Never recovered bitcoins? Less than 21million?

[Campsis]

Hi guys,

As you may already be aware that there are people who simply lose bitcoins, and there is quite a lof of them!

For example: This guy lost his hard drive with 100k btc on it, another guy lost paper wallet with 30k btc on it and so on...

Now the question that i'm asking myself? Do they stay stuck in blockchain? Because if yes, than i see only about 8million bitcoins in circulation by the time they are mined..

[Diver6691]

So what ?

[RodeoX]

Yes they are in "limbo". Unable to be spent because the private keys have been lost.
Of course, this does not change the bitcoin protocol. It would work the same even if there were only one bitcoin.

[BittBurger]

And makes the remaining coins worth that much more, as there are fewer to vie for.

-B-

[1Referee]

I think the total Bitcoins that never going to be used due to lost wallet files, lost passwords, etc will be around 1,000,000BTC MAX

[Nagle]

How many Bitcoins exist that have been involved in a transaction in the last two or three years?

[trolek1]

Hi guys,

As you may already be aware that there are people who simply lose bitcoins, and there is quite a lof of them!

For example: This guy lost his hard drive with 100k btc on it, another guy lost paper wallet with 30k btc on it and so on...

Now the question that i'm asking myself? Do they stay stuck in blockchain? Because if yes, than i see only about 8million bitcoins in circulation by the time they are mined..

How much they pay for 100k and 30k? You know that? It's very intresting.

[Campsis]

Hi guys,

As you may already be aware that there are people who simply lose bitcoins, and there is quite a lof of them!

For example: This guy lost his hard drive with 100k btc on it, another guy lost paper wallet with 30k btc on it and so on...

Now the question that i'm asking myself? Do they stay stuck in blockchain? Because if yes, than i see only about 8million bitcoins in circulation by the time they are mined..

How much they pay for 100k and 30k? You know that? It's very intresting.

wtf r ya on bout dawg

[snappa4ever]

The supply of BTC decreases due to BTC loss but at present it is an unknown value of BTC lost. Only when adoption and supply management for BTC happens we will understand how much is lost and not in circulation.

[hua_hui]

 I think some mechanism should be created to counter this losing bitcoin problem. In my mind, the stuck bitcoins in specific block take a specific period of time to release that coins to miners. Or binding your email address with private key, after specific period, the owner can validate your bitcoin in the blockchain using email.

[BurtW]

I think some mechanism should be created to counter this losing bitcoin problem. In my mind, the stuck bitcoins in specific block take a specific period of time to release that coins to miners. Or binding your email address with private key, after specific period, the owner can validate your bitcoin in the blockchain using email.

This same idea.  Again and again and again and again and again and again.

The answer is no, you cannot tell the difference between coins that are not moving due to a lost private key and coins that are not moving simply because someone is saving them for a rainy day.

The ideas you suggest will never happen because they go against everything Bitcoin is.

[BTCfaucetTIME]

I think some mechanism should be created to counter this losing bitcoin problem. In my mind, the stuck bitcoins in specific block take a specific period of time to release that coins to miners.

There is no real way to know for sure if the bitcon are truly "lost" or if the owner is simply choosing to not spend certain inputs for an extended period of time.

Or binding your email address with private key, after specific period, the owner can validate your bitcoin in the blockchain using email.

This would make it so bitcoin is not fungible which is not something we need to do. Also this is not how addresses are generated. The "network" has no way of knowing if a private key has ever been generated for a corresponding public key when bitcoin is sent to a public address

[franky1]

those proposing to redistribute coins that are not spent, are the same people that probably dont have $100 spare and are looking for ways to get free coins..

they have no understanding of economics and would prefer ruining the security of bitcoin for a one time money grab of $100 if any coin was evenly distributed to all bitcoin active users.

i truly hate the greedy people that care more about free hand outs rather than security for the long term.. i truly hope they go back to their fiat lives and steal their grandma's pensions as they should atleast learn the lessons of life ripping off people they do know and care about.. maybe then they will learn to not rip off others, once seeing the pain of wanting free handouts by taking from other people.

[bitllionaire]

Yes,they are stuck on the blockachain but you can't know if they are lost or just cold wallets
there will be unrecovered bitcoins but you will never know it

[Snorek]

I think some mechanism should be created to counter this losing bitcoin problem. In my mind, the stuck bitcoins in specific block take a specific period of time to release that coins to miners. Or binding your email address with private key, after specific period, the owner can validate your bitcoin in the blockchain using email.

This same idea.  Again and again and again and again and again and again.

The answer is no, you cannot tell the difference between coins that are not moving due to a lost private key and coins that are not moving simply because someone is saving them for a rainy day.

The ideas you suggest will never happen because they go against everything Bitcoin is.

But if time we are talking about would be set to some really big number? I mean if lost bitcoin would 'return' to ecosystem after, say, 100 years? What then?

[TippingPoint]

The loss rate of "early" Bitcoins was probably greater than the current loss rate. 

[borna_121136]

People are more cautious about their wallet password. That should decrease the rate.

[ranochigo]

I think some mechanism should be created to counter this losing bitcoin problem. In my mind, the stuck bitcoins in specific block take a specific period of time to release that coins to miners. Or binding your email address with private key, after specific period, the owner can validate your bitcoin in the blockchain using email.

This same idea.  Again and again and again and again and again and again.

The answer is no, you cannot tell the difference between coins that are not moving due to a lost private key and coins that are not moving simply because someone is saving them for a rainy day.

The ideas you suggest will never happen because they go against everything Bitcoin is.

But if time we are talking about would be set to some really big number? I mean if lost bitcoin would 'return' to ecosystem after, say, 100 years? What then?

This isn't logical. People may just be keeping it there for a very long period of time and pass it on to their offsprings. The price would drop a lot since a lot of miners forgot about their bitcoins. We could just shift to a smaller denomination if the total bitcoin in circulation is too low.

[bigasic]

Oh, im sure a lot of coins are lost forever, especially those that mined at the very beginning and didn't keep track of bitcoin. I would bet that up to 10 percent of all bitcoins are perma lost... Thats actually good for the the rest of us. Sucks for the guys that lost them, but the fewer the coins, the better off we are..

[Q7]

At least a meager 0.01% increments added each year to counter the permanent loss. Come on 0.01% wouldn't dilute bitcoin value so drastically. And this would eventually ensure bitcoin continuity in supply. Plus some incentive to ensure there will always be miners after the 21 mil