Let's add up the KNOWN lost bitcoins

[SgtSpike]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

[1714496467]

1714496467

[1714496467]

1714496467

[kiba]

0.00000000

[gigabytecoin]

May have lost 0.05 BTC sent by the faucet...

Had it sent to a windows box, windows almost immediately received a virus, I simply removed the HD and re-installed ubuntu to a new drive.

Time (and value of BTC) will tell if I ever boot up the old HD, remove the virus, and send my BTC back to the faucet/myself/anywhere.

TL;DR I probably lost 0.05 BTC.

Edit: I finally recovered them and have sent them back to the faucet! Enjoy, future bitcoiners!

[koin]

i'm sure there's a point to this.

i don't know if this counts, i can't log into mybitcoin are those coins considered lost as far as this thread cares?

[error]

Someone lost a Satoshi (0.00000001 BTC) the other day. Though I am told a miner got it in his transaction fees, so perhaps it isn't truly lost.

[Alex Beckenham]

i'm sure there's a point to this.

i don't know if this counts, i can't log into mybitcoin are those coins considered lost as far as this thread cares?

I don't think those coins should count... administrators of that site (present and future) would still be able to spend those coins. (i.e. They're still part of the total money supply).

[caveden]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

[td]

I personally lost one block of 50 BTC when coins were worth around 10 cents. It was a generated block and I was messing around with switching wallets and I never backed that wallet up before it was deleted. A little mad at the time even more so now.

9 +
50
____
59 BTC

[caveden]

9000 +
50
____
9050 BTC

There, fixed it.

[Gavin Andresen]

Block 70136 has 0.03BTC in un-spendable transactions.

9050+
     0.03
---------
9050.03

[caveden]

Block 70136 has 0.03BTC in un-spendable transactions.

How did this happen? Shouldn't the block be invalid?

[Timo Y]

I have so many wallets lying around in so many different places, different computers, virtual machines, usb sticks, gmail attachments, mobile phones, that I have no idea how many bitcoins I actually "own" anymore. I might have forgotten about some of those wallets, who knows? One of these days when I have the time I should try to tidy it all up.  

The only amount that I know for certain I've lost so far is 0.05 BTC back in Oct 2010.

[AbeSkray]

I have so many wallets lying around in so many different places, different computers, virtual machines, usb sticks, gmail attachments, mobile phones, that I have no idea how many bitcoins I actually "own" anymore. I might have forgotten about some of those wallets, who knows? One of these days when I have the time I should try to tidy it all up.  

The only amount that I know for certain I've lost so far is 0.05 BTC back in Oct 2010.

So:

9050.03
+   0.05
--------
9050.08

[theymos]

0.04 BTC was sent to these special addresses that are likely to never have owners:
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1111111111111111111114oLvT2
http://blockexplorer.com/address/11111111111111111111BZbvjr

I lost a few hundred to a casino that shut down without refunding the BTC.

[AbeSkray]

0.04 BTC was sent to these special addresses that are likely to never have owners:
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1111111111111111111114oLvT2
http://blockexplorer.com/address/11111111111111111111BZbvjr

I lost a few hundred to a casino that shut down without refunding the BTC.

9050.08
+   0.04
----------
9050.12

[programmerbruce]

I formatted a drive and lost .05 that I received from the Bitcoin Faucet.

9050.12
+   0.05
--------
9050.17

[Arsenal]

I've lost 250 BTC.

[SgtSpike]

9050.17
+ 250.00
--------
9300.17

[AtlasONo]

9300.17
+.05
--------
9300.22

[Alex Beckenham]

I've lost 250 BTC.

May I ask how you lost it?

I don't mean to doubt you, but just want to make sure they're definitely lost.

[Maged]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

Looking back at that, he still had 1 btc. So...

9300.22
-    1.00
----------
9299.22

[kjj]

How about the 50 from the duplicate generation in blocks 91812 and 91842?

[Anonymous]

1007-1009 Somewhere around there.

Don't ask. Too painful of a story.

[SgtSpike]

   9299.22
+    50.00
+ 1007.00
----------
10,356.22

[theymos]

How about the 50 from the duplicate generation in blocks 91812 and 91842?

There's another duplicate in 91880.

[SgtSpike]

10,356.22
+    50.00
----------
10,406.22

[Sean]

God, a banking system would really have come in handy here...

[cypherdoc]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

as i recall it was 9000 btc!

[Batouzo]

10,356.22
+    50.00
----------
10,406.22

10,406.22
+    50.00
----------
10,456.22

Not 100% sure, but looked like we lost a block probably due to default jgarzik's pool not retrying re-submiting work when bitcoind was unreachable...

Oh well. Fortunately no one else was mining at that moment. It was a very short round too with just like 500 shares... 

[cypherdoc]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

as i recall it was 9000 btc!

actually 8999

[cypherdoc]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

as i recall it was 9000 btc!

actually 8999

8999X$8.70= $78291 

[dwdollar]

Back in late 2009, I bought 1000 from NewLibertyStandard for about $1.

Not long after I formatted my hard drive and didn't bother with them saving them...

Yeah I know.  What an idiot.

+1000

[kjj]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

as i recall it was 9000 btc!

actually 8999

Yes, exactly 8999 were lost.

http://blockexplorer.com/tx/eb5b761c7380ed4c6adf688f9e5ab94953dcabeda47d9eeabd77261902fccccf

[SgtSpike]

Back in late 2009, I bought 1000 from NewLibertyStandard for about $1.

Not long after I formatted my hard drive and didn't bother with them saving them...

Yeah I know.  What an idiot.

+1000

10,456.22
+1,000.00
-----------
11,456.22

[cypherdoc]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

as i recall it was 9000 btc!

actually 8999

Yes, exactly 8999 were lost.

http://blockexplorer.com/tx/eb5b761c7380ed4c6adf688f9e5ab94953dcabeda47d9eeabd77261902fccccf

kjj, how'd u find the block?

[cypherdoc]

this is a great thread!  learning alot!

[kjj]

kjj, how'd u find the block?

I just clicked back through the chain until I saw a 9000 -> 8999 + 1 transaction around the right date.

[cypherdoc]

kjj, how'd u find the block?

I just clicked back through the chain until I saw a 9000 -> 8999 + 1 transaction around the right date.

i assume u did this in Block Explorer.  just went there and they only have the last 20 or so blocks listed?  how'd u search further back?  also how did u know what date the block got solved?

[kjj]

kjj, how'd u find the block?

I just clicked back through the chain until I saw a 9000 -> 8999 + 1 transaction around the right date.

i assume u did this in Block Explorer.  just went there and they only have the last 20 or so blocks listed?  how'd u search further back?  also how did u know what date the block got solved?

You can click all the way back to the genesis block by using the Previous Block links.  Stone Man posted about the loss here on the forums the next day.

[caveden]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

as i recall it was 9000 btc!

That's what I said above... (maybe I should have dropped the dot or write 9.000,00 to make it clearer)

[cypherdoc]

kjj, how'd u find the block?

I just clicked back through the chain until I saw a 9000 -> 8999 + 1 transaction around the right date.

i assume u did this in Block Explorer.  just went there and they only have the last 20 or so blocks listed?  how'd u search further back?  also how did u know what date the block got solved?

You can click all the way back to the genesis block by using the Previous Block links.  Stone Man posted about the loss here on the forums the next day.

geez, u clicked back almost a year?  sounds like u had to remember that Stone Man posted here on the forum, search back for the post and date, and then u knew about how far back u had to go.  the point i'm trying to ascertain is if u didn't know that info and u were looking back in time for this tx, u would have to patiently click back and examine each block carefully for that 8999.  altho in this case it is easy to spot.  what if u were looking for some .01 btc tx?

[SgtSpike]

kjj, how'd u find the block?

I just clicked back through the chain until I saw a 9000 -> 8999 + 1 transaction around the right date.

i assume u did this in Block Explorer.  just went there and they only have the last 20 or so blocks listed?  how'd u search further back?  also how did u know what date the block got solved?

You can click all the way back to the genesis block by using the Previous Block links.  Stone Man posted about the loss here on the forums the next day.

geez, u clicked back almost a year?  sounds like u had to remember that Stone Man posted here on the forum, search back for the post and date, and then u knew about how far back u had to go.  the point i'm trying to ascertain is if u didn't know that info and u were looking back in time for this tx, u would have to patiently click back and examine each block carefully for that 8999.  altho in this case it is easy to spot.  what if u were looking for some .01 btc tx?

You can also skip blocks by typing www.blockexplorer.com/b/[BLOCK#]

[kjj]

geez, u clicked back almost a year?  sounds like u had to remember that Stone Man posted here on the forum, search back for the post and date, and then u knew about how far back u had to go.  the point i'm trying to ascertain is if u didn't know that info and u were looking back in time for this tx, u would have to patiently click back and examine each block carefully for that 8999.  altho in this case it is easy to spot.  what if u were looking for some .01 btc tx?

It's only like 50,000 blocks back.  OCD hath its privileges.

His loss was pretty easy to find.  There aren't many transactions like it.  Finding one specific .01 transaction would be a lot harder.  You'd have to look at something else that you know, like one of the addresses, or the transaction ID.

[cypherdoc]

kjj, how'd u find the block?

I just clicked back through the chain until I saw a 9000 -> 8999 + 1 transaction around the right date.

i assume u did this in Block Explorer.  just went there and they only have the last 20 or so blocks listed?  how'd u search further back?  also how did u know what date the block got solved?

You can click all the way back to the genesis block by using the Previous Block links.  Stone Man posted about the loss here on the forums the next day.

geez, u clicked back almost a year?  sounds like u had to remember that Stone Man posted here on the forum, search back for the post and date, and then u knew about how far back u had to go.  the point i'm trying to ascertain is if u didn't know that info and u were looking back in time for this tx, u would have to patiently click back and examine each block carefully for that 8999.  altho in this case it is easy to spot.  what if u were looking for some .01 btc tx?

You can also skip blocks by typing www.blockexplorer.com/b/[BLOCK#]

here again, u have to know the block # ur lookin for.

[Maged]

10,356.22
+    50.00
----------
10,406.22

10,406.22
+    50.00
----------
10,456.22

Not 100% sure, but looked like we lost a block probably due to default jgarzik's pool not retrying re-submiting work when bitcoind was unreachable...

Oh well. Fortunately no one else was mining at that moment. It was a very short round too with just like 500 shares... 

Lost blocks aren't truly lost. They are just not counted. Using a duplicate transaction hash in the generation transaction, though, WILL make them disappear.

11,456.22
-     50.00
-----------
11,406.22

[Alex Beckenham]

11,406.22

If you previously had 1% of the supply, you now have 1.00054% (210,000 / (21,000,000 - 11,406.22) * 100)%

If you previously had 0.9994568% of the supply, congratulations, you now have 1%

[opticbit]

I leave 0.01 btc in various wallets here and there

I may forget about one at some point.

May have deleted .01 off an aws ec2, and one when deleting a local vm.

[Lynzoi]

My friend forgot his password, I think he lost at least 30.

I lost about 0.09.

[kwukduck]

-----------
11,406.22
      50.00+
        0.09+
    150.00+
-------------
11,606.31

(top two are from the post above, my friend threw away his 150 btc, just cause he thought it was stupid and useless xD)

[SgtSpike]

Another huge loss of 7208 BTC:  http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=11104.0

11,606.31
+7,208.00
----------
18,814.31

[Lynzoi]

I just lost about 4 btc on my broken hard drive... thank goodness most of my btc was NOT stored on that hard drive. I'm saving the hard drive, just in case this is one day worth thousands, and I'll be able to justify some data recovery thing.

[Nevezen]

18,814.31
+0,020.00
----------
18,834.31

Lost it accidentally from a disk crash..

[SgtSpike]

+ Robert's 4 that he didn't calculate in to the number. 

18,834.31
+      4.00
----------
18,838.31

[midnightmagic]

In block 124724, I deliberately and specifically underpaid myself by 0.00000001 ฿, which is colloquially known as "1 Satoshi" after ฿'s creator and due to a lack of a good name for that amount of ฿ money.

To make absolutely sure that I was doing it on purpose, I set the reward value to 49.99999999, which meant that I inadvertently threw away the transaction fees which I could have allocated to myself.

I did it as a tribute to our missing Satoshi: we are missing Satoshi, and now the blockchain is missing 1 Satoshi too, for all time.

Before this, the total *awarded* ฿ would have been (assuming my calculations are correct):

฿20999999.97690000

Now, since I underpaid myself, the total *awarded* ฿ can only be:

฿20999999.97689999

--assuming everyone else pays themselves the maximum until the end of time.

So, this is a provably missing amount of the fees+1 Satoshi from the blockchain, from block 124724, which appears to be 0.01 + 0.00000001 ฿.

I did this by creating an option in my heavily customized client (derived from the git fork of bitcoind) which allows me to arbitrarily suspend the normal block reward calculation and underpay myself. The code itself only checks to ensure that I haven't *overpaid* myself. It doesn't at all care that I've *underpaid* myself.

I view this as a freedom in the protocol, and not a drawback.

blockexplorer.com has a display bug for that block which has not been corrected yet.

[cypherdoc]

In block 124724, I deliberately and specifically underpaid myself by 0.00000001 ฿, which is colloquially known as "1 Satoshi" after ฿'s creator and due to a lack of a good name for that amount of ฿ money.

To make absolutely sure that I was doing it on purpose, I set the reward value to 49.99999999, which meant that I inadvertently threw away the transaction fees which I could have allocated to myself.

I did it as a tribute to our missing Satoshi: we are missing Satoshi, and now the blockchain is missing 1 Satoshi too, for all time.

Before this, the total *awarded* ฿ would have been (assuming my calculations are correct):

฿20999999.97690000

Now, since I underpaid myself, the total *awarded* ฿ can only be:

฿20999999.97689999

--assuming everyone else pays themselves the maximum until the end of time.

So, this is a provably missing amount of the fees+1 Satoshi from the blockchain, from block 124724, which appears to be 0.01 + 0.00000001 ฿.

I did this by creating an option in my heavily customized client (derived from the git fork of bitcoind) which allows me to arbitrarily suspend the normal block reward calculation and underpay myself. The code itself only checks to ensure that I haven't *overpaid* myself. It doesn't at all care that I've *underpaid* myself.

I view this as a freedom in the protocol, and not a drawback.

blockexplorer.com has a display bug for that block which has not been corrected yet.

wow, u r generous

[foo]

As per the above story: 

18,838.31000000
+      0.01000001
-----------------
18,838.32000001

[Maged]

Looks like the new wallet encryption feature has caused coins to enter the void:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8728.msg203511#msg203511


18,838.32000001
        3.79000000
      10.00000000
      55.00000000
+     0.01000000
--------------------
18,907.12000001

[Alex Thornton]

18,907.12000001
+               0.02
--------------------
18,907.14000001

[SgtSpike]

18,907.12000001
+               0.02
--------------------
18,907.14000001

Another 365.18 gone forever...  http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18371.msg232955#msg232955

18,907.12000001
+  365.18000000
----------------
19,272.30000001

[Maged]

18,907.12000001
+               0.02
--------------------
18,907.14000001

Another 365.18 gone forever...  http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18371.msg232955#msg232955

18,907.12000001
+  365.18000000
----------------
19,272.30000001

Surprisingly, it's now been recovered!
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18371.msg342784#msg342784

19,272.30000001
-   365.18000000
----------------
18,907.12000001

[cypherdoc]

18,907.12000001
+               0.02
--------------------
18,907.14000001

Another 365.18 gone forever...  http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18371.msg232955#msg232955

18,907.12000001
+  365.18000000
----------------
19,272.30000001

Surprisingly, it's now been recovered!
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18371.msg342784#msg342784

19,272.30000001
-   365.18000000
----------------
18,907.12000001

18,907.12000001
+      1.12
18,908.24000001

don't ask.

[Jered Kenna (TradeHill)]

19,272.30000001
-   365.18000000
----------------
18,907.12000001

One of these days ... someone will hit the JACKPOT!

For another thread, it might be cool to try and calculate the biggest JACKPOT someone is likely to hit over the next ten years.

Cheers,
Adam    

[lettucebee]

I'm assuming you are not including THEFT in your definition of "lost"?

[Alex Beckenham]

I'm assuming you are not including THEFT in your definition of "lost"?

Nope, stolen coins are still in circulation.

[teflone]

And the worlds most boring thread award goes to OP!

[SgtSpike]

And the worlds most boring thread award goes to OP!

Awww...  I thought it was rather interesting myself...

[dooglus]

18,907.12000001
+      1.12
18,908.24000001

don't ask.

