hmmm i wounder, what will come first ? the lost of 21 Million BTC or the destruction of our solar system ? hmhmhmhmmhmh
Bitcoins each consist of 100000000 integer units.
Therefore there are a total of 2100000000000000 (2.1 X 10
15) units of currency in bitcoin.
How long do you suppose it will take to lose half of those units?
Once half of the units are lost, the remaining units will be worth twice as much as they would have been if nothing had been lost. This implies that those hold a unit will treat it with the same care as someone today would treat 2 units.
As such, it should take just about as long to lose the next fourth of the original units as it did to lose the first half.
Then three fourths of the units will be lost, and the remaining units will be worth four times as much as they would have been if nothing had been lost. This implies that those hold a unit will treat it with the same care as someone today would treat 4 units.
As such, it should take just about as long to lose the next eighth of the the original units as it did to lose the first half (which is also as long as it took to lose the next quarter).
Repeat as many times as you like. If the total number of units becomes so small (and therefore the value so large) that reasonable small purchases can't be accomplished with the smallest possible unit, then the protocol can be updated to allow each of the smallest units to be split into multiple smaller units.