjoy both the life and the Bitcoins we got while they are here.

That's the lesson for me

[Iranus]

It is even funny for the OP to think that it is possible for  an investor to hold bitcoin forever. Long term holders can only be able to hold bitcoin for a long time, that is for a limited numbers of years. It can either be for 10years, 20yrs or more. However, talking about holding bitcoin forever when no can live sound very odd. There is no way anyone can hold bitcoin forever even if they pass there bitcoin ls to there next generation, they may decide not to continue holding and then sell it off.

Holding Bitcoin forever sounds strange, but if I remember correctly, a few people on this forum made similar claim a year or two ago.

I do not know if they were serious or just joking, but I think there are still some people who do this. I would not be surprised by people who become overly obsessed with Bitcoin and treat it like a religion, or those who consider investing in bitcoin a matter of survival will be willing to hold it forever.

This world is full of eccentric people, some even marry animal. Or there are those who regard Bitcoin as a god, more important than their loved ones or even their own lives. It would not be surprising if they wanted to hold Bitcoin forever

[qurbanshah02]

It is even funny for the OP to think that it is possible for  an investor to hold bitcoin forever. Long term holders can only be able to hold bitcoin for a long time, that is for a limited numbers of years. It can either be for 10years, 20yrs or more. However, talking about holding bitcoin forever when no can live sound very odd. There is no way anyone can hold bitcoin forever even if they pass there bitcoin ls to there next generation, they may decide not to continue holding and then sell it off.

Holding Bitcoin forever sounds strange, but if I remember correctly, a few people on this forum made similar claim a year or two ago.

I do not know if they were serious or just joking, but I think there are still some people who do this. I would not be surprised by people who become overly obsessed with Bitcoin and treat it like a religion, or those who consider investing in bitcoin a matter of survival will be willing to hold it forever.

This world is full of eccentric people, some even marry animal. Or there are those who regard Bitcoin as a god, more important than their loved ones or even their own lives. It would not be surprising if they wanted to hold Bitcoin forever

I also think that keeping Bitcoin forever is not at all right because when we keep Bitcoin with us for the rest of our lives, how will we enjoy its profits and then we may die, due to which how will we see the growth of Bitcoin and increase our Bitcoin, which is no less than a mystery, but it is also foolish. Although such people joke and want to know people's positions so that they can see how they understand Bitcoin. Yes, some people will start understanding it like a religion and they think that the final limit of the price that goes up and down in our environment is the pair with Bitcoin, which I do not understand that Bitcoin is a worthy investment coin for us, but that does not mean that whatever he says will happen. We should only keep it for 10 years so that by then the price of Bitcoin will go up a lot and it is much better for us to have profits.

[vanesha]

I think they must have had a long-term plan. Those who store assets there must have had a good plan for their storage. At the very least, they've backed up their wallets properly. Private keys, phrases, and passwords must have been stored and backed up in a safe and memorable place. It's impossible to forget so many assets that easily. Even now, I've never heard of a case of losing a significant amount of assets due to forgetting passwords or security measures.