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

18,908.24000001
+      0.0211
18,908.26110001

[gmaxwell]

So, for SCIENCE (er, well, wallet code testing), I modified a bitcoin client to short-circuit IsMine, IsConfirmed, and the coinbase maturity check. Then I rescaned the blockchain:

    "balance" : 6848199.98999999,
    "blocks" : 136965,

50*136965 - 6848199.98999999 = 50.01000001

This isn't the same as lost coins— e.g. my client thinks it can spend the 1BitcoinEater coins. This is a count of coins that don't exist, at least as far as the wallet code is concerned.

The 1e-8 is the coin midnightmagic opted not to generate in tribute to Satoshi. The 0.01 is the fee midnightmagic accidentally destroyed in the process. (http://blockexplorer.com/block/0000000000004c78956f8643262f3622acf22486b120421f893c0553702ba7b5)

I'm _assuming_ the 50 is the duplicate coinbase from http://blockexplorer.com/block/00000000000a4d0a398161ffc163c503763b1f4360639393e0e4c8e300e0caec.

These coins aren't even recoverable with a magical ECC cracking and/or hash colliding machine, but at least as far as the wallet code is concerned they're the only ones.

[Rassah]

18,908.24000001
+      0.0211
18,908.26110001

2BTC lost to Bitcoin-Android
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1DWwhv9Kg3SE9GBX7Kk9A11nw3B3MUBe2t

18,908.26110001
+      2.00
18910.26110001

[Rassah]

I wonder if Bitomat will be adding their 17,000BTC to this list?

[spruce]

A friend today told me he just deleted his bitcoin wallet. That included 0.025 BTC I had sent him to play around with. He's not very computer-savvy.

[Sukrim]

I wonder if Bitomat will be adding their 17,000BTC to this list?

They didn't state any amount of bitcoins being lost --> 17000BTC is the price if you want to buy the page there

[SgtSpike]

Any recently lost forever coins?

Also, bitomat lost 17k BTC... is that confirmed for certain?  Are those addresses public so we can confirm they have not moved yet?

[SgtSpike]

Yeah, I know it's an old thread, but wanted to update it with the latest.

So, 2600+ confirmed coins lost by MtGox.

18910.26110001
+2600
21510.26110001

[cypherdoc]

i've never forgot this thread.  good to see it up again.

[SgtSpike]

Found this on the bitomat situation.  I'll go ahead and add those coins for now.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/j4t58/3rd_largest_bitcoin_exchange_has_lost_its/

21510.26110001
17000.00000000
38510.26110001

Only 20,961,490 coins left.  Better start buying!

[TravisE]

What about these?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67158.0

Anyone know how many such malformed transactions there are?

[SgtSpike]

What about these?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67158.0

Anyone know how many such malformed transactions there are?

I'd say that's legitimate as lost coins.  Not sure how you'd go about finding similar lost coins though.

38510.26110001
+     0.00224733
38510.26334734

[ThiagoCMC]

2.5BTC lost to Bitcoin-Android of a friend of mine... I sent to him and he lost due to software fail...

Following that rate, when all 21.000.000 will be lost?!

I mean, what is the actual "lost rate" of Bitcoins per day since its genesis?

[SgtSpike]

2.5BTC lost to Bitcoin-Android of a friend of mine... I sent to him and he lost due to software fail...

Following that rate, when all 21.000.000 will be lost?!

I mean, what is the actual "lost rate" of Bitcoins per day since its genesis?

Ok...

38510.26334734
+    2.50000000
38512.76334734

Bitcoin's been going for what, 3 years now?  But really only used heavily for 2.  So you can assume around 19k lost coins per year, so far...

Of course, there will never be "no more bitcoins".  Losses are more likely to be expressed as a percentage of remaining coins, which would never reach 0.  19k out of 7M coins is about 0.27%.  So a quarter of a percent of remaining coins per year.  Who knows how that might change if Bitcoin becomes mainstream.  On the one hand, more people touching coins = more lost coins.  On the other hand, more people touching coins = more value per coin = fewer coins per person being touched.  It might just even itself out.

[dooglus]

9000 +
50
____
9050 BTC

There, fixed it.

Actually he 'only' lost 8,999 BTC.

38512.76334734
-      1.00000000
38511.76334734

Edit: disregard this.  maged already made the adjustment

[dooglus]

What about these?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67158.0

Anyone know how many such malformed transactions there are?

I'd say that's legitimate as lost coins.  Not sure how you'd go about finding similar lost coins though.

38510.26110001
+     0.00224733
38510.26334734

There are 131 of these 'script' transactions so far, and they're still happening.  Here's a list:

Code:

============address==============  ===date====  ==amount==  ==total===
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166533  Feb 12 2012  0.00070359  0.00070359
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166569  Feb 13 2012  0.00360503  0.00430862
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166577  Feb 13 2012  0.00192493  0.00623355
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166607  Feb 13 2012  0.00128911  0.00752266
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166612  Feb 13 2012  0.00244426  0.00996692
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166615  Feb 13 2012  0.00053919  0.01050611
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166628  Feb 13 2012  0.00292673  0.01343284
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166653  Feb 13 2012  0.00023878  0.01367162
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166705  Feb 14 2012  0.00378656  0.01745818
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166726  Feb 14 2012  0.00541471  0.02287289
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166732  Feb 14 2012  0.00543571  0.02830860
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166779  Feb 14 2012  0.00565863  0.03396723
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166794  Feb 14 2012  0.00041597  0.03438320
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166830  Feb 14 2012  0.00514466  0.03952786
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166918  Feb 15 2012  0.00019389  0.03972175
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166922  Feb 15 2012  0.00075685  0.04047860
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166984  Feb 16 2012  0.00281299  0.04329159
http://blockexplorer.com/b/166985  Feb 16 2012  0.00407387  0.04736546
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167161  Feb 17 2012  0.00410972  0.05147518
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167198  Feb 17 2012  0.00415832  0.05563350
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167248  Feb 17 2012  0.00145139  0.05708489
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167271  Feb 18 2012  0.00225675  0.05934164
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167276  Feb 18 2012  0.00207869  0.06142033
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167346  Feb 18 2012  0.00257912  0.06399945
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167363  Feb 18 2012  0.00309957  0.06709902
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167440  Feb 19 2012  0.00007664  0.06717566
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167462  Feb 19 2012  0.00322002  0.07039568
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167481  Feb 19 2012  0.00128328  0.07167896
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167485  Feb 19 2012  0.00045587  0.07213483
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167525  Feb 19 2012  0.00549808  0.07763291
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167555  Feb 19 2012  0.00059496  0.07822787
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167585  Feb 20 2012  0.00399989  0.08222776
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167658  Feb 20 2012  0.00275106  0.08497882
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167667  Feb 20 2012  0.00118138  0.08616020
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167668  Feb 20 2012  0.00000906  0.08616926
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167722  Feb 20 2012  0.00470455  0.09087381
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167825  Feb 21 2012  0.00087694  0.09175075
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167850  Feb 21 2012  0.00427282  0.09602357
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167855  Feb 22 2012  0.00208888  0.09811245
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167883  Feb 22 2012  0.00415304  0.10226549
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167905  Feb 22 2012  0.00005565  0.10232114
http://blockexplorer.com/b/167977  Feb 22 2012  0.00594791  0.10826905
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168021  Feb 23 2012  0.00082734  0.10909639
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168031  Feb 23 2012  0.00431250  0.11340889
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168037  Feb 23 2012  0.00800210  0.12141099
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168070  Feb 23 2012  0.00250262  0.12391361
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168077  Feb 23 2012  0.00472285  0.12863646
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168185  Feb 24 2012  0.00286246  0.13149892
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168197  Feb 24 2012  0.00226009  0.13375901
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168265  Feb 24 2012  0.00057839  0.13433740
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168269  Feb 24 2012  0.00145200  0.13578940
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168279  Feb 24 2012  0.00583032  0.14161972
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168340  Feb 25 2012  0.00077170  0.14239142
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168375  Feb 25 2012  0.00255920  0.14495062
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168430  Feb 25 2012  0.00375652  0.14870714
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168508  Feb 26 2012  0.00051736  0.14922450
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168553  Feb 26 2012  0.00796309  0.15718759
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168710  Feb 27 2012  0.00057744  0.15776503
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168736  Feb 27 2012  0.00242172  0.16018675
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168770  Feb 27 2012  0.00399886  0.16418561
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168792  Feb 27 2012  0.00352397  0.16770958
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168829  Feb 28 2012  0.00532818  0.17303776
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168978  Feb 29 2012  0.00316282  0.17620058
http://blockexplorer.com/b/168984  Feb 29 2012  0.00138952  0.17759010
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169103  Feb 29 2012  0.00755494  0.18514504
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169128  Feb 29 2012  0.00516194  0.19030698
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169146  Mar 01 2012  0.00056122  0.19086820
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169208  Mar 01 2012  0.00050910  0.19137730
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169287  Mar 02 2012  0.00339499  0.19477229
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169319  Mar 02 2012  0.00620574  0.20097803
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169343  Mar 02 2012  0.00468414  0.20566217
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169367  Mar 02 2012  0.00116705  0.20682922
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169398  Mar 02 2012  0.00224733  0.20907655
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169482  Mar 03 2012  0.00464537  0.21372192
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169516  Mar 03 2012  0.00187881  0.21560073
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169573  Mar 04 2012  0.00457810  0.22017883
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169585  Mar 04 2012  0.00629569  0.22647452
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169731  Mar 05 2012  0.00253851  0.22901303
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169766  Mar 05 2012  0.00158564  0.23059867
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169789  Mar 05 2012  0.00441625  0.23501492
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169802  Mar 05 2012  0.00288406  0.23789898
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169821  Mar 06 2012  0.00100676  0.23890574
http://blockexplorer.com/b/169913  Mar 06 2012  0.00406460  0.24297034
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170029  Mar 07 2012  0.00018553  0.24315587
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170046  Mar 07 2012  0.00433286  0.24748873
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170087  Mar 07 2012  0.00291929  0.25040802
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170159  Mar 08 2012  0.00057222  0.25098024
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170186  Mar 08 2012  0.00032761  0.25130785
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170260  Mar 08 2012  0.00575009  0.25705794
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170354  Mar 09 2012  0.00264517  0.25970311
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170362  Mar 09 2012  0.00778668  0.26748979
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170415  Mar 09 2012  0.00150029  0.26899008
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170422  Mar 09 2012  0.00218183  0.27117191
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170436  Mar 10 2012  0.00590602  0.27707793
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170459  Mar 10 2012  0.00167513  0.27875306
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170617  Mar 11 2012  0.00347816  0.28223122
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170633  Mar 11 2012  0.00417667  0.28640789
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170728  Mar 11 2012  0.00422097  0.29062886
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170732  Mar 12 2012  0.00638133  0.29701019
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170740  Mar 12 2012  0.00358863  0.30059882
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170771  Mar 12 2012  0.00582657  0.30642539
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170775  Mar 12 2012  0.00388815  0.31031354
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170791  Mar 12 2012  0.00042056  0.31073410
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170976  Mar 13 2012  0.00025778  0.31099188
http://blockexplorer.com/b/170998  Mar 13 2012  0.00059668  0.31158856
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171003  Mar 13 2012  0.00392645  0.31551501
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171042  Mar 13 2012  0.00522476  0.32073977
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171098  Mar 14 2012  0.00184036  0.32258013
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171107  Mar 14 2012  0.00449177  0.32707190
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171147  Mar 14 2012  0.00492298  0.33199488
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171208  Mar 15 2012  0.00192560  0.33392048
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171265  Mar 15 2012  0.00005350  0.33397398
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171304  Mar 15 2012  0.00204740  0.33602138
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171308  Mar 15 2012  0.00570292  0.34172430
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171333  Mar 16 2012  0.00113558  0.34285988
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171373  Mar 16 2012  0.00006181  0.34292169
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171388  Mar 16 2012  0.00067667  0.34359836
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171456  Mar 16 2012  0.00015301  0.34375137
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171459  Mar 16 2012  0.00565542  0.34940679
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171518  Mar 17 2012  0.00125161  0.35065840
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171535  Mar 17 2012  0.00201801  0.35267641
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171544  Mar 17 2012  0.00111346  0.35378987
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171562  Mar 17 2012  0.00402783  0.35781770
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171613  Mar 17 2012  0.00480879  0.36262649
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171641  Mar 18 2012  0.00434410  0.36697059
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171737  Mar 18 2012  0.00451762  0.37148821
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171764  Mar 18 2012  0.00201367  0.37350188
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171830  Mar 19 2012  0.00506286  0.37856474
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171845  Mar 19 2012  0.00039682  0.37896156
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171852  Mar 19 2012  0.00081491  0.37977647
http://blockexplorer.com/b/171883  Mar 19 2012  0.00196584  0.38174231

So that's 0.38174231 lost in total, and you already counted 0.00224733, leaving 0.37949498 more to add:

38511.76334734
+    0.37949498
38512.14284232

[Matoking]

I lost a single bitcent because I lost the URL to an Instawallet I had.

38512.14284232
+ 0.01
38512.15284232

[dab]

I lost 4btc from hdd corruption and formatting without backing up.

38512.14284232
+ 4.00
38516.15284232

[dooglus]

9000 +
50
____
9050 BTC

There, fixed it.

Actually he 'only' lost 8,999 BTC.

38512.76334734
-      1.00000000
38511.76334734

Edit: disregard this.  maged already made the adjustment

I wasn't quick enough spotting my mistake, so I need to undo it here:

38516.15284232
+      1.0
38517.15284232

[bitplane]

I lost at least 0.2BTC back in December 2010

38517.15284232
+      0.2
38517.35284232

[MaxSan]

I sent 0.01BTC to my dad on his new mobile. some girl deleted the application. goddam smart phone users, who aint so smart.

[payb.tc]

I lost a single bitcent because I lost the URL to an Instawallet I had.

38512.14284232
+ 0.01
38512.15284232

this doesn't count as 'lost' with respect to this thread.

that bitcent would still be spendable by the owners of instawallet.

[dooglus]

Yeah, I know it's an old thread, but wanted to update it with the latest.

So, 2600+ confirmed coins lost by MtGox.

18910.26110001
+2600
21510.26110001

It was 2609.36304319 BTC that was lost; see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50206.msg598125#msg598125

38512.15284232
+ 9.36304319
38521.51588551

[dooglus]

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1DKMg2KmTyQmfiQxDfDsNKVx4PWYa7xga4 lists 1051 individual satoshis in 32 transactions that are unspendable.  They were 'spent' using http://etchablock.com/ which makes up vanity addresses without caring that their private keys aren't known.

2676720 more satoshis were spent by the same address as fees, but they aren't "lost".

The above page includes such gems as 11Bitta1ktvchristmasspecia1WNDvAa and 11MatthewLovesmandaXXXXXXXXabCJPY. 

38521.51588551
+ 0.00001051
38521.51589602

[01BTC10]

I lost my first coins like the noobs I am!

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1HAEA2h7it1w8U1sLgQYNS9eYLjTCR6Z9E

[dooglus]

I lost my first coins like the noobs I am!

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1HAEA2h7it1w8U1sLgQYNS9eYLjTCR6Z9E

So:

38521.51589602
+    5.661       
38527.17689602

[neo_rage]

38527.17689602
+    0.089 
38527.26589602

thank's god that's no more. I always make backups after the transaction has been approved.

[Raize]

I mined 100 BTC in late 2009 back when I thought this was a scam and/or waste of computational power and subsequently formatted the drive of the computer I mined it on sometime in early 2010: (I didn't even remember the wallet address)

38527.26589602
+ 100
38627.26589602

I went back to doing Folding@Home and other computational tasks. For what it is worth, I'm very sorry to have destroyed this 100 BTC. Not just for myself, but because I didn't believe in what would later become something I did believe in.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

SgtSpike, you've done such a fine job maintaining this thread, I thought it best if you were the one to start and maintain another one, one with much importance.

KNOWN bitcoins donated to non-profits (or something similar/catchy--"Re:" in front?)

You could start with these two below on your new thread, making sure to link the non-profit's donation page and BTC amount to its blockchain info, as shown below.

Group B Strep International (GBSI) ~ 130.05405 BTC

Internet Archive ~ 515.32217001 BTC

  130.05405
+515.32217001
  645.37622

As in this thread, users can also keep track of the running total, with you, along us, acting as moderators, double checking the reliability of all submissions.

~Bruno~

[SgtSpike]

SgtSpike, you've done such a fine job maintaining this thread, I thought it best if you were the one to start and maintain another one, one with much importance.

KNOWN bitcoins donated to non-profits (or something similar/catchy--"Re:" in front?)

You could start with these two below on your new thread, making sure to link the non-profit's donation page and BTC amount to its blockchain info, as shown below.

Group B Strep International (GBSI) ~ 130.05405 BTC

Internet Archive ~ 515.32217001 BTC

  130.05405
+515.32217001
  645.37622

As in this thread, users can also keep track of the running total, with you, along us, acting as moderators, double checking the reliability of all submissions.

