HOW MANY BITCOIN LOST IN SPACE.

[Piston Honda]

I'd say a little over a million are currently lost and irrecoverable.

I wonder how can it be disappeared and how to count the lost coins?

Same here!

[ikydesu]

I think 5% of all Bitcoins in existence are "lost" due to deleted wallets, lost passwords,etc.

Coins that haven't been touched in years doesn't necessarily mean that they are "lost" or forgotten.

Some guys keep their coins untouched for a reason 

I guess 3% due to deleted or lost password and 20% because scammer

[Flashman]

Scammed or stolen coins are still in circulation, do not count as "lost" to the economy.

[lightningmccoin]

I'd say a little over a million are currently lost and irrecoverable.

I wonder how can it be disappeared and how to count the lost coins?

Yeah, for it is unregulated and decentralized.

[SuperDex]

Probably around a million & 2 million.

[waser12]

Not possible to say, maybe 5% without those got by the FBI...

[BittBurger]

1,000,000 coins or so are probably lost.

I know when I first began and they were like $.05 ea, I had 10,000 coins or so but lost all of the wallets containing the coins.
That is just me, as a single individual.

I'm sure there are hundreds more like me who are foolish.

These stories are so painful to hear.   How does it feel knowing you could've had $10,000,000 last December?



Sorry for your loss.

[coinmaster222]

Suppose this brings us back to the old question where are Mt.Gox coins. Were they lost for good or just stolen.

[1Referee]

I think 5% of all Bitcoins in existence are "lost" due to deleted wallets, lost passwords,etc.

Coins that haven't been touched in years doesn't necessarily mean that they are "lost" or forgotten.

Some guys keep their coins untouched for a reason 

I guess 3% due to deleted or lost password and 20% because scammer

20% because of scammers?

Stolen Bitcoins aren't lost, they are in the wallet of the scammer, and he/she can spend them at any time.

[themys]

We don't have the possibility to know, perhaps 5% of the total.

[RobertDJ]

I think 5% of all Bitcoins in existence are "lost" due to deleted wallets, lost passwords,etc.

Coins that haven't been touched in years doesn't necessarily mean that they are "lost" or forgotten.

Some guys keep their coins untouched for a reason 

I guess 3% due to deleted or lost password and 20% because scammer

20% because of scammers?

Stolen Bitcoins aren't lost, they are in the wallet of the scammer, and he/she can spend them at any time.

The fact that bitcoin is fungible means that it doesn't matter if the bitcoin you have in your wallet can be traced to a previous theft/scam.

With the exception of the miners, most people almost certainly have bitcoin that can be traced to one or more scams/thefts via taint analysis.

[Flashman]

The fact that bitcoin is fungible means that it doesn't matter if the bitcoin you have in your wallet can be traced to a previous theft/scam.

With the exception of the miners, most people almost certainly have bitcoin that can be traced to one or more scams/thefts via taint analysis.

Oh btw yes, there's a probable scam e-mail going around trying to freak you out that your coins are guaranteed to be Silk Road tainted, and that the IRS, FBI, CIA, DHS, Lions Club and Womens Institute will kick your door down at 4AM and take them. So, don't be panicced into sending them into that "mixer" service. If they succeeded in making you uncomfortable, (sigh) pick a reputable mixing service.

[Velkro]

There is no way to tell. Likely 10's of thousands, if not 100's of thousands.

My knowledge points to around 1,4 mln currently

[FUR11]

I actually believe it could be up to 10% most from the old days when btc was worth just a few dollars

More. Most people likely only started to care about them when they hit $10 or even more. Then there also are those that have been lost due to site going bankrupt or lost in some kind of accident! But this is one of the factors that drives the price up (decreasing supply!)

[DannyHamilton]

There is a thread on here which is adding up all the known losses but only known losses in reality there is much more that have been lost.

Is there a link to this thread. It would nice to see it. I haven't run into it so far.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=675321.0

As of July 20 it was proven that at least 2,745.22283996 BTC in at least 20,412 different outputs were unspendable.

There are probably many more lost to forgotten (or lost) private keys, but it isn't possible to prove that those private keys aren't available.  All you can do is trust whoever told you. These 2,745.22283996 BTC can be proven to be unspendable.

[Flashman]

Oh just remembered, me and a buddy were screwing around and managed to send 0.0003 into the wild blue yonder..... well an address neither of us had the key for anyway.

[jsgayo]

I actually believe it could be up to 10% most from the old days when btc was worth just a few dollars

Y. of course.Early low price time.

[tzortz]

Noone could prove the exact number.

[Zhan21]

No one can provide accurate and there are arguments to answer. I am afraid that God does not necessarily know.

[Miitch]

I think as time goes on and Bitcoins are used more regularly there should be less coins doing nothing in random wallets. Might be able to get a good idea of how many have been lost by how many are inactive over years and years