The Lost Coins

[DiThi]

This scares me, even if it's not my money, etc. Noobs should always know that transactions are irreversible and if you lose the wallet.dat, those coins are gone forever. If you did that, there's some chance of recovering the wallet.dat if you avoid doing anything else in that computer: shut it down now and ask here for some help from another computer.

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[Mellivora]

I always thought of Bitcoins as being inflation proof, but "infinitely divisible" makes me have to rethink this.  Its easy to see the deflationary value of the system...but that word "unlimited"...how will that play out?

Dividing existing money is different than creating new money.

Let's use a bar of gold as an example.

You have one bar of gold. You cut that bar in half, you now have two smaller pieces. Each smaller piece is worth half the original bar of gold, but combined they are still one bar of gold. This is how Bitcoin's divisibility works. You can break it up into smaller pieces, but each smaller piece is worth less than the original.

Everyone has the same amount of Bitcoins as they did before, but everyone can break those Bitcoins up into smaller pieces, and trade with that instead.

The problem with inflation is that when a central bank prints new money, they don't give it to everyone equally. If they did, it would be no problem. Instead, they use the money however they see fit, and they spend it at the current value. Then as it gets absorbed by the economy, it devalues each unit that was already in existence. So if you don't get a slice of this new money (and you usually don't), you just got robbed.

I understand how it works with gold, but with a digital currency, there is one thing I'm trying to get my head around.

With gold, eventually it becomes physically impossible to divide any smaller.

With Bitcoins not being physical, you have that "infinitely divisible" aspect going on, which has never been taken to the extreme to see what would happen.  6.0221 × 10^-23 btc is just as easy to divide and send as 1 btc.   I guess it would work better than gold.

[BurtW]

The maximum number of Bitcoins is 21,000,000 and it can currently be divided down to one satoshi which is 0.00000001 BTC (10 nanoBTC) so there is a total of 2,100,000,000,000,000 satoshis or 0x775F05A074000 satoshis.  This does not fill out a 64 bit number yet.  So we have a ways to go, in terms of smaller units, before we overflow a 64 bit number.  In fact a 64 bit number can handle the number 0x1D24B2DFAC520000 which is 2,100,000,000,000,000,000

The current smallest unit is 1 satoshi = 10 nanoBTC

With some changes the protocol can handle down to 0.001 satoshi = 10 picoBTC

So there is a limit but I don't think there is an issue for a very long time.
               

 

[FlipPro]

The maximum number of Bitcoins is 21,000,000 and it can currently be divided down to one satoshi which is 0.00000001 BTC (10 nanoBTC) so there is a total of 2,100,000,000,000,000 satoshis or 0x775F05A074000 satoshis.  This does not fill out a 64 bit number yet.  So we have a ways to go, in terms of smaller units, before we overflow a 64 bit number.  In fact a 64 bit number can handle the number 0x1D24B2DFAC520000 which is 2,100,000,000,000,000,000

The current smallest unit is 1 satoshi = 10 nanoBTC

With some changes the protocol can handle down to 0.001 satoshi = 10 picoBTC

So there is a limit but I don't think there is an issue for a very long time.
               

 

None of these names have been established yet.

[BurtW]

Do you mean that milli, micro, nano and pico are all very well established and obvious but the satoshi is just a generally accepted unit but is not officially recognized?

[cbeast]

Do you mean that milli, micro, nano and pico are all very well established and obvious but the satoshi is just a generally accepted unit but is not officially recognized?

I prefer to call them Millies, Mikes, Nancys, and Pedos Pedros 

[Fiyasko]

Hi..so I'm obviously a muggle at this bitcoin thing..I thought I'd experiment with a 100$ or so and see how it worked..so here's what happened.. I changed 50 bucks to tradehill via bitexchange via dwolla..ug ..this was a process..and then waiting for the transfers..well iwent to send the coins to my bitcoin wallet and of course..I didn't know I had to wait for the bitchain to download..and I had a toshiba netbook..which wasn't bigenough for the download..and I had the 4.0 or something version...well...I downloaded the updated version on a full size laptop..and I erased the program from my netbook..I did however copy down the address and took pics of it..so is there a key I can use or put into the 5.0 or whatver to still download these coins? I mean I never claimed them so I guess they should be out there ..but I thought I would be able to eneter the recieving adress into the neew bitcoin wallet..But I guess it doesn't work that way..anyone with the specific knowhow that can tell me how to get these coins back ? I'm just an average joe trying to learn the sytem..and I'd appreciate the help...thanx!

Go home if your using a fake word to describe (incorrectly) how well you comprehend bitcoins
I want to Punch you for saying muggle.

[TheHeroMember]

It doesn't matter if they are lost forever, because the price of the current bitcoins will be higher. That's all.

What if someone tries to hide/hoard  bitcoins till price goes high. Then use bitcoins when it reached 1btc=$100K? 

[TheHeroMember]

I'd rather start hoarding bitcoins till it reaches $100K per 1btc.