~Bruno~

Ok, interesting idea, I might take you up on that. 

Most non-profits who accept Bitcoins have public Bitcoin addresses, so wouldn't tracking totals donated to them be as simple as looking up the current balance in a given address?

[finway]

I've lost 40 coins.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

SgtSpike, you've done such a fine job maintaining this thread, I thought it best if you were the one to start and maintain another one, one with much importance.

KNOWN bitcoins donated to non-profits (or something similar/catchy--"Re:" in front?)

You could start with these two below on your new thread, making sure to link the non-profit's donation page and BTC amount to its blockchain info, as shown below.

Group B Strep International (GBSI) ~ 130.05405 BTC

Internet Archive ~ 515.32217001 BTC

  130.05405
+515.32217001
  645.37622

As in this thread, users can also keep track of the running total, with you, along us, acting as moderators, double checking the reliability of all submissions.

~Bruno~

Ok, interesting idea, I might take you up on that. 

Most non-profits who accept Bitcoins have public Bitcoin addresses, so wouldn't tracking totals donated to them be as simple as looking up the current balance in a given address?

Exactly! One could view the grand total to date via blockchain. Every so often, users will check, on their own, if the total has changed, and if it has, they'll post the added coins to the running total.

~Bruno~

[istar]

38627.26589602
+ 42
38669.26589602

Lost 2 coins + the 40 that finway lost.

[TobyGoodwin]

38669.26589602

Sigh. Here's 0.07 (it was slightly more than that, but I don't remember the other digits) for you all to share among yourselves. 

So I was mining with p2pool on a spare machine, waiting for the coins to age a bit before transferring them to my main wallet. (Which is backed up, of course!) Unfortunately, one of my colleagues repartitioned the disk.  I've spent a while - considerably more than 30 pennyworth of my time! - trying to find the lost partition, but to no avail.

New total: 38669.33589602

Toby.

[bg002h]

Has anyone searched old forum posts for lost coins from old members who may not have visited in a long time?

[mb300sd]

I may or may not have lost ~1300 because of a lost encryption key... Heres to hoping the data recovery company can get my bitlocker key off a dead flash drive.

[opticbit]

2btc was on my phone, Put cyanogen mod 9 on, i Thought I backed up the wallet file, but I can't remember where I put it.

[arklan]

when i first got into bitcoin, i mined for a while on my nvidia geforce 260... got up to about 2.25 btc. backed up the wallet along the way of course, and password encrypted the rar file using part of the "ring script" aka, that phrase inscribed on the "one ring" from lord of the rings. after reinstalling windows, the encrypted copy was the only backup i had. go to retrive it and... wrong password? what? oh god! hours pass, trying every concievable capitaliziation and spelling variation i could think of, searching the forum for ways to recover the unecrypted wallet or such... to no avail, of course.

then a year later or so i tried it again just for the heck of it and opened the file on the first try, of course. loss SAVED!

so, no losses here! but still, very interestign thread. makes me cringe at the thought of what the total losses are worth at current spot price...

[Dansker]

Interesting thread, and the numbers in here needs to be taken into account when trying to guesstimate what " BTC will be worth if X happens.

[tacotime]

3btc to bitscalper

at the time it was only worth $6

not technically lost, but gone forever.

[misterbigg]

Actually, it might be possible to figure out the total number of lost Bitcoins using a mathematical approximation.

I believe it is safe to say that the probability of a wallet's private key being lost is inversely proportional to the balance. We can model the expected loss over time as a Poisson process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_process), using the known data on lost Bitcoins to minimize the error.

I'm no math expert however.

[unclemantis]

What about the early blocks that still have untouched 50btc in them and no other transactions?

[SgtSpike]

What about the early blocks that still have untouched 50btc in them and no other transactions?

If we don't know they are lost, they cannot be added to this list.

[cypherdoc]

What about the early blocks that still have untouched 50btc in them and no other transactions?

If we don't know they are lost, they cannot be added to this list.

have you kept up with the tally?

[unclemantis]

What about the early blocks that still have untouched 50btc in them and no other transactions?

If we don't know they are lost, they cannot be added to this list.

have you kept up with the tally?

If that was aimed at me, don't mind me, just trolling!

[softwareseller]

9000 +
50
____
9050 BTC

There, fixed it.

You lost 9K BTC??? WTF are you thinking?  You should've ordered the  10K pizza.

[caveden]

Not me, no. This guy: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

[softwareseller]

Not me, no. This guy: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

Wow just reading the thread. It's actually 8999 not 9k. He still had 1 BTC.. Wow, just wow

[dree12]

38669.33589602

Hello!

I noticed that this thread is lacking Stefan Thomas's great loss of 7000 BTC. With this included, the new total is:

45669.33589602

[SgtSpike]

38669.33589602

Hello!

I noticed that this thread is lacking Stefan Thomas's great loss of 7000 BTC. With this included, the new total is:

45669.33589602

Can you link to the details of said loss?  I'd like to have things as well-documented as possible.  Thanks!

[dree12]

Both the code and the idea of bitcoin may hav ebeen impregnable, but bitcoins themselves -- unique strings of numbers that constitute units of the currency -- are discrete pieces of information that have to be sorted somewhere. By default bitcoin kept users' currency in a digital "wallet" on their desktop, and when bitcoins were worth very little, easy to mine and possessed only by techies, that was sufficient. But once they became valuable, a PC felt inadequate. Some users protected bitcoins by creating multiple backups, encrypting and storing them on thumb drives, on forensically scrubbed virgin computers without internet connections, in the cloud, and on printouts stored in safe deposit boxes. But even some sophisticated early adopters had trouble keeping their bitcoins safe. Stefan Thomas had three copies of his wallet yet inadvertently managed to erase two of them and lose his password for the third. In a stroke, he lost about 7,000 bitcoins, at the time worth about $140,000. "I spent a week trying to recover it," he says. "It was pretty painful."

From: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/01/features/the-rise-and-fall-of-bitcoin?page=all

[BrannigansLaw]

I accodently sent 0.25 to an inactive address. No idea how I did it but I did.

[unclemantis]

You know. I was talking to a friend of mine and we came up with an agreement.

There is no such thing as LOST bitcoins. They are simply misplaced or UNSPENT.

So unless you have the private key to SPEND them then they stay where they are. This is a security measure of course too.

[Dalkore]

38669.33589602

Hello!

I noticed that this thread is lacking Stefan Thomas's great loss of 7000 BTC. With this included, the new total is:

45669.33589602

I'll come clean too, I got into this when CPU mining was the way (0.2 client).   I don't want to go into details be here is the damage:

27,000 BTC


New Total:  BTC72,669.33589602

[unclemantis]

38669.33589602

Hello!

I noticed that this thread is lacking Stefan Thomas's great loss of 7000 BTC. With this included, the new total is:

45669.33589602

I'll come clean too, I got into this when CPU mining was the way (0.2 client).   I don't want to go into details be here is the damage:

27,000 BTC


New Total:  BTC72,669.33589602

OMG I feel for you. Must suck knowing that you threw away at CEILING Half a million dollars

Here... You may use my vomit bucket. Just please don't jump off a building!

[Dalkore]

38669.33589602

Hello!

I noticed that this thread is lacking Stefan Thomas's great loss of 7000 BTC. With this included, the new total is:

45669.33589602

I'll come clean too, I got into this when CPU mining was the way (0.2 client).   I don't want to go into details be here is the damage:

27,000 BTC


New Total:  BTC72,669.33589602

OMG I feel for you. Must suck knowing that you threw away at CEILING Half a million dollars

Here... You may use my vomit bucket. Just please don't jump off a building!

Nah, I am good.  First thing I did was do a forensic data scan on the drive to look for fragments.  I only found 5BTC literally.   What it told me is that Bitcoin was getting serious and I told myself I am going to make a second go at it.    BTC were worth .002 USD at the time so I didn't pay much attention.   

[SgtSpike]

38669.33589602

Hello!

I noticed that this thread is lacking Stefan Thomas's great loss of 7000 BTC. With this included, the new total is:

45669.33589602

I'll come clean too, I got into this when CPU mining was the way (0.2 client).   I don't want to go into details be here is the damage:

27,000 BTC


New Total:  BTC72,669.33589602

OMG I feel for you. Must suck knowing that you threw away at CEILING Half a million dollars

Here... You may use my vomit bucket. Just please don't jump off a building!

Nah, I am good.  First thing I did was do a forensic data scan on the drive to look for fragments.  I only found 5BTC literally.   What it told me is that Bitcoin was getting serious and I told myself I am going to make a second go at it.    BTC were worth .002 USD at the time so I didn't pay much attention.   

I'll buy that drive from you... well, if you haven't used it since then. 

[unclemantis]

38669.33589602

Hello!

I noticed that this thread is lacking Stefan Thomas's great loss of 7000 BTC. With this included, the new total is:

45669.33589602

I'll come clean too, I got into this when CPU mining was the way (0.2 client).   I don't want to go into details be here is the damage:

27,000 BTC


New Total:  BTC72,669.33589602

OMG I feel for you. Must suck knowing that you threw away at CEILING Half a million dollars

Here... You may use my vomit bucket. Just please don't jump off a building!

Nah, I am good.  First thing I did was do a forensic data scan on the drive to look for fragments.  I only found 5BTC literally.   What it told me is that Bitcoin was getting serious and I told myself I am going to make a second go at it.    BTC were worth .002 USD at the time so I didn't pay much attention.   

I'll buy that drive from you... well, if you haven't used it since then. 

I'll place a bid on that drive too.

SgtSpike you bid first.

[jl2012]

Based on this thread and other sources, I have complied a list of all known loss: https://docs.google.com/a/ij.hk/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ahdy3Je_nYdOdFVocm4yTzhZOW1waWd6SFJIVHUwYUE#gid=0

Events are included if coins are recoverable only with blockchain hard-fork, burst-forcing of private key, or exploiting flaws in bitcoin protocol (including hash algorithms and public key encryption). The following events are excluded:

• Thefts which the coins are spendable by the thief
• Loss of password to a service, where the service provider holds the private key
• Sending coins to a wrong address, unless evidence shows that private key of the address is unknown to anyone
• Without basic information, e.g. "I lose coins but do not want to explain"

Events are classified into 5 major categories:

• Unverifiable claim: an user claimed he/she lost bitcoin without showing related transaction/address. The amount could be an estimation. The user may have recovered the coins without telling the forum.
• Suspicious claim: an unverifiable claim without a matching event on the blockchain.
• Verifiable claim: transaction id / address is known. If it is spent in the future, it will be removed from the list.
• Permanent loss: usually for output with an unspendable script. It is not recoverable without a hard fork.
• Address with unknown private key: the address is created without knowing the private key. It is recoverable only with brust-forcing or exploiting flaws in bitcoin protocol

Amounts are exact except for unverifiable claims.

Amount of lost coins:

• Total confirmed loss = permanent loss + unknown private key: 2,731.84195637
• Total unverifiable claimed loss: 59,465.76900000
• Total verifiable claimed loss: 9,006.66100000
• Total loss: 71,204.27195637
• Total suspicious claims: 7,208.00000000
• Total loss minus suspicious claims: 63,996.27195637

I am sure there are cases missing. Please help me to complete the list!

If you like this list, please give some tips to 1CiZPrEJdN4FJcqdLdgVLzT8tgCXxT5ion . Thank you!

[SgtSpike]

Nicely done jl2012!

[mb300sd]

You can also add the unspendable bitcoins in transactions such as these.

http://blockexplorer.com/tx/81f591582b436c5b129f347fe7e681afd6811417973c4a4f83b18e92a9d130fd
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/111291fcf8ab84803d42ec59cb4eaceadd661185242a1e8f4b7e49b79ecbe5f3
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/ddddf9f04b4c1d4e1185cacf5cf302f3d11dee5d74f71721d741fbb507062e9e
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/305fbc2ec7f7f2bc5a21d2dfb01a5fc52ab5d064a7278e2ecbab0d2a27b8c392
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/aa62bdd690de061a6fbbd88420f7a7aa574ba86da4fe82edc27e2263f8743988

Theres quite a few of them if you look through strange transactions.

[jl2012]

You can also add the unspendable bitcoins in transactions such as these.

http://blockexplorer.com/tx/81f591582b436c5b129f347fe7e681afd6811417973c4a4f83b18e92a9d130fd
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/111291fcf8ab84803d42ec59cb4eaceadd661185242a1e8f4b7e49b79ecbe5f3
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/ddddf9f04b4c1d4e1185cacf5cf302f3d11dee5d74f71721d741fbb507062e9e
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/305fbc2ec7f7f2bc5a21d2dfb01a5fc52ab5d064a7278e2ecbab0d2a27b8c392
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/aa62bdd690de061a6fbbd88420f7a7aa574ba86da4fe82edc27e2263f8743988

Theres quite a few of them if you look through strange transactions.

These are the well-known mtgox loss and already included.

[jerfelix]

You have a spectrum of losses here, ranging from definitely lost to possibly lost.  You are starting to cross into the territory where you can take some educated guesses at "possibly lost".

Not to totally derail this thread, but there was a thread last week that talked about the fact that the most popular amounts held in a Bitcoin Address are 1 satoshi and 50 BTC.  If I recall correctly, there were 2 Million BTC held in Bitcoin Addresses with 50 BTC.  Since 50 BTC almost certainly means that it was a mined coin with no transaction fees, then these must have been in the early days.

This would definitely be something I would have done... hear about Bitcoin, download the client with the built-in miner.  Run it for a few days, generate 50 Bitcoins, decide that was a worthless project and move on to the next idea.  I'm sure other people did that back in early 2009 too.  I would bet that the vast majority of 50 BTC accounts that are the result of CPU-based mining with no transaction fees are lost.

I would bet that 15-20% of coins are lost permanently.

[dserrano5]

That might be why the limit is 21 millions. Satoshi would expect 1 million coins to get lost, so the remaining coins in circulation would make a nice round number. Just saying.

[sublime5447]

I have 5 coins stuck on a hard drive. I cleaned out the computer with compressed air and it quit working. I was told that the drive is good just the motherboard was bad.

[knight22]

I have just lost 1 btc by sending it to a wrong instawallet address...   

[payb.tc]

I have just lost 1 btc by sending it to a wrong instawallet address...   

instawallet's owners have control of that wallet, so that coin is not lost.

sucks for you though.

[sublime5447]

I forgot but I also sent a coin to a wallet that cant be accessed. The customer sent a address that they couldnt get to. I lost the coin and they charged back. So I have 5 stuck on a hard drive and 1 that I believe cant be recovered.  

[SgtSpike]

I forgot but I also sent a coin to a wallet that cant be accessed. The customer sent a address that they couldnt get to. I lost the coin and they charged back. So I have 5 stuck on a hard drive and 1 that I believe cant be recovered.  

Well, the 5 on the hard drive can be recovered so we cannot add to the list.  The 1, however, can be added.  Use the format as designated in the beginning of this thread to add it...!

[jl2012]

I forgot but I also sent a coin to a wallet that cant be accessed. The customer sent a address that they couldnt get to. I lost the coin and they charged back. So I have 5 stuck on a hard drive and 1 that I believe cant be recovered.  

Well, the 5 on the hard drive can be recovered so we cannot add to the list.  The 1, however, can be added.  Use the format as designated in the beginning of this thread to add it...!

No, "The customer sent a address that they couldnt get to" does not mean no one could get to that address.

[payb.tc]

No, "The customer sent a address that they couldnt get to" does not mean no one could get to that address.

yeah that actually could be in exactly the same category as the above "instawallet user couldn't get to coins, but instawallet owners can".

[jl2012]

That might be why the limit is 21 millions. Satoshi would expect 1 million coins to get lost, so the remaining coins in circulation would make a nice round number. Just saying.

That's because on average we have 210384 blocks in every 4 years, and rounding up to 210000.

[SgtSpike]

No, "The customer sent a address that they couldnt get to" does not mean no one could get to that address.

yeah that actually could be in exactly the same category as the above "instawallet user couldn't get to coins, but instawallet owners can".

Ah, good point.  It could be someone else's legitimate address.  We'd need clarification from sublime on tha.

[Doctor Mushies]

Could it be possible to send coins to an unused address, so that someone gets a surprise when they generate a new address? hmm...

[SgtSpike]

Could it be possible to send coins to an unused address, so that someone gets a surprise when they generate a new address? hmm...

No.  It would take longer than the life of the universe to accidentally generate an address with coins already in it.

[payb.tc]

Could it be possible to send coins to an unused address, so that someone gets a surprise when they generate a new address? hmm...

Yes. But it may take longer than the life of the universe to accidentally generate an address with coins already in it.

[Piper67]

Well, you can add the 25 I sent to what I THOUGHT was my instawallet address about a year ago. There, I made you all a bit (albeit a tiny, little, almost insignificant bit) richer.

[jl2012]

Well, you can add the 25 I sent to what I THOUGHT was my instawallet address about a year ago. There, I made you all a bit (albeit a tiny, little, almost insignificant bit) richer.

You lost the coins, but the coins were not lost

[Piper67]

Well, you can add the 25 I sent to what I THOUGHT was my instawallet address about a year ago. There, I made you all a bit (albeit a tiny, little, almost insignificant bit) richer.

You lost the coins, but the coins were not lost

I agree, they're still there. But if instawallet works as advertised, they might as well not be. No one will ever be able to get to them... they're effectively gone.

In fact, they're not there, because there's no THEM. Bitcoin is an accounting system, not a series of defined monetary units. There's a record of a transaction in which I sent 25 BTC to an address... but damned if I know how to get them back.

[jl2012]

Well, you can add the 25 I sent to what I THOUGHT was my instawallet address about a year ago. There, I made you all a bit (albeit a tiny, little, almost insignificant bit) richer.

You lost the coins, but the coins were not lost

I agree, they're still there. But if instawallet works as advertised, they might as well not be. No one will ever be able to get to them... they're effectively gone.

In fact, they're not there, because there's no THEM. Bitcoin is an accounting system, not a series of defined monetary units. There's a record of a transaction in which I sent 25 BTC to an address... but damned if I know how to get them back.

Instawallet is a shared wallet. The operator holds all private keys

[dree12]

Well, you can add the 25 I sent to what I THOUGHT was my instawallet address about a year ago. There, I made you all a bit (albeit a tiny, little, almost insignificant bit) richer.

You lost the coins, but the coins were not lost

I agree, they're still there. But if instawallet works as advertised, they might as well not be. No one will ever be able to get to them... they're effectively gone.

In fact, they're not there, because there's no THEM. Bitcoin is an accounting system, not a series of defined monetary units. There's a record of a transaction in which I sent 25 BTC to an address... but damned if I know how to get them back.

Instawallet is a shared wallet. The operator holds all private keys

The operator does not know that the coins are lost, so treats them as any other coins—the operator will not spend the coins. So the coins are effectively lost.

[jl2012]

Well, you can add the 25 I sent to what I THOUGHT was my instawallet address about a year ago. There, I made you all a bit (albeit a tiny, little, almost insignificant bit) richer.

You lost the coins, but the coins were not lost

I agree, they're still there. But if instawallet works as advertised, they might as well not be. No one will ever be able to get to them... they're effectively gone.

In fact, they're not there, because there's no THEM. Bitcoin is an accounting system, not a series of defined monetary units. There's a record of a transaction in which I sent 25 BTC to an address... but damned if I know how to get them back.

Instawallet is a shared wallet. The operator holds all private keys

The operator does not know that the coins are lost, so treats them as any other coins—the operator will not spend the coins. So the coins are effectively lost.

Just like depositing cash to a bank, coins in instawallet are mixed so you can't say which particularly coins are lost. Also, instawallet may change their TOS and charge service fee in the future, or they may get hacked, and those "lost coins" will be circulated again.

[SgtSpike]

Well, you can add the 25 I sent to what I THOUGHT was my instawallet address about a year ago. There, I made you all a bit (albeit a tiny, little, almost insignificant bit) richer.

You lost the coins, but the coins were not lost

I agree, they're still there. But if instawallet works as advertised, they might as well not be. No one will ever be able to get to them... they're effectively gone.

In fact, they're not there, because there's no THEM. Bitcoin is an accounting system, not a series of defined monetary units. There's a record of a transaction in which I sent 25 BTC to an address... but damned if I know how to get them back.

Instawallet is a shared wallet. The operator holds all private keys

The operator does not know that the coins are lost, so treats them as any other coins—the operator will not spend the coins. So the coins are effectively lost.

For now, anyway.  The operator could choose to shut down his service, and give everyone 6 months to take their coins off his site.  He could claim the remainder as his.

Or, he could simply up and run away with everyone's funds.

These coins are not lost - they are still controlled by someone.  They should not be added to the list, since they could re-enter circulation at some point in the future.  This thread is only for coins that cannot re-enter circulation.

[Rassah]

He could also claim (rightfully) that instawallet is not a long-term wallet storage, and should not be used for such, and declare that any accounts that have not moved coins over the last two years will be considered "lost" and emptied within the next however many months. I would actually totally expect instawallet to do that, since it's in their best interest to keep their hot wallet as small (and thus as small of a target) as possible, and accumulating lost coins only increases their risks, and thus costs.

[lenny_]

I have lost:
3.14482421 BTC
31.22782779 BTC

Because of bug in MultiBit wallet 

[jl2012]

I have lost:
3.14482421 BTC
31.22782779 BTC

Because of bug in MultiBit wallet 

Do you lose the private keys to the addresses?

[lenny_]

I have lost:
3.14482421 BTC
31.22782779 BTC

Because of bug in MultiBit wallet 

Do you lose the private keys to the addresses?

Yes. My bitcoins are still here:
https://blockchain.info/address/15ZMCFvj6LBnNPufa97LEo6544XScqETP6
https://blockchain.info/address/1BdE3uE4xLqWHfrjuPWmAywshfBX8v7xA2

But my MultiBit wallet lost keys for these addresses. I made several copies of my wallet, but private keys were wrong from the beginning.

[foo]

+150

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=153514.msg1629650#msg1629650

[RoxxR]

I have lost:
3.14482421 BTC
31.22782779 BTC

Because of bug in MultiBit wallet 

Do you lose the private keys to the addresses?

Yes. My bitcoins are still here:
https://blockchain.info/address/15ZMCFvj6LBnNPufa97LEo6544XScqETP6
https://blockchain.info/address/1BdE3uE4xLqWHfrjuPWmAywshfBX8v7xA2

But my MultiBit wallet lost keys for these addresses. I made several copies of my wallet, but private keys were wrong from the beginning.

This sucks hard. Have you contacted the developer? Has the bug been fixed?

[lenny_]

I have lost:
3.14482421 BTC
31.22782779 BTC

Because of bug in MultiBit wallet 

Do you lose the private keys to the addresses?

Yes. My bitcoins are still here:
https://blockchain.info/address/15ZMCFvj6LBnNPufa97LEo6544XScqETP6
https://blockchain.info/address/1BdE3uE4xLqWHfrjuPWmAywshfBX8v7xA2

But my MultiBit wallet lost keys for these addresses. I made several copies of my wallet, but private keys were wrong from the beginning.

This sucks hard. Have you contacted the developer? Has the bug been fixed?

Yes that's sucks really hard. I am not using Multibit anymore, it's too risky. Of course I contacted Jim (developer) and he made all effort to recover my Bitcoins but without success. Bug has not been identified so it's still in the wild. If you using Multibit, please be careful, always add all your private keys to different wallet and compare addresses after.

[deeplink]

Bug has not been identified so it's still in the wild.

What? That sounds very disturbing. There is no mention of a critical issue that could destroy all your coins on the Multibit website. Since when has this issue been known and what steps have been taken by the developers?

[lenny_]

I discovered this bug in December 2012 but I didn't realize back then that my Bitcoins addresses are gone forever. I was discussing problems with sending Bitcoins from my wallet with Multibit main developer, jim618. But we both wasn't aware how serious this problem is, and my reported issue has been put away to his queue.
In February 2013 I checked again all my private keys and all adresses and realized that two private keys not match my Bitcoin addresses. Keys were for different address, but wallet still thought that they match and kept trying to do my transactions using wrong private keys, which was of course unsuccessful. Then I contacted Jim again, I sent him my wallet with some backups from past, but all of them contained wrong private keys and recovery failed completely.
This is a really serious bug. Everytime you create new receiving address you should check it triple times on different wallets like Satoshi Client of Blockchain that private key match Bitcoins address - otherwise any payment sent to these addresses will be gone forever.

[dree12]

Could it be possible to send coins to an unused address, so that someone gets a surprise when they generate a new address? hmm...

No.  It would take longer than the life of the universe to accidentally generate an address with coins already in it.

This is also assuming that RIPEMD is reversible.

[dooglus]

Do we include this?

My developer friend was paid 500 bit coin for a $200 project by some Russians a few years ago. He took then off the exchange and forgot about them. A year ago, he gave his mac to his brother. Because of the bitcoin craze of the past month, he checked his old computer. It has been completely reformatted and replaced with Windows. $45,000 gone, just like that.

[SgtSpike]

Do we include this?

My developer friend was paid 500 bit coin for a $200 project by some Russians a few years ago. He took then off the exchange and forgot about them. A year ago, he gave his mac to his brother. Because of the bitcoin craze of the past month, he checked his old computer. It has been completely reformatted and replaced with Windows. $45,000 gone, just like that.

May as well...

If I was some of these people who lost coins, I'd be looking into some serious forensic data recovery at this point.  Or at least selling the drives to someone who has the capital to risk in attempting it.  $45k is no laughing matter...

[ltc_foundry]

I lost a wallet with 88 btc in 2011.

[conspirosphere.tk]

I sent a total of 25 BTC to an address that I was convinced to own in one of my wallets to keep them safe.
Now I realized that that address is in none of my wallets  

edit: I found that wallet again in an old redundant backup! whew!

[TheUntitled]

I think I lost 0.1 a while ago.

What happened is my Bitcoin-Qt client completely died on me, and wouldn't open. I had 1.1 Bitcoins in my wallet at the time. In the end I transferred it to an online wallet using the wallet.dat file but only managed to recover the bitcoin, and not the .1. Guess it's lost forever now.

So yeah, +0.1

[whiskers75]

+1.3 - Blockchain wallet hacked

[SgtSpike]

+1.3 - Blockchain wallet hacked

That's not lost Bitcoins - they are still accessible by someone.

[RTQ1154]

I lost 78 bitcoins when I encrypted my wallet and mistyped my password.

[ShroomsKit]

I lost 78 bitcoins when I encrypted my wallet and mistyped my password.

Well, that can't be too hard to re-create, no?

[dentldir]

I lost 78 bitcoins when I encrypted my wallet and mistyped my password.

If you remember anything about the format of the password, then there are a number of scripts in these forums to help you figure out what it was.  Specifically, the Development and Technical Discussion board.  PM me if you need help.

[RTQ1154]

This was over a year ago when I was first getting into BTC, I no longer have that computer . I wish I had known about this forum then.

[infested999]

This was over a year ago when I was first getting into BTC, I no longer have that computer . I wish I had known about this forum then.

One of the biggest fails in a while...

[wachtwoord]

This was over a year ago when I was first getting into BTC, I no longer have that computer . I wish I had known about this forum then.

Contact buyer and say you lost sensitive data on the hard drive which you'd like to attempt to recover. If the new owner is using the computer offer to buy a new HD and copy all the data over. Also offer him some money for the convenience.

[Otoh]

I sent a total of 4.0624 BTC to the genesis block that was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto & which can't be spent due to a quirk in the way that the genesis block is expressed in the code (this may have been intentional).

1G5apmPvo2iTtmkNWAHTCET7Y842Ufijs8 ~ I sent 0.0624 BTC on 2012 07 15

1ASTRv7aBipHxXH2iF5XfchNBdWWYbjbSo ~ I sent 4 BTC on 2013 01 27

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

The total all together that's been sent there (including the 50 BTC mined coins reward) & hence it's balance is 63.02319969 BTC atm (last TX was for 1 BTC on 2013 05 26)

I'll let someone who's been following this thread work out what's best to add to the running total, I didn't see the genesis block mentioned before here but expect that I may have missed it in my quick look through the posts.

[wachtwoord]

Why did you do that? Throwing a penny in a wishing well is cheaper

[Otoh]

Why did you do that? Throwing a penny in a wishing well is cheaper

Yes, indeed: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=157401.msg1674850#msg1674850 - I like to think of it as the ultimate Bitcoin wishing well, rather than the balls up that I made after too many drinks.

The first 0.0624 was for fun or something, a symbolic recognition of Satoshi's work, but the second 4 BTC was doing a TX when tipsy & the blockchain.info wallet had remembered that as a previous address I'd sent to & helpfully suggested it when I made a typo or mis-clicked or something, really scary as it could have been much more but all totally my fault, I weeded out my address book after that.

Edit: Maybe I had it labeled as Satoshi's genesis address & it was in my brief time of playing with SatoshiDICE which I saved a few entry addresses for & confused it with one of those maybe, not sure - those brain cells like the coins are gone.

[wachtwoord]

Why did you do that? Throwing a penny in a wishing well is cheaper

Yes, indeed: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=157401.msg1674850#msg1674850 - I like to think of it as the ultimate Bitcoin wishing well, rather than the balls up that I made after too many drinks.

The first 0.0624 was for fun or something, a symbolic recognition of Satoshi's work, but the second 4 BTC was doing a TX when tipsy & the blockchain.info wallet had remembered that as a previous address I'd sent to & helpfully suggested it when I made a typo or mis-clicked or something, really scary as it could have been much more but all totally my fault, I weeded out my address book after that.

Haha, I guess you wished you hadn't done that, but it didn't come true huh?

Oh and sorry that made me laugh, I feel sorry you lost 4 BTC. Tough luck dude.

[Otoh]

Lol, hehe, that's OK I made a wish anyway, a different one

can't say if it's come true as yet because meant to keep those things secret

[kjj]

I sent a total of 4.0624 BTC to the genesis block that was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto & which can't be spent due to a quirk in the way that the genesis block is expressed in the code (this may have been intentional).

1G5apmPvo2iTtmkNWAHTCET7Y842Ufijs8 ~ I sent 0.0624 BTC on 2012 07 15

1ASTRv7aBipHxXH2iF5XfchNBdWWYbjbSo ~ I sent 4 BTC on 2013 01 27

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

The total all together that's been sent there (including the 50 BTC mined coins reward) & hence it's balance is 63.02319969 BTC atm (last TX was for 1 BTC on 2013 05 26)

I'll let someone who's been following this thread work out what's best to add to the running total, I didn't see the genesis block mentioned before here but expect that I may have missed it in my quick look through the posts.

Only the genesis transaction itself is unspendable.  Any other transactions redeemable by the same key will work fine.

[Otoh]

Ah interesting, I hadn't realized that, so if Satoshi has the private key to that address still, which I hope, then it's like a gift to him, better still!

[wachtwoord]

Ah interesting, I hadn't realized that, so if Satoshi has the private key to that address still, which I hope, then it's like a gift to him, better still!

Satoshi is standing behind his computer cheering. YES! Now I have 1,000,004 BTC ! W00t!

[Otoh]

yep & he decides to send a few of those to all the kind ppl who sent him tips

[wachtwoord]

yep & he decides to send a few of those to all the kind ppl who sent him tips

Well at least you're a nice generous drunk (better than the kind of people that get aggressive)

[Robin]

I got 0.05BTC from the first public faucet in 2011, and then deleted my wallet by lack of interest.

+0.05

[asc366]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=349082

7500 BTC gone.

[solex]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=349082

7500 BTC gone.

Possibly. Assume Bitcoin gets to $3000. Would they leave $22 million unsearched for?
Fence off the whole area, shift by hand the top 2 meters of rubbish (portable conveyor to pile it aside?) The disk could be found and the coins recovered.

[BitcoinBug]

Is landfill owned by a private company? When bitcoin rises high enough, somebody can buy the whole company for a fraction of 7500 BTC

[atlosas]

+0.3

[bryant.coleman]

I had around 0.01 BTC in 8 instawallets. Lost them when Instawallet went offline. At that time, I think the exchange rate was somewhere around $20. So made no effort to recover them. And it is not possible to recover them now.

[dserrano5]

I had around 0.01 BTC in 8 instawallets. Lost them when Instawallet went offline. At that time, I think the exchange rate was somewhere around $20. So made no effort to recover them. And it is not possible to recover them now.

That's not lost bitcoins, someone has access to them.

[Anillos2]

https://blockchain.info/address/1C6YCVUxhsvYbrcGN3h5xvar7JKhM5BizJ

It's a Instawallet address, I don't know if someone have the private key.

[bryant.coleman]

Check this wallet:

https://blockchain.info/address/198aMn6ZYAczwrE5NvNTUMyJ5qkfy4g3Hi

This one contains 8,000 BTCs and is not active ever since 2009 April.

I think someone started mining Bitcoins in February 2009, but either lost interest in BTCs or lost the password two months later.

[wachtwoord]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=349082

7500 BTC gone.

Possibly. Assume Bitcoin gets to $3000. Would they leave $22 million unsearched for?
Fence off the whole area, shift by hand the top 2 meters of rubbish (portable conveyor to pile it aside?) The disk could be found and the coins recovered.

Imagine finding the drive after investing so much time and resources and it being corrupted

[sssubito]

I enjoyed reading this thread. It's interesting and a bit scary how not only computer noobs loose substantial amounts of Bitcoins. But it's only really scary because of current value of Bitcoins...

Nevertheless: theft, loss or corruption of the wallet is an apparent problem which Bitcoin has to deal with in a better way. Especially when Bitcoin is growing and is becoming more and more common, which I expect everyone who likes it is looking for.

An immediate idea I had is some kind of possibility to save a distributed encrypted version of your wallet in some kind of Bitcoin network cloud. Extend the Bitcoin protocol in a suitable way so that nodes can provide some amount of cloud storage. A wallet that goes into this distributed cloud storage is spread to a certain number of nodes and the Bitcoin network protocol has to take care that there are always enough "copies" available, so that restauration of a particular wallet is always possible. Only securely encrypted wallets are distributed to this Bitcoin wallet cloud storage. The wallet's owner only has to take care that he or she doesn't forget the encryption key/passphrase/whatever. The Bitcoin client should provide necessary assistance for this, like printout of keys or QR codes.

I have not elaborated this idea any more, but I'm confident it could make wallet.dat wipes, harddisk failures/sudden deaths much less of a threat to your beloved Bitcoins. It's a pity and shame to permanently make them unspendable...

[SgtSpike]

I enjoyed reading this thread. It's interesting and a bit scary how not only computer noobs loose substantial amounts of Bitcoins. But it's only really scary because of current value of Bitcoins...

Nevertheless: theft, loss or corruption of the wallet is an apparent problem which Bitcoin has to deal with in a better way. Especially when Bitcoin is growing and is becoming more and more common, which I expect everyone who likes it is looking for.

An immediate idea I had is some kind of possibility to save a distributed encrypted version of your wallet in some kind of Bitcoin network cloud. Extend the Bitcoin protocol in a suitable way so that nodes can provide some amount of cloud storage. A wallet that goes into this distributed cloud storage is spread to a certain number of nodes and the Bitcoin network protocol has to take care that there are always enough "copies" available, so that restauration of a particular wallet is always possible. Only securely encrypted wallets are distributed to this Bitcoin wallet cloud storage. The wallet's owner only has to take care that he or she doesn't forget the encryption key/passphrase/whatever. The Bitcoin client should provide necessary assistance for this, like printout of keys or QR codes.

I have not elaborated this idea any more, but I'm confident it could make wallet.dat wipes, harddisk failures/sudden deaths much less of a threat to your beloved Bitcoins. It's a pity and shame to permanently make them unspendable...

I think a torrent project along these lines could work well.  Have a website where a user can upload an ENCRYPTED wallet file in any format (i.e., a user could encrypt it multiple times with multiple methods if they wanted), and the website would publish monthly torrents with a collection of all wallets uploaded to date.  As long as at least a handful of people download and seed the collection, people would have a permanent distributed backup of their Bitcoin wallet.

Of course, the downside is, once the encryption method that is used is broken or bruteforceable, people would have to abandon use of those particular Bitcoin addresses.

[sssubito]

I won't be happy with a solution based on some other and independent torrent client. What should bind those torrent clients to maintain the storage, except for Bitcoin idealism?

My full Bitcoin-qt client has to deal with the whoppy blockchain worth more than a dozen GB of storage (actually this sucks a bit). I wouldn't care if it asked me to use another 100 or 200 MB of storage space for the distributed wallet cloud storage. This could save quite a bunch of wallets.

The majority of Bitcoin addicts needs some kind of Bitcoin client, thus he's connected to the Bitcoin network, connected to the fictitious distributed wallet cloud storage which every full client would support. Lots of wallets saved, no bits and bytes were harmed... 

[Rassah]

The idea of storing wallets in some sort of a distributed online fashion, where all you (or anyone else) need to remember is a password to access those coins, is really no different from just keeping your coins in a brainwallet with the private key derived from that password. The proble is that if anyone else guesses that password, they will have access to all your money as well.

[dowsey14]

https://blockchain.info/address/198aMn6ZYAczwrE5NvNTUMyJ5qkfy4g3Hi

This one contains 8,000 BTCs and is not active ever since 2009 April.

Imagine...just imagine finding a wallet file somewhere that points to that address and has the coins intact?

Just think of all the potential suicides that would have resulted from these now catastrophic losses. Wow

The poor guys who lost 7000+ and 27000 bitcoins...I wonder what they would be feeling right now if they haven't already killed themselves?

If it were me, I'd still be around. I'm a tough guy. I've been through a LOT of hard shit - parents divorced when I was 9, I was sexually assaulted that same year, lost my mother to suicide 3 years later, endured years of school bullying, lost half of my sexual function from a bike riding accident, and when I was 23 my girlfriend who I was planning to marry had an abortion because her mother didn't want her to have the baby out of wedlock.

So, at the end of the day - it's only money. If I had $8M or even $30M today I doubt I would ever recover the emotional losses that I have incurred. Remember, Kurt Cobain had millions and guess what he did in spite of his immense material wealth? He blew his brains out...

But damned if there wouldn't be some guys who would decide to enter the eternal void due to insurmountable grief. Ouch. What did I say? Ouch! Let me say that or more time...OUCH!!!!!!!

[Imahara]

Have you guys included Countrparty?

They bootstrapped their system by sending bitcoin to an unrecoverable address, some 2000 bitcoin in total:
These bitcoins are lost forever because the chance of making up an address like that and then finding the private key for it is pretty much 0.

https://blockchain.info/address/1CounterpartyXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXUWLpVr

Consider it a gift to the bitcoin community. Unless of course their system works and starts gaining crypto purchasing power at the expense of Bitcoin.

[davidpbrown]

Would it not be possible to take a sum of stale coins - for example all those not moved since end 2010 and then over time learn what fraction of those came alive later. Doing that over a period might suggest what is lost and what fraction is normally forced back into the open after such a long time.

[anonuser777]

I got 0.05BTC from the first public faucet in 2011, and then deleted my wallet by lack of interest.

+0.05

I did the same. It seemed like there was nothing you could do with bitcoins back then.

[SgtSpike]

Would it not be possible to take a sum of stale coins - for example all those not moved since end 2010 and then over time learn what fraction of those came alive later. Doing that over a period might suggest what is lost and what fraction is normally forced back into the open after such a long time.

It's a nice idea in theory, but would ruin the long-term storage possibilities of Bitcoin.  People want to print out (or otherwise record) a paper wallet and know that it will be good 1 year, 10 years, and 100 years from now.

[davidpbrown]

It's a nice idea in theory, but would ruin the long-term storage possibilities of Bitcoin.  People want to print out (or otherwise record) a paper wallet and know that it will be good 1 year, 10 years, and 100 years from now.

I'm not suggesting a change!.. I'm suggesting there is no exact measure but alluding to that human's on average behave in a stable manner, so the fraction tempted or finding themselves in long-term store relative to coins that are lost, might be a relatively stable fraction.. bit like a half-life; you might be able to determine what is cold and what is just dormant from the half-life of those that come alive after a time.

[SgtSpike]

It's a nice idea in theory, but would ruin the long-term storage possibilities of Bitcoin.  People want to print out (or otherwise record) a paper wallet and know that it will be good 1 year, 10 years, and 100 years from now.

I'm not suggesting a change!.. I'm suggesting there is no exact measure but alluding to that human's on average behave in a stable manner, so the fraction tempted or finding themselves in long-term store relative to coins that are lost, might be a relatively stable fraction.. bit like a half-life; you might be able to determine what is cold and what is just dormant from the half-life of those that come alive after a time.

Sorry - I am so used to reading that particular suggestion that I automatically jumped to the same conclusion reading yours!

Yes, that would be an interesting analysis as well.  It is most certainly doable.

[dowsey14]

Yes, that would be an interesting analysis as well.  It is most certainly doable.

While it's doable, it's also very dangerous to those holding long-term bitcoin savings. What happens, for example, if I print out a bitcoin wallet, keep the private keys and public keys intact on a piece of paper, archive it in a safe, print multiple copies in different locations, in addition to keeping a dozen copies of a wallet file, and then 10 years later I want to redeem my bitcoin because it is worth millions of dollars. I load up a wallet so I can transfer them to an exchange...BUT the coins are gone. The blockchain had since been "audited and edited" and my bitcoin addresses, since they hadn't moved in 10 years, have been removed and the bitcoin re-minted to the miners.

Ouch, that would be a very painful surprise.

I think it's much better to just keep a log of all the known losses that are confirmed as absolutely unrecoverable, and then re-mint those bitcoins to the miners after 2 years since the loss, to avoid them being unspendable.

But one point to remember is that lost bitcoin makes bitcoin even more valuable. If there are 1,000,000 bitcoins that are unspendable and out of circulation because of data losses, lost paper wallets, lost digital wallets, sent to non-functional address, etc, then the real number of available bitcoin will be probably less than 20,000,000. So, that would raise the price due to the greater scarcity.

[SgtSpike]

Yes, that would be an interesting analysis as well.  It is most certainly doable.

While it's doable, it's also very dangerous to those holding long-term bitcoin savings. What happens, for example, if I print out a bitcoin wallet, keep the private keys and public keys intact on a piece of paper, archive it in a safe, print multiple copies in different locations, in addition to keeping a dozen copies of a wallet file, and then 10 years later I want to redeem my bitcoin because it is worth millions of dollars. I load up a wallet so I can transfer them to an exchange...BUT the coins are gone. The blockchain had since been "audited and edited" and my bitcoin addresses, since they hadn't moved in 10 years, have been removed and the bitcoin re-minted to the miners.

Ouch, that would be a very painful surprise.

I think it's much better to just keep a log of all the known losses that are confirmed as absolutely unrecoverable, and then re-mint those bitcoins to the miners after 2 years since the loss, to avoid them being unspendable.

But one point to remember is that lost bitcoin makes bitcoin even more valuable. If there are 1,000,000 bitcoins that are unspendable and out of circulation because of data losses, lost paper wallets, lost digital wallets, sent to non-functional address, etc, then the real number of available bitcoin will be probably less than 20,000,000. So, that would raise the price due to the greater scarcity.

You also misread what he was suggesting.

[BitTheCoin]

Let's say that bitcoin becomes mainstream like we all hope it will, and many years from now a large portion of bitcoins have been lost due to lost computers or destroyed servers. If there are only 5 or 10 Million bitcoin that still exist is there any way there could be more bitcoin produced, or is it absolutely built into the bitcoin architecture that the 21 Million number cannot be tampered with? Would it simply be easier just to make due with the bitcoin still left in circulation and let the market determine the new value of a bitcoin?

[OceanWhispers]

Not sure if this is still ongoing. I have lost 55 BTC that will never again be part of someones wealth.

[Chris_Sabian]

Yes, that would be an interesting analysis as well.  It is most certainly doable.

While it's doable, it's also very dangerous to those holding long-term bitcoin savings. What happens, for example, if I print out a bitcoin wallet, keep the private keys and public keys intact on a piece of paper, archive it in a safe, print multiple copies in different locations, in addition to keeping a dozen copies of a wallet file, and then 10 years later I want to redeem my bitcoin because it is worth millions of dollars. I load up a wallet so I can transfer them to an exchange...BUT the coins are gone. The blockchain had since been "audited and edited" and my bitcoin addresses, since they hadn't moved in 10 years, have been removed and the bitcoin re-minted to the miners.

Ouch, that would be a very painful surprise.

I think it's much better to just keep a log of all the known losses that are confirmed as absolutely unrecoverable, and then re-mint those bitcoins to the miners after 2 years since the loss, to avoid them being unspendable.

But one point to remember is that lost bitcoin makes bitcoin even more valuable. If there are 1,000,000 bitcoins that are unspendable and out of circulation because of data losses, lost paper wallets, lost digital wallets, sent to non-functional address, etc, then the real number of available bitcoin will be probably less than 20,000,000. So, that would raise the price due to the greater scarcity.

Satoshi addressed this on June 21, 2010, 12:48:26 PM by saying:

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

[davidpbrown]

I mean,
what is the actual lost rate of Bitcoins per day since its genesis

As above, if you want to carve an elephant, first remove everything that is not an elephant.
Know what is recoverable by watching over time.

[lolipop]

0.67 i delete my address some times ago and i forget about that but still using that adress .

[Chris_Sabian]

I mean,
what is the actual lost rate of Bitcoins per day since its genesis

Also, all of the coins from and in the genesis block wallet cannot be spent due to a quirk in the code.

[BitCoinsLOL]

 I wonder how many have been lost in faucets by people who give up trying to reach pay out #.

[sssubito]

Not sure if this is still ongoing. I have lost 55 BTC that will never again be part of someones wealth.

Are you sure your "lost" 55 BTC are truely lost in the terms of the OP? I'm asking because your signature speaks of lost coins due to a compromised mining pool. Have your coins been stolen or has someone lost control of your coins because the associated private key(s) are gone forever and there is definitely no way to recover them?

It's important to remember that Bitcoins are never truely lost or destroyed or deleted in a technical sense. All you loose is the control to spend them should you ever loose the last copy of the private key of your various bitcoin addresses that hold some coins. Every minted Bitcoins lives happily in the blockchain. The question is: who has the private key necessary to spend them?

Also, all of the coins from and in the genesis block wallet cannot be spent due to a quirk in the code.

Couldn't this be corrected if necessary? I guess, Satoshi doesn't care much about those first coins...

[SgtSpike]

I wonder how many have been lost in faucets by people who give up trying to reach pay out #.

None.

[Baitty]

I wonder how many have been lost in faucets by people who give up trying to reach pay out #.

None.

None? a bet a lot of people have had faucet payouts to their address and have forgotten about them.

[DanielVG]

I wonder how many have been lost in faucets by people who give up trying to reach pay out #.

None.

None? a bet a lot of people have had faucet payouts to their address and have forgotten about them.

The coins are still on the server, if they are not encrypted to the account the owner of the server can recover them.

[Baitty]

I wonder how many have been lost in faucets by people who give up trying to reach pay out #.

None.

None? a bet a lot of people have had faucet payouts to their address and have forgotten about them.

The coins are still on the server, if they are not encrypted to the account the owner of the server can recover them.

Some websites send directly to wallet and therefore no one can recover them that's what I'm talking about I bet a few Bitcoin has been lost this way.

[SgtSpike]

I wonder how many have been lost in faucets by people who give up trying to reach pay out #.

None.

None? a bet a lot of people have had faucet payouts to their address and have forgotten about them.

The coins are still on the server, if they are not encrypted to the account the owner of the server can recover them.

Some websites send directly to wallet and therefore no one can recover them that's what I'm talking about I bet a few Bitcoin has been lost this way.

If people gave up waiting to reach payout, then no coins have been sent anywhere.

[dowsey14]

I just clicked back through the chain until I saw a 9000 -> 8999 + 1 transaction around the right date.

But he could have bought a few more, because at that time they were pretty cheap. Still, a pretty nasty loss at the time. That was in 2010, if my memory of this thread serves me correctly.
In 2010 bitcoins were trading for cents. For about $100, maybe $200 at most, he could have bought another 10,000 BTC.

But if it were today, that would be just so unbelievably heartbreaking.

Wish I'd known about bitcoin back in 2010, I'd have bought about 50,000-100,000 quite easily, for around $2000. Or...even better...in 2009 I would have been solo mining with Satoshi et al, and pulling in 1000s and 1000s of bitcoins without any trouble since it was just so easy to mine them back then. I spoke to one kid in America who pulled in about 6000 BTC in about 2-3 weeks back in 1st quarter 2009.

[Musent]

0.000035

[E.exchanger]

i lost 0.6 i was silly actually to pay that upfront but that's like months ago so iam over it now

[Otoh]

i lost 0.6 i was silly actually to pay that upfront but that's like months ago so iam over it now

This thread is about permanently lost bitcoins, ie where the private key has been irrevocably lost & not any particular personal losses where the coins just went to someone else.

[rohnearner]

i lost 0.6 i was silly actually to pay that upfront but that's like months ago so iam over it now

firstly i think getting scammed doesn't mean bitcoin is lost. yeah you obviously lost it but its not lost its in someone Else's wallet, so this doesn't belong to this thread . and  second thing i'll like to mention is not many members following the format to post there lost coins ... as OP mentioned one have to add his lost coins to the previous number of lost coin.. but i don't see many following that format.

[Squall_Titus]

I had 406.5 BTC.
Man i was so stupid to ever get involved with bitcoins.
I lost real 40000€.

[Squall_Titus]

At last the Support is still online.
https://mtgox.zendesk.com/home
But there will be no person sitting on the other site of the line.

[Squall_Titus]

there is a new statement on the website https://www.mtgox.com

[rohnearner]

I had 406.5 BTC.
Man i was so stupid to ever get involved with bitcoins.
I lost real 40000€.

you was not stupid when you decided to indulge in btc but you trusted a service which betrayed you..! you should have took safety of your btc lil more seriously , but don't be shattered there is still hope..!

[MakeBelieve]

i lost 0.6 i was silly actually to pay that upfront but that's like months ago so iam over it now

That's not losing Bitcoin into existence thats losing it to another person I'm sorry for your loss but we are adding up the amount that has been lost and can't be returned or found again (basically can't be accessed by any one no more)

[Otoh]

It will be interesting to see if the 200k BTC of the Gox stash (or likely more) in apparent cold storage, but which they seem unable to access atm have actually been lost forever or just frozen for the time being, they can't have been stolen via 'leaky' connected hot wallets or seized by the gov or anything as they haven't moved since Gox signed tx with them back in 2011 to prove solvency then.

[arklan]

It will be interesting to see if the 200k BTC of the Gox stash (or likely more) in apparent cold storage, but which they seem unable to access atm have actually been lost forever or just frozen for the time being, they can't have been stolen via 'leaky' connected hot wallets or seized by the gov or anything as they haven't moved since Gox signed tx with them back in 2011 to prove solvency then.

These are the most interesting coins to watch right now, for me.

[James-Cryptonomics]

TBH I can't be assed to go through 12 pages to see if this has been mentioned - but a guy threw away a hard-drive with 9500 bitcoins on it. Technically there is a small chance these coins could be recovered - but I am doubtful. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/27/hard-drive-bitcoin-landfill-site

[waldox]

Brock Pierce says he lost about 50,000 bitcoins
here is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQhCnf-W6Sg&feature=share

[kjj]

Just a reminder, this is the thread for adding up the KNOWN lost bitcoins.

[dowsey14]

Brock Pierce says he lost about 50,000 bitcoins
here is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQhCnf-W6Sg&feature=share

50,000? Fuuuuuuuuuck!

Now that is a LOT.

[xxnewbiecoinerxx]

30 per cent of total

[bitm3]

Nothing is safe in this virtual world ...

[MarketNeutral]

Add 50 BTC to the list of known lost bitcoins. It was the first block I ever mined, ca 2010, and I didn't think it was worth saving before I reformatted my pc's hard drive.

[zzojar]

It doesn't look like the OP has been watching his own thread. He still has 0BTC total lost. I luckily haven't lost any coins yet. Redundancy.

[Tuxavant]

+ 1.30000 BTC

Lost during the android RNG fiasco. Key was deleted around the time I applied the fix. I lost track of what key I had backed up when the wallet fix auto swept the funds into another key. It was about $100 value at the time.

[djangocoin]

You can trust me i'm on the Internet

[SgtSpike]

It doesn't look like the OP has been watching his own thread. He still has 0BTC total lost. I luckily haven't lost any coins yet. Redundancy.

I'm still watching it.  I'm just too lazy to add it all up and everyone has stopped using the format I specified at the beginning of the thread to keep a running total.

[Wealthy]

0.00000 btc. I keep wallet secure and safe, always. Same with other currencies.

[Ni6HTH4wK]

Went through all the honest posts from #100 onwards...

38669.33589602
+1300
+2
+3
+7000
+.25
+27000
+5
+1
+5
+3.14482421
+31.22782779
+150
+500
+88
+0.1
+78
+4.0624
+7500
+.3
+2130.83766357
+.05
+55
+.67
+.000035
+50000
+50
+1.3

New total
BTC134578.27864659

EDIT: First post really?... I guess I've just visited and never contributed. 

[arklan]

lets see... so that's what, about 1% of currently existing coins lost for good? or is that .1%?

[grunt]

1.02% or $64,421,276.21 USD @ 1BTC=478.69USD

[KuromaYoichi]

lost 1.05 Btc
formatted a drive and lost the key

[haploid23]

I lost zero, but been scammed plenty of btc. Does that count? I was scammed ~500btc back in 2011 when the whole forum was still naive to scams, last year got scammed a bunch more on LBC due to bank reversals, then earlier this year got fuked by mtgox.

[giveBTCpls]

I lost zero, but been scammed plenty of btc. Does that count? I was scammed ~500btc back in 2011 when the whole forum was still naive to scams, last year got scammed a bunch more on LBC due to bank reversals, then earlier this year got fuked by mtgox.

God damn 500? how in hell? I would be super depressed. And no it doesnt really count, as someone may be enjoying that money right now as we speak 

[BitCoinNutJob]

I'd be surprised if it wasnt 1 million bitcoins lost, in the very early days people were losing them very easily from what i hear.

[dserrano5]

I lost zero, but been scammed plenty of btc. Does that count?

No. This is about lost coins, ie those no one can spend.

[WhatTheGox]

gox coins could be lost or scammed we dont know yet

[haploid23]

gox coins could be lost or scammed we dont know yet

I believe those 800k gox coins either moved or got split up at some point, so they are not "lost", more like theft.

[Kickstart4]

I never lost even a penny. I keep my account secure.

I have known people who have lost few coins as they forgot password/private keys.

[SgtSpike]

Went through all the honest posts from #100 onwards...

38669.33589602
+1300
+2
+3
+7000
+.25
+27000
+5
+1
+5
+3.14482421
+31.22782779
+150
+500
+88
+0.1
+78
+4.0624
+7500
+.3
+2130.83766357
+.05
+55
+.67
+.000035
+50000
+50
+1.3

New total
BTC134578.27864659

EDIT: First post really?... I guess I've just visited and never contributed. 

Cheers, thanks!

[adizzle]

4.1...... lost private key

[xrobesx]

very interesting thread. its a shame to see so many precious bitcoins lost

[Skrillex]

Have you considered searching in google for all the "hard disk lost, guy trying to find it in the garbage mountains" sort of news in google? shit tonne of btcs lost man.

[SgtSpike]

Have you considered searching in google for all the "hard disk lost, guy trying to find it in the garbage mountains" sort of news in google? shit tonne of btcs lost man.

Those 7500 coins are included in the total lost.

[dserrano5]

4.1...... lost private key

You're expected to update the total. That's how the thread works (AFAIK).

I'll do it for you: 134578.27864659 + 4.1 = 134582.37864659

[littlewizard]

That 1% is a lot in my opinion, taking into consideration this is just a corner of the glacier, I guess there maybe in total 5% lost..

[SgtSpike]

That 1% is a lot in my opinion, taking into consideration this is just a corner of the glacier, I guess there maybe in total 5% lost..

I wouldn't be surprised if it is more like 2M BTC lost.  In the first year+ of Bitcoin's existence (during which almost 2M coins were mined) it was nothing more than an interesting experiment.  The coins were worthless, and people treated them as such.  I mean heck, the first known monetary valuation wasn't until Lazlo's pizza, which was mid-2010, 1 and a half years after it started.  Not to mention than Satoshi himself mined a good 1M BTC, and I don't expect those will ever move.

Just my best guess on it.  I'd be willing to bet that 10 years from now, there will be at least 2M coins that haven't moved between now and then.

[Fabrizio89]

I lost 0.8 btc at the beginning of my journey that was a couple years ago, and recently 0.05 play money.

+ 0.85

[ScreamnShout]

That 1% is a lot in my opinion, taking into consideration this is just a corner of the glacier, I guess there maybe in total 5% lost..

I wouldn't be surprised if it is more like 2M BTC lost.  In the first year+ of Bitcoin's existence (during which almost 2M coins were mined) it was nothing more than an interesting experiment.  The coins were worthless, and people treated them as such.  I mean heck, the first known monetary valuation wasn't until Lazlo's pizza, which was mid-2010, 1 and a half years after it started.  Not to mention than Satoshi himself mined a good 1M BTC, and I don't expect those will ever move.

Just my best guess on it.  I'd be willing to bet that 10 years from now, there will be at least 2M coins that haven't moved between now and then.

I believe that bitcoin was actually trading on gox prior to Lazio's pizza purchase; this transaction was only the first known transaction that both involved bitcion and actual goods/services.

I do agree with that that in Bitcoin's early days, many people likely treated their private keys with little care. I would not however underestimate the potential for technology to be able to recover data once it has been seen by either the human eye and/or has previously been stored on a hard drive

[SgtSpike]

That 1% is a lot in my opinion, taking into consideration this is just a corner of the glacier, I guess there maybe in total 5% lost..

I wouldn't be surprised if it is more like 2M BTC lost.  In the first year+ of Bitcoin's existence (during which almost 2M coins were mined) it was nothing more than an interesting experiment.  The coins were worthless, and people treated them as such.  I mean heck, the first known monetary valuation wasn't until Lazlo's pizza, which was mid-2010, 1 and a half years after it started.  Not to mention than Satoshi himself mined a good 1M BTC, and I don't expect those will ever move.

Just my best guess on it.  I'd be willing to bet that 10 years from now, there will be at least 2M coins that haven't moved between now and then.

I believe that bitcoin was actually trading on gox prior to Lazio's pizza purchase; this transaction was only the first known transaction that both involved bitcion and actual goods/services.

I do agree with that that in Bitcoin's early days, many people likely treated their private keys with little care. I would not however underestimate the potential for technology to be able to recover data once it has been seen by either the human eye and/or has previously been stored on a hard drive

If you do a forum search for "mtgox" with a message age between 1640 days (how many days it has been since laszlo's first post) and 9999 days, only one post comes up, and that's only because it was edited a year later.  So no, I do not believe MtGox was trading before laszlo's post.  Surely there would be announcements and chat about it on the forum if it was.

[leen93]

50.0 btc, just forgot my blockchain login   

[Otoh]

50.0 btc, just forgot my blockchain login   

  Ouch! www.lastpass.com FTW, hope that your luck balances out in time.

[JWU42]

4.1...... lost private key

You're expected to update the total. That's how the thread works (AFAIK).

I'll do it for you: 134578.27864659 + 4.1 = 134582.37864659

50.0 btc, just forgot my blockchain login   

134582.37864659 + 50 = 134632.37864659

[Acidyo]

50.0 btc, just forgot my blockchain login  

  Ouch! www.lastpass.com FTW, hope that your luck balances out in time.
[/quote]

Ughhh, no thanks man. LastPass just got hacked. You should be going with Clef instead. Passwordless logins! www.GetClef.com

[Otoh]

50.0 btc, just forgot my blockchain login   

  Ouch! www.lastpass.com FTW, hope that your luck balances out in time.

Ughhh, no thanks man. LastPass just got hacked. You should be going with Clef instead. Passwordless logins! www.GetClef.com

It looks great, I signed up for it, hopefully Blockchain.info wallets will add it and also the main Exchanges, LastPass with a 2FA YubiKey is safe for now.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=965220.0   <-- Clef thread

[StarenseN]

Following this thread.

[5dollarbill]

4.1...... lost private key

You're expected to update the total. That's how the thread works (AFAIK).

I'll do it for you: 134578.27864659 + 4.1 = 134582.37864659

50.0 btc, just forgot my blockchain login   

134582.37864659 + 50 = 134632.37864659

134632.37864659 + 0.02 = 134632.39864659

my contribution, lol

[Possum577]

God, a banking system would really have come in handy here...

Hahaha, this a really funny comment.

More funny today with the tally at BTC134632.37 or $37,697,063.60...It's amazing to know that this is the current value of all the bitcoin identified in this topic as lost.

It's also pointless to dwell on it...like thinking about how much gold has been thrown away, lost, or destroyed since the beginning of it's collection.

Knowing that a finite number of bitcoin will ever exist and understanding how much value people think bitcoin will be worth, do we all have a very serious duty to protect what we've mined, earned, or bought so as not to lose it? We're stewards of Satoshi's creation right? We shouldn't let it go to wast by forgetting wallets, losing keys, being careless - anyone else agree?

Great thread topic, I'm glad I don't have anything to contribute to the balance!

[Sarthak]

134632.39864659 + 0.00000001 = 134632.3986466

1 satoshi to test how it works

[Nasakloto]

Wow
I didn't realise so many btc went lost.

[mallard]

134632.39864659 + 2  = 134634.39864659

[David19]

Lost Access to At Least 15,000 BTC

134634.39864659+15000=149634.39864659

[S4VV4S]

Lost Access to At Least 15,000 BTC

134634.39864659+15000=149634.39864659

Right.....

In that case I lost 750000BTC
Add that to the total: 149634.39864659 + 750000 = 899634.39864659

Oh, call me Mark btw.
My old username was Magical Tux.
Now I usually go by the handle Magical Fux

[findftp]

Whoops, playing with some cold wallet method and forgot to save the private key before I rebooted to offline modus.
Luckily I was just testing and this was precisely what I wanted to test.
0.0004 BTC lost forever.

[thedok]

I never lost any   (just wanted to join the pointless post retards)

[Herbert2020]

Lost Access to At Least 15,000 BTC

134634.39864659+15000=149634.39864659

how can anybody lose 15,000 BTC? i am sorry but i can not believe that anybody exists in the world that "loses access to" 15KBTC * 200 $ = ~3 mil USD
i personally would keep 1000 satoshi in a couple of different wallets that i store their private keys in different places.... but 3 million ....

[JWU42]

i personally would keep 1000 satoshi in a couple of different wallets

Just FYI...

A Satoshi is the smallest fraction of a Bitcoin that can currently be sent: 0.00000001 BTC, that is, a hundredth of a millionth BTC. In the future, however, the protocol may be updated to allow further subdivisions, should they be needed.

[Herbert2020]

i personally would keep 1000 satoshi in a couple of different wallets

Just FYI...

A Satoshi is the smallest fraction of a Bitcoin that can currently be sent: 0.00000001 BTC, that is, a hundredth of a millionth BTC. In the future, however, the protocol may be updated to allow further subdivisions, should they be needed.

yeah, thanks. i know that very well.
i was being (trying to be) sarcastic, it turns out that it is hard to be sarcastic in text form

[AbbeyYoshi02]

Claiming to have lost 15,000? Bitcoin? or do you mean USD. Losing USD isnt much of a big deal but losing 15k of bitcoin that would be incredible for everyone else invested in bitcoin except you of course that could possibly triple everyones money

[Furio]

FYI, I have 5 bitcoins which I lost the pasword for the private keys for, Im no whale, even though its allmost a year ago, it still hurts

[Mickeyb]

That 1% is a lot in my opinion, taking into consideration this is just a corner of the glacier, I guess there maybe in total 5% lost..

I wouldn't be surprised if it is more like 2M BTC lost.  In the first year+ of Bitcoin's existence (during which almost 2M coins were mined) it was nothing more than an interesting experiment.  The coins were worthless, and people treated them as such.  I mean heck, the first known monetary valuation wasn't until Lazlo's pizza, which was mid-2010, 1 and a half years after it started.  Not to mention than Satoshi himself mined a good 1M BTC, and I don't expect those will ever move.

Just my best guess on it.  I'd be willing to bet that 10 years from now, there will be at least 2M coins that haven't moved between now and then.

Yes, all bunch of coins and the majority of them was lost in the beginning, when Bitcoin was still worthless. I agree on this with you. On the other side, 2 million lost coins is a quite high number in my honest opinion.

I don't really know what to think about Satoshi coins. I like to think that he will wait until Bitcoin really makes it big and get mass adopted, and then he will donate 95% of his coins to the hungry people of the world. This would make him pretty much a biggest man on the planet that has ever lived.

[CohibAA]

phi bitcoins were burned in this transaction recently

[Hugroll]

I've only lost like 0.02 when i was trying to send money to my friend. no clue what address i sent it to. 

[wareen]

Somebody has just lost 40 BTC by sending them to the practically unspendable address 1111111111111111111114oLvT2:

https://tradeblock.com/bitcoin/tx/5f00b8e609821edd6f3369ee4ee86e03ea34b890e242236cdb66ef6c9c6a1b28

[hoian0809]

Somebody has just lost 40 BTC by sending them to the practically unspendable address 1111111111111111111114oLvT2:

https://tradeblock.com/bitcoin/tx/5f00b8e609821edd6f3369ee4ee86e03ea34b890e242236cdb66ef6c9c6a1b28

How can they receive the lost coin again?

I see: "Unable to decode output address ".

[bri912678]

That 1% is a lot in my opinion, taking into consideration this is just a corner of the glacier, I guess there maybe in total 5% lost..

I wouldn't be surprised if it is more like 2M BTC lost.  In the first year+ of Bitcoin's existence (during which almost 2M coins were mined) it was nothing more than an interesting experiment.  The coins were worthless, and people treated them as such.  I mean heck, the first known monetary valuation wasn't until Lazlo's pizza, which was mid-2010, 1 and a half years after it started.  Not to mention than Satoshi himself mined a good 1M BTC, and I don't expect those will ever move.

Just my best guess on it.  I'd be willing to bet that 10 years from now, there will be at least 2M coins that haven't moved between now and then.

Yes, all bunch of coins and the majority of them was lost in the beginning, when Bitcoin was still worthless. I agree on this with you. On the other side, 2 million lost coins is a quite high number in my honest opinion.

I don't really know what to think about Satoshi coins. I like to think that he will wait until Bitcoin really makes it big and get mass adopted, and then he will donate 95% of his coins to the hungry people of the world. This would make him pretty much a biggest man on the planet that has ever lived.

It would be good to have the mystery behind those Satoshi coins resolved to help adoption. If he ever moves them the price will crash, and most bitcoiners know it. However, afterwards the fear of him dumping would be gone, which could reassure new people enough to adopt Bitcoin. If Satoshi did something good with his coins it could bring good publicity to Bitcoin to counter bad publicity like the Silk Road.

[hodl_2015]

FYI, I have 5 bitcoins which I lost the pasword for the private keys for, Im no whale, even though its allmost a year ago, it still hurts

I have never been in this situation, but I would write a program that tests various passwords 24/7.
(I think any closed-source tool you download from the internet will just send the key to whoever write the tool when found :-)
Breaking the wallet private key is impossible, but a not too long password may be possible if you remember some parts of it, or at least how/if capitals and numbers where used.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

May have lost 0.05 BTC sent by the faucet...

OMG, this is such an awesome thread for this post alone.  Can you imagine getting a payout like that from a faucet these days?  How much could you claim a day back in 2011 or whenever it was that faucets started?  I was not into btc yet back then.

[dothebeats]

May have lost 0.05 BTC sent by the faucet...

OMG, this is such an awesome thread for this post alone.  Can you imagine getting a payout like that from a faucet these days?  How much could you claim a day back in 2011 or whenever it was that faucets started?  I was not into btc yet back then.

I was into bitcoins already back then but didn't dug deeper. 2012, there were faucets who were giving up 1-10 btc per claim. Lowest I think is 0.001 per person (?) I'm not so sure anymore. It was fun, yes, but my mistake is that I didn't take notes of my previous wallet credentials and details (which I lost a total of 0.5 btc as far as my memory can remember.)

[killerjoegreece]

https://blockchain.info/address/1KdDvp1DJ4EYUZc8savutRN4vv1ZwvGfQf  lost em

[7788bitcoin]

https://blockchain.info/address/1KdDvp1DJ4EYUZc8savutRN4vv1ZwvGfQf  lost em

Do you mean you lost the 40 BTC to 1111111111111111111114oLvT2? Why did you do that?

Are you still holding the key to 1KdDvp1DJ4EYUZc8savutRN4vv1ZwvGfQf?

[Druze]

if you can you should update the amount at the top of the thread

[richmcrich]

+0.015 BTC , I sent that account to an address that is no longer active a month or so before by mistake, write that down 

[mkc]

+0.008
I installed block chain in my phone, and sent that much to my phone, and I lost my phone.

[jayhawk1]

+0.01 BTC, Sent the money to an unactive address that had it's private address lost previously.

[arklan]

+0.008
I installed block chain in my phone, and sent that much to my phone, and I lost my phone.

this one may not count, technically. i mean, its a safe bet that it's gone, but in the most precise sense, the phone is not with you, but the phone, with the private key, is with someone. thus, not lost.

[nanonymousx]

+0.008
I installed block chain in my phone, and sent that much to my phone, and I lost my phone.

this one may not count, technically. i mean, its a safe bet that it's gone, but in the most precise sense, the phone is not with you, but the phone, with the private key, is with someone. thus, not lost.

I have something similar, I have a older computer which has some coin I earned from faucet, clicking ad etc, I think about 0.01, then I bought a new PC, old PC is donated,  in the most precise sense, I guess someone else has the computer now.

Since the wallet is encrypted, the person has the PC has no password. I think it is safe to say

+0.01

[vdramaline]

I got 0.03BTC from one of the early bitcoin wallets, and then deleted my wallet by lack of interest and because I though it was taking some space...

+0.03

[dooglus]

May have lost 0.05 BTC sent by the faucet...

OMG, this is such an awesome thread for this post alone.  Can you imagine getting a payout like that from a faucet these days?  How much could you claim a day back in 2011 or whenever it was that faucets started?  I was not into btc yet back then.

In January 2011 there was only one faucet that I know of, run by Gavin.

I got my first 0.05 BTC from it:



Edit: I don't remember if there was a daily limit, but Bitcoin was worth so little at the time that it didn't seem worth abusing it. 0.05 BTC was worth around $0.02 at the time.

[pandalion98]

+0.5 BTC

I was testing out some stuff back when bitcoin had significantly low value (around $20/BTC).
Sent them to a null address by accident when I was messing around with some c++ code (I'm a C# person now).

[trout]

May have lost 0.05 BTC sent by the faucet...

OMG, this is such an awesome thread for this post alone.  Can you imagine getting a payout like that from a faucet these days?  How much could you claim a day back in 2011 or whenever it was that faucets started?  I was not into btc yet back then.

In January 2011 there was only one faucet that I know of, run by Gavin.

I got my first 0.05 BTC from it:

back in the day, the faucet also displayed the message along the lines of:


Weren't you offering 5 BTC before?  
with a link  furhter explaining that, indeed, it was sending 5BTC before, but at *that* time,
1BTC had only been worth around 0.005$

And about a daily limit: yes, there was some sort of abuse control in place, complete with a captcha
and some denigrating message about those that abuse a faucet offering such a little value.

so, yeah, there's some nostalgia for you.

back on topic, there must be quite a few of those 5 BTC faucet payouts lost forever, which we'll never able to write off conclusively.

[helloeverybody]

You can put down for another 0.4 or 0.5 from me.  I can even dig up the old address for it where it still remains.  I just dont have the key fir it anymore and never will now.

[trickshot22]

You can put down for another 0.4 or 0.5 from me.  I can even dig up the old address for it where it still remains.  I just dont have the key fir it anymore and never will now.

yeah i had some occassions when i lost some bitcoins too because of the forgetting of the private keys of my bitcoin addresses that i wrote on paper as i was still just a newbie in all this stuff

i see that the rules are not working like it should because people are just not posting the whole sum so i will do that too, i have lost like 0.5 bitcoins with the private keys

[midnightmagic]

So, assuming the 15,000 BTC guy just lost access but someone *else* now has access to it, then since the last update:

134634.39864659+0.0004+0.02+40+0.009395+0.015+0.008+0.01+0.01+0.03+0.5+0.5

= 134675.50144159

+ 3.5 from here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4pjkyi/after_3_years_im_off_the_bitcoin_bandwagon/

= 134679.00144159

[Timelord2067]

So, assuming the 15,000 BTC guy just lost access but someone *else* now has access to it, then since the last update:

134634.39864659+0.0004+0.02+40+0.009395+0.015+0.008+0.01+0.01+0.03+0.5+0.5

= 134675.50144159

+ 3.5 from here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4pjkyi/after_3_years_im_off_the_bitcoin_bandwagon/

=

A mini bump for this thread...

BTC 134679.00144159 is close to a cool $ 77,200,000 USD @ 573.2 USD according to preev.com on the 1st of September 2016.

[croutonhexagon]

0.02 bitcoin

Well till today i had totally lost 0.02bitcoin in hashocean scam. I was very unlucky that my friends had earned lot of money but i had instead the amount in the same site. How unlucky i was.

[vdramaline]

Add me to the list. Lost 1 btc last night. 

[peta4e]

Well I don't have any exact record of lost coins as I have lost many times in gambling in the past and I think it would be around 0.5 btc but not more then that and now I wish I could have really saved those coins for this stage.

[1Referee]

0.02 bitcoin

Well till today i had totally lost 0.02bitcoin in hashocean scam. I was very unlucky that my friends had earned lot of money but i had instead the amount in the same site. How unlucky i was.

You're coins are not completely gone as they are in the hands of the scammer.

I have 0.06BTC in 2 wallets that I can't access anymore as I have deleted them both by accident this year.

+0.06BTC

[JumperX]

0.02 bitcoin

Well till today i had totally lost 0.02bitcoin in hashocean scam. I was very unlucky that my friends had earned lot of money but i had instead the amount in the same site. How unlucky i was.

You're coins are not completely gone as they are in the hands of the scammer.

I have 0.06BTC in 2 wallets that I can't access anymore as I have deleted them both by accident this year.

+0.06BTC

No doubt the coins are in hands of the scammers but he has ultimately lost his coins as he won't able to recover that amount again as coins gone from wallet are gone forever.

[1Referee]

0.02 bitcoin

Well till today i had totally lost 0.02bitcoin in hashocean scam. I was very unlucky that my friends had earned lot of money but i had instead the amount in the same site. How unlucky i was.

You're coins are not completely gone as they are in the hands of the scammer.

I have 0.06BTC in 2 wallets that I can't access anymore as I have deleted them both by accident this year.

+0.06BTC

No doubt the coins are in hands of the scammers but he has ultimately lost his coins as he won't able to recover that amount again as coins gone from wallet are gone forever.

It's not about losing coins as in getting scammed, or losing them with gambling. It's all about coins never coming back into circulation.

[tampazeus]

When I was a newbie I lost 0.1 btc in doubler site as I thought I would be able to double my coins in few hours and from that point till today I am just waiting 

[Yutikas_11920]

When I was a newbie I lost 0.1 btc in doubler site as I thought I would be able to double my coins in few hours and from that point till today I am just waiting 

It's something you have to forget about it, because if you're still waiting and angry against loss you get when early bitcoin then it will give bad effect to your future. because it is sure you will do something with very tight and could not think properly while doing something about bitcoin or associated with bitcoin

[ObscureBean]

So, assuming the 15,000 BTC guy just lost access but someone *else* now has access to it, then since the last update:

134634.39864659+0.0004+0.02+40+0.009395+0.015+0.008+0.01+0.01+0.03+0.5+0.5

= 134675.50144159

+ 3.5 from here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4pjkyi/after_3_years_im_off_the_bitcoin_bandwagon/

=

A mini bump for this thread...

BTC 134679.00144159 is close to a cool $ 77,200,000 USD @ 573.2 USD according to preev.com on the 1st of September 2016.

Wow that's insane!!!  First time I come across this thread, I've been reading some of the comments and it's freaking unbelievable how many Bitcoins some people have lost. Of course it might not all be true/accurate, I've seen a few people post Bitcoins they've lost in scams which don't really count because they're still spendable. Still, this is crazy, I wonder how people who lost 1000's of Bitcoins back when Bitcoin wasn't worth a lot feel about it today.

[marsmyname]

+0.008
I installed block chain in my phone, and sent that much to my phone, and I lost my phone.

this one may not count, technically. i mean, its a safe bet that it's gone, but in the most precise sense, the phone is not with you, but the phone, with the private key, is with someone. thus, not lost.

Ok, are yo trying to meant that the Bitcoin just vanish into the space or how. Because to my own understanding if bitcoin is not in someone's wallet then it must be in another persons wallet, but if there is any way bitcoin can disappear in to space et us know about it.

[Zadicar]

So, assuming the 15,000 BTC guy just lost access but someone *else* now has access to it, then since the last update:

134634.39864659+0.0004+0.02+40+0.009395+0.015+0.008+0.01+0.01+0.03+0.5+0.5

= 134675.50144159

+ 3.5 from here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4pjkyi/after_3_years_im_off_the_bitcoin_bandwagon/

=

A mini bump for this thread...

BTC 134679.00144159 is close to a cool $ 77,200,000 USD @ 573.2 USD according to preev.com on the 1st of September 2016.

Wow that's insane!!!  First time I come across this thread, I've been reading some of the comments and it's freaking unbelievable how many Bitcoins some people have lost. Of course it might not all be true/accurate, I've seen a few people post Bitcoins they've lost in scams which don't really count because they're still spendable. Still, this is crazy, I wonder how people who lost 1000's of Bitcoins back when Bitcoin wasn't worth a lot feel about it today.

These  thread  is  not accurate though because  lots of  people  for sure didnt see this   thread  and  cant able to  post  on their  lost bitcoin on here. Maybe  we could  say  its a partial count  but  i could really say that  lost  bitcoins are  too much  which already cost  millions of dollars  on the current price as of now.

[Rude Boy]

I don't know the known lost Bitcoin (added on this thread) but as mine too.

I've lost about 0.02 on my copay wallet (I'd the backup, still I can't spend from there), 0.006 due to my HDD failure and 0.006 due to my pendrive failure (where I've kept my wallet's backup)
So totally I've lost 0.02+0.006+0.006 = 0.032 BTC!

[Mastsetad]

Didn't keep any records of my losts until now if how much bitcoins i have lost, maybe they are around 0.3btc or more, because when i was new to bitcoin i used to earn bitcoins and spend them on hyips as i was not aware of their reality.

[helloeverybody]

Didn't keep any records of my losts until now if how much bitcoins i have lost, maybe they are around 0.3btc or more, because when i was new to bitcoin i used to earn bitcoins and spend them on hyips as i was not aware of their reality.

Thats not lost bitcoins, thats spent bitcoins which are still in circulation.

 It would be good if someone could go through the posts to update how many we are at with only the information we have in this thread. I would do it but i cant update it anyway since im not op.

[lixer]

When I was a newbie I lost 0.1 btc in doubler site as I thought I would be able to double my coins in few hours and from that point till today I am just waiting  

It's something you have to forget about it, because if you're still waiting and angry against loss you get when early bitcoin then it will give bad effect to your future. because it is sure you will do something with very tight and could not think properly while doing something about bitcoin or associated with bitcoin

Yes, it is highly important to let bygone be the bygones, when someone keeps remembering a misfortune that befalls him or her without letting it go, it becomes a source of worry and create possible future problems to the person. Just forget about everything and move on, you have a brighter future ahead.

[DaveF]

Add 5 to the count. Was moving some coins back in 2011/12 (setting up them in lots of 5 per address) and had the dat file eat itself, was always a tomorrow project to get them back.

Sitting here Christmas day and figured I would fire up pywallet and have a go.

Got 4 of the 5 private keys & addresses back.
Last one does not even seem to exist. Sucks to be me.

Good thing I wrote them off in my mind back in 2013 last time it was this high in value.

-Dave

[merchantofzeny]

I never had a whole bitcoin before. I probably lost about 10000 satoshis from trying different faucets though. When I was starting out I didn't know they'd all require 20k something to be send to the wallet. I try to get up to that but would eventually give up and try a new faucet. And I tried many faucets I can't even remember them all now. I guess other newbies have gone through this, imagine how much has been lost in this manner.

[Soros Shorts]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583286.0

I don't think the 250 BTC belonging to the forum that was lost when paraipan passed away was ever added to this list.

[Timelord2067]

How much  in total till now?

I was going to wait until the first of January (ie three months since my last update) if you can wait? Otherwise top of thise page down should give a close estimate.

[unamis76]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583286.0

I don't think the 250 BTC belonging to the forum that was lost when paraipan passed away was ever added to this list.

They weren't added because these coins weren't lost. Someone has access to these coins and moved them.

[Xester]

How do we know that the counts are right and not just manufactured by the one who posted. Aside from the let us also not set aside that though they lost their bitcoins but somebody from the site has claimed it.  But I dont want to be negative on this matter, I guess this counting was not meant to be exact but somehow just to check if there are more people experience losing their bitcoins.

[ebliever]

A better way to lost bitcoins would be to list all the public keys involved, on a thread or blog or whatever. The list could be updated easily, including removing erroneous listings if coins did move from any of the listed addresses.

Someone with a bit of coding know-how could probably tie into an API with something like Blockchain.info and keep a running tally of all the BTC associated with the addresses in the list.

One could also break it down into several sub-lists for clarity:

1. Known BURN addresses (like the Counterparty address).
2. Cases where it is pretty solid that the private keys have been lost (such as the early HD with 7500 BTC that was tossed).
3. Cases where coins are believed or claimed to be lost, but it is not confirmed or there is some slim chance of recovery.

EDIT: Another reason to track this with the list of public keys involved is to avoid accidental repetition from multiple sources referencing the same lost bitcoins.

[coinplus]

Just a controversy perspective heads up here :
Bitcoins will never be lost. They will stay for ever within an address.

There are only 2^160 possible bitcoin addresses (at least with respect to current encryption algorithm), so after (for example) 500 years, people may start getting OLD bitcoin addresses. At the time, they may find access to our lost bitcoins.

[statdude]

I can add about 0.7 that was send to an unusable address in 2013 by a friend who would never come on this forum.

[ViceOfBTC21]

0.00542 BTC lost because my mum throw it away that value paper wallet

[statdude]

I also gave my parents a 0.5 loaded Caucasius coin which they promptly lost.

[Jogibear]

I lost 1000 BTC  to Yobit...Does that Count?
But Im sure its floating in somebody's wallet

[mr.mister]

A friend lost 2.9 BTC a week ago because he formatted a hard drive and did not back anything up. $3000.00 locked in the blockchain.  i created a post for him on this forum, but after him taking the HD to specialist, the BTC was no able to be recovered.

[AIGADS]

 :)I may or may not have lost ~1300 because of a lost encryption key... Heres to hoping the data recovery company can get my bitlocker key off a dead flash drive.

[statdude]

I lost 1000 BTC  to Yobit...Does that Count?
But Im sure its floating in somebody's wallet

1000 wtf

[mr.mister]

I heard that during the early days of bitcoin, a guy traded 10,000 btc before they were worth anything, for 2 papa johns  pizzas. As far as I am concerned that's a major loss.... I am sure some of you have heard the story.

[arklan]

I heard that during the early days of bitcoin, a guy traded 10,000 btc before they were worth anything, for 2 papa johns  pizzas. As far as I am concerned that's a major loss.... I am sure some of you have heard the story.

it's no story, it happened and there is proof.

but that is utterly not what this thread is about. he SPENT the 10,000 coins. he sent them to someone else, who still has them, or himself has spent them. you know, as one does with money. no loss occurred.

this thread is about bitcoins that are GONE. that cannot EVER be recovered by anyone under any conditions. formatted the hard drive and lost your wallet file with no backups, that kind of thing.

[rico666]

this thread is about bitcoins that are GONE. that cannot EVER be recovered by anyone under any conditions.

I disagree about the last part of the sentence.

[arklan]

this thread is about bitcoins that are GONE. that cannot EVER be recovered by anyone under any conditions.

I disagree about the last part of the sentence.

it wasn't an opinion. what can you disagree about? are you suggesting that if someone encrypted their wallet then destroyed the hard drive that file was on, those keys could be recovered somehow?

[Helveticus]

According to THIS Story, there's a gentleman in the UK who was mining bitcoin for a long time in the early stages of it's appearance on his laptop which he later tossed out. More than 300'000 of them.

So if we add this to the numbers here, we can assume that about BTC450'000 have been lost that we know of. That's almost 3% of the available BTC as of today.

Now what number of BTC is truly lost forever, I'd estimate is around 10% of the current supply. About 5 Billion Dollars worth of cryptocurrency.

[anheqiaobei]

I lost 100 bitcoin
Hard disk is damaged.....

[niisarearning]

I never lost any  bitcoin but some newbies in bitcointalk are sending message for skype and google chat dont ever dare to give them they are trying to spam. the initial word only start from better earning by writing article kind of dont get trapped

[statdude]

Someone should make a google forms and track this accurately. let people enter it in and attach a username or name.

[SgtSpike]

Someone should make a google forms and track this accurately. let people enter it in and attach a username or name.

Sounds like you just volunteered!

[Mike Mayor]

I think most lost bitcoins would be from the early days when they handed out entire bitcoins for free or have them away at faucets. There must be lots and lots of missing Bitcoin in wallets that people mined into in the early stages. Haha imagine it a normally oc mines a Bitcoin in a few moments.

[AGD]

Someone should make a google forms and track this accurately. let people enter it in and attach a username or name.

Sounds like you just volunteered!

You don't really believe, that a sig spammer will contribute more than a lukewarm breeze, do you?

[niisarearning]

I lost some bitcoin when i started bitcoin earning doing faucets and other things like games finally i dint know how to convert it as money finally i gave up . its happened year back. But re entry into bitcoin was quite good for me .

[David19]

According to THIS Story, there's a gentleman in the UK who was mining bitcoin for a long time in the early stages of it's appearance on his laptop which he later tossed out. More than 300'000 of them.

So if we add this to the numbers here, we can assume that about BTC450'000 have been lost that we know of. That's almost 3% of the available BTC as of today.

Now what number of BTC is truly lost forever, I'd estimate is around 10% of the current supply. About 5 Billion Dollars worth of cryptocurrency.

Wasn't that the same guy that was digging for his Hard drive at the dumpyard? 

[freebutcaged]

Someone should make a google forms and track this accurately. let people enter it in and attach a username or name.

Sounds like you just volunteered!

You don't really believe, that a sig spammer will contribute more than a lukewarm breeze, do you?

You just remembered to post here after the last post was from 10 days ago? anyhow I think rico666 is offended because he has his operation

Going on probably for another 2 million years to find a few collisions of private keys, in theory yes it is possible to recover all the lost Bitcoins

But in reality the chance is practically near zero, unless of course if there was a solid proof and if the amount was really significant we could

Have asked all the miners to do a hard fork in return to get paid something like %50 of the amount and the other half goes to the real owner.

[xskl0]

A guy once lost 9.000 BTC by restoring a backup produced before a send transaction which had these 9.000 as input. That motivated Satoshi to implement the pool of addresses feature.
EDIT: Here's the topic: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

as i recall it was 9000 btc!

actually 8999

8999X$8.70= $78291 

Now it's 39 milion dollars bro

[TracyTStump]

I lost 0.8 I was really silly to pay earlier but that was the same as last month, so iam going through it now.

[arklan]

well, this transaction seems lost for good.

https://blockchain.info/tx/55162f517d0e6903a2d121a8a45797485ede5a5a632e5db3aa22c0402c055103

someone in the wall observer thread sent me .005 BTC to the address on my profile, but i have no idea where that address actually IS. probably a wallet on my phone i don't have anymore as i forgot to back it up or something like that.


...nevermind. apparently it went to my virwox account. WOHOO!

[Crypto_Happy_Sad]

Was hacked and bitcoins were stolen from GDAX account.

So the loss is almost around four plus coins.

[cooperkernan]

I've lost 5 myself! Can include my wallet address. They're certainly lost forever.

[arklan]

Was hacked and bitcoins were stolen from GDAX account.

So the loss is almost around four plus coins.

in this case, YOU lost coins, but the coins are not lost to the person who stole them. this thread is about unretrievable, gone forever coins.

[MWD64]

3.1 BTC of mine is at the bottom of the sea, more or less.

Got it in 2011, forgot about it until BTC hit 3000 dollars. Spent hours trying to remember the dozen+ character password. Finally overwrote that drive to keep from going mad trying to remember the password as the price of BTC went up.

Then started getting BTC again. lol.

so yeah, that 3.1 BTC fits what you're looking for here. Add it to the tally.

[ostrovagaly]

Would it not be possible to take a sum of stale coins - for example all those not moved since end 2010 and then over time learn what fraction of those came alive later. Doing that over a period might suggest what is lost and what fraction is normally forced back into the open after such a long time.

[arklan]

Would it not be possible to take a sum of stale coins - for example all those not moved since end 2010 and then over time learn what fraction of those came alive later. Doing that over a period might suggest what is lost and what fraction is normally forced back into the open after such a long time.

yes, it's possible, even rather simple, to see what cans haven't been moved since a given time, or ever. the challenge is in determining WHY they haven't moved. it's entirely possible the original miner has them and still has ready access to the private keys, meaning they aren't remotely lost.

[atamat]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

playing with some cold wallet method and forgot to save the private key before I rebooted to offline modus.
Luckily I was just testing and this was precisely what I wanted to test.

[TN0904950]

Claiming to have lost 15,000? Bitcoin? or do you mean USD. Losing USD isnt much of a big deal but losing 15k of bitcoin that would be incredible for everyone else invested in bitcoin except you of course that could possibly triple everyones money

I may forget about some wallet that, who knows? one day when I have the time I have to try to fix it. I have so many wallet lying in various places, different computers, the virtual machine, USB sticks, Appendix Gmail, mobile phone, that I don't know how much bitcoin that I actually "own" again.

[Ikpirijor7]

I have such huge numbers of wallets lying around in such huge numbers of better places, distinctive PCs, virtual machines, usb sticks, gmail connections, cell phones, that I have no clue what number of bitcoins I really "possess" any longer. I may have disregarded a portion of those wallets, who knows? One of nowadays when I have room schedule-wise I should attempt to clean everything up.

[Sobol101]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

I was scammed ~500btc back in 2011 when the whole forum was still naive to scams, last year got scammed a bunch more on LBC due to bank reversals

[arklan]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

I was scammed ~500btc back in 2011 when the whole forum was still naive to scams, last year got scammed a bunch more on LBC due to bank reversals

you don't have the coins, but SOMEONE does. not the point of this thread.

[joebrook]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

I was scammed ~500btc back in 2011 when the whole forum was still naive to scams, last year got scammed a bunch more on LBC due to bank reversals

Sometimes i wonder those who had a lot of bitcoins and then they suddenly died, Now their bitcoins are going to be lost forever and most of the time, Its those who started getting bitcoins in the initial stages when it was very easy to mine even with a normal desktop.

[Lannie25]

Yes of course, we need to add up the known lost bitcoin to save that the coin we lost because of we exchange it for more income or profit to make us profitable,
in short we need to save a coin because it is a better to do when we lost an a coin to still profitable.

[Innuend0]

what so?

[levvv]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

This is sad. I saw many comments that telling they lost some serious amount of bitcoin.
I think this is the cause of bitcoin spiking price every year. The circulating supply is reduced unknownly.

[TommyAMD]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

Let's say that bitcoin becomes mainstream like we all hope it will, and many years from now a large portion of bitcoins have been lost due to lost computers or destroyed servers.

[jonathancool220]

I lost about 0.02 when I bought OK Cash coin in Bittrex but I dare StopLose and follow airdrop from Eboost. and Bitcoin I get Bitcoin around 0.13.

so my total conclusion is never totally lost Bitcoin, it even increases around 0.11 Satoshi.

TQ for B!

[beckham88]

I may or may not have lost ~1300 because of a lost encryption key... Heres to hoping the data recovery company can get my bitlocker key off a dead flash drive.

[atamat]

Thought this might make for an interesting thread...

If you've lost bitcoins (i.e. they're gone forever, completely unrecoverable), post how much you lost, and add it to the running tally.  Right now, the running tally is 0BTC, since I haven't lost any bitcoins.

I recently read a thread about someone losing 0.000001 BTC, and someone else losing 20 BTC.

So person one would write:
+ 0.00001 BTC
= 0.00001 BTC

Person two would write:
+ 20 BTC
= 20.0001 BTC

Etc, etc.  That way we don't have to run through pages and pages of thread to figure out what the running tally of lost bitcoins is.

Make sense?  Good.  Do it.

Starting lost BTC balance:  0.0000000 BTC

A friend today told me he just deleted his bitcoin wallet. That included 0.05 BTC I had sent him to play around with. He's not very computer-savvy.

[nvt2511]

Claiming to have lost 15,000? Bitcoin? or do you mean USD. Losing USD isnt much of a big deal but losing 15k of bitcoin that would be incredible for everyone else invested in bitcoin except you of course that could possibly triple everyones money

[mabell943]

I think that is the concept that should be learn by the investors. It doesn’t mean that you loss something you will give up and be upset.
In order to become successful we should increase our investment and take the risk from it in order to obtained profit in future.

[xabi alonso 88]

Claiming to have lost 15,000? Bitcoin? or do you mean USD. Losing USD isnt much of a big deal but losing 15k of bitcoin that would be incredible for everyone else invested in bitcoin except you of course that could possibly triple everyones money

[hennyjonh87]

I had 1.1 Bitcoins in my wallet at the time. In the end I transferred it to an online wallet using the wallet.dat file but only managed to recover the bitcoin

[phelanceter]

I agree, they're still there. But if instawallet works as advertised, they might as well not be. No one will ever be able to get to them... So treats them as any other coins—the operator will not spend the coins. So the coins are effectively lost.

[coinwhat_]

I used to mine some and gather through faucets. Lost almost 0.1 btc and a lot of doge.

[Sam San]

It is not clear how this could happen,probably some kind of system error.Well if the administrator can help, you may need the help of technical specialists.

[markchoo]

You have a spectrum of losses here, ranging from definitely lost to possibly lost.  You are starting to cross into the territory where you can take some educated guesses at "possibly lost". I was told that the drive is good just the motherboard was bad.

[Labay]

I've lost 250 BTC.

May I ask how you lost it?

I don't mean to doubt you, but just want to make sure they're definitely lost.

Maybe he know bitcoin on past but he remember that he lost it for too long.  The value of that coin was too cheap of course and maybe you think that it was too high now but it is like a cents on the past.

We also hope that we could back to the past and do captcha then save our private keys or some recoverable account.

I don't lost anything because I can recover my account.

[Black boy]

Got it in 2011, forgot about it until BTC hit 3000 dollars. Spent hours trying to remember the dozen+ character password. Finally overwrote that drive to keep from going mad trying to remember the password as the price of BTC went up.

[Leonon1Ellis]

I agree, they're still there. But if instawallet works as advertised, they might as well not be. you may need the help of technical specialists.

[inspirone1]

At least it was a funny attempt to have this cryptocurrencies word game, but you have failed because of many bots are writing here, and they just didn't understand your offer to write those things up.

[Liz D]

I couldn't follow the add up of the lost BTC on this thread but I lost a negligible amount of BTC of recent as well due to my stolen device. It amounts to  0.0003BTC 

[ajuelnah akun]

Some of them make the writing disappear just to attract people's attention, but if you think using your conscience, say it's not luck.

[requiredto]

I do not think the coins should count ... the site's administrator can spend those coins.

[thefatman82]

I have not lost anything. But I recently read information that officially lost about 3 million bitcoins are lost, i.e. in fact, only 14 million of the known 21 million are in circulation. I think they are even more.

[lissandra3612]

If it is sent to a windows box, the window almost immediately gets a virus, I simply remove the HD and reinstall ubuntu to a new drive. TL, DR I can lose 0.05 BTC. Enjoy, bitcoiners in the future! I may have forgotten some of those wallets, who knows?

[bitcoinwhoswho]

Our last annual tally of ~400 known "burn addresses", that is bitcoin addresses with almost assuredly no known private key, totaled 2,759.42507135 BTC as of Dec 2017.

2017
https://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2017/12/30/8-97-bitcoins-burned-in-2017/
2016
https://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2016/12/21/btc-burn-addresses/

[presduterte]

Our last annual tally of ~400 known "burn addresses", that is bitcoin addresses with almost assuredly no known private key, totaled 2,759.42507135 BTC as of Dec 2017.

2017
https://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2017/12/30/8-97-bitcoins-burned-in-2017/
2016
https://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2016/12/21/btc-burn-addresses/

I stumbled upon this thread by accident and then just read your 2017 edition -- real good stuff. I especially like the guy who spelled out the lyrics to the rickroll song.

Its funny to read people in 2011/2012 kicking themselves for losing their bitcoin. I would imagine by today they either learned to let it go and live with it or have kicked holes in their heads.

[block_contractor]

Got it in 2011, forgot about it until BTC hit 3000 dollars. Spent hours trying to remember the dozen+ character password. Finally overwrote that drive to keep from going mad trying to remember the password as the price of BTC went up.

If you still have the hard drive and it was a 'quick format', it's possible that you could recover the wallet.dat file and we can have a go at cracking it for you

[Timelord2067]

Our last annual tally of ~400 known "burn addresses", that is bitcoin addresses with almost assuredly no known private key, totaled 2,759.42507135 BTC as of Dec 2017.

2017
https://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2017/12/30/8-97-bitcoins-burned-in-2017/
2016
https://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2016/12/21/btc-burn-addresses/

If those lists are accurate and the tally is as you say BTC 2759.42507135 then they will be worth at the current rate of exchange to the US Dollar.  (Which is no small change in the big picture)

[best123]

What a number of lost Bitcoin! This is really good money 🤑💰!
For me, I have not lost Bitcoin before. Mine was when my account on an exchange was hacked and they stole my Bitcoin and when my blockchain.com account was also hacked too.
My heart goes to you all that lost Bitcoin.

[DARK92]

Back in late 2009, I bought 1000 from NewLibertyStandard for about $1.

Not long after I formatted my hard drive and didn't bother with them saving them...

Yeah I know.  What an idiot.

+1000

welcome to the idiot club then because I only bought 1400 for 105 dollars and I left them on your bitcoin market site! unless you want to give them back to me! that would be really very nice! after 15 years! but I've been trying to contact you for 3 years! Have the aliens released you?

[bolshojkush]

Got it in 2011, forgot about it until BTC hit 3000 dollars. Spent hours trying to remember the dozen+ character password. Finally overwrote that drive to keep from going mad trying to remember the password as the price of BTC went up.

I think this is the most idiotic decision. The password can be chosen 100%, especially now that there are quantum computers. Here, of course, the amount on the account decides.

[SlowPP]

I have not lost anything. But I recently read information that officially lost about 3 million bitcoins are lost, i.e. in fact, only 14 million of the known 21 million are in circulation. I think they are even more.

What’s the worst thing that could happen anyway,Well, we hate to say this, but there may be a chance that you won’t be able to see your old Bitcoin and the funds inside it—ever again. According to Cane Island Digital Research, about 4% of available Bitcoins are lost each year.