[DISCUSSION] What will happen to the "lost" bitcoins? - page 2.

fikrett

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Quote from: NotATether on October 31, 2024, 04:27:57 AM

Only if said lost coins have had some shred of their private key or seed phrase exposed, or any other fragment that would allow signing a spending transaction from it.

Don't see it happening, though, so they may be marked as lost to the cause of BTC being more scarce in the long run.
Even if we speculate - how a person not associated with them would be able to find the keys?

NotATether

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Quote from: Dr.Bitcoin_Strange on October 31, 2024, 01:30:46 AM

When something is lost, it means you can not have access to it again, unless you luckily find what can grant you access to what you have lost. The possibility of losing your Bitcoin is if you no longer have access to your private key and it was an act that was very common years back, probably because Bitcoiners of that time didn't know that Bitcoin will become very appreciative to what it is today.

And also, among other things, happened when the various wallet websites and exchanges shut down, taking many people's assets with them.

Like Mt.Gox, BTC-e, or all of those blockchain.info wallets that were obsoleted by their new trading system.

Quote from: BitcoinHoarder on October 29, 2024, 01:28:07 PM

Given enough time, lost coins will be reclaimed by technology that is able to claim them.

Only if said lost coins have had some shred of their private key or seed phrase exposed, or any other fragment that would allow signing a spending transaction from it.

hosseinimr93

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Quote from: sunsilk on October 30, 2024, 04:44:20 AM

Nope, including the lost Bitcoins they will be all 21 million.

To be more accurate:
The exact number of bitcoins (including the lost ones) will be 20999999.9769

Quote from: Dr.Bitcoin_Strange on October 31, 2024, 01:30:46 AM

So, nobody can have access to their lost Bitcoin. Satoshi once said that lost Bitcoin should be considered a donation for the growth of the technology.

Satoshi never said that the lost bitcoins will help the growth of technology. Satoshi said that "Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more." and that means that it makes the price grow, not the technology.

Dr.Bitcoin_Strange

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

What could happen to these lost bitcoins? Will they continue to be lost in "limbo" Huh

When something is lost, it means you can not have access to it again, unless you luckily find what can grant you access to what you have lost. The possibility of losing your Bitcoin is if you no longer have access to your private key and it was an act that was very common years back, probably because Bitcoiners of that time didn't know that Bitcoin will become very appreciative to what it is today.

So, nobody can have access to their lost Bitcoin. Satoshi once said that lost Bitcoin should be considered a donation for the growth of the technology.

sunsilk

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

but when will the limit of bitcoins be mined be reached?

Around 2140, based on estimations.

Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

The circulation limit of the asset will not be just 21 million (value estimated by the system), it will be 21 million minus the bitcoins lost in wallets, which according to studies, is almost 4 million lost coins. This value will probably increase significantly as the year goes on.

Nope, including the lost Bitcoins they will be all 21 million. So, if there was 4 million bitcoins lost forever then plus 17 million supply, in total of 21 million bitcoins will be mined until that year when it will be lastly mined.

Just to give a note, according to coinmarketcap: we have 19,775,137 BTC in circulation already. And with all of the lost bitcoins, if they're totally lost then they're gone forever unless someone is just fooling around trying to pretend they've lost it and then will access it later on.

Kelward

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Quote from: Frankolala on October 29, 2024, 09:44:39 AM

Bitcoin that is lost and cannot be recovered by the owners for some reason, will be as charity to the bitcoin community, and that will add to the value of bitcoin, because it will limit the quantity of bitcoin within the reach of people. This is why you need to backup your seed phrase in three locations far from each other to avoid a total lost, because you will not have access to your wallet anymore, and your bitcoin will be locked forever in the blockchain.

This is the price of decentralization, if you lose your private keys, there's no centralized office to help you to recover them, meaning that your BTC is lost forever. It will become a donation to the Bitcoin network and there's nothing you can do about it. I've given my own donation to the network due to my negligence as a newbie then, and I don't hope to donate again, I'm not that charitable Grin

. Being a sole custodian of your coins is a huge responsibility because your private keys are the only access that you have to the coins.

hosseinimr93

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Quote from: pooya87 on October 30, 2024, 01:01:26 AM

1. Coins sent to a provably unspendable output

There are more coins provably lost.
As I said in my previous post, some coins were lost due to miners not claiming the block reward and some were lost due to the coinbase transactions having the same hashes.

pooya87

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It depends what you mean by "lost coins". Usually people confuse coins that haven't moved for a long time with lost coins. If it is the former, they are not lost and what happens is that they eventually move! If it is the later then Satoshi already answered your question:

Quote from: satoshi on June 21, 2010, 01:48:26 PM

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

Feel free to read the rest of that topic as well.

Basically coins that are lost are:
1. Coins sent to a provably unspendable output
This includes the OP_RETURN outputs, broken outputs (eg. OP_HASH160 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG) and burn addresses. These are lost forever and it is impossible to spend them.

2. Coins in a wallet/address with lost key
This could be a paper wallet that was lost, a digital wallet (eg. wallet.dat file) that was lost due to hardware damage, encryption password that was forgotten, etc. These are lost forever unless the user remembers their password, finds their paper wallet, etc.

Maslate

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Lost Bitcoin stays lost unless recovered, so technically, the total supply remains 21 million. But with lost Bitcoin, the actual accessible supply decreases, which could have a positive effect on the market. Basic rule: when demand is high and supply is limited, prices go up. Over time, as more Bitcoin is lost, its value could keep rising. However, we don’t want this happening, as it’s not ideal for the ecosystem. Let’s just hope more Bitcoin holders learn how to secure their assets.

hugeblack

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

What could happen to these lost bitcoins? Will they continue to be lost in "limbo" Huh

You don't need to worry about these lost bitcoins if 1 bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis or less than 2.1 quadrillion Wink

. Also, unlike the bitcoins that are sent to proof-of-burn addresses, we cannot be sure that these bitcoins are lost,

SilverCryptoBullet

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

I've always had a big question about the bitcoins in wallets that were lost over time.

Many reasons for losing bitcoins: in your non custodial wallets by did not have wallet backups, lost your wallet backups; or in accounts on centralized platforms that can be hacked, bankrupted like Mt.Gox or scam exchanges.

Quote from: satoshi on June 21, 2010, 01:48:26 PM

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

BitcoinHoarder

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Given enough time, lost coins will be reclaimed by technology that is able to claim them. Of course when the time comes non-lost coins will not be vulnerable to the same technology that claims lost coins.

?

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

Hello friends, this is my first discussion on the forum, and it's a pleasure to be part of this environment

I've always had a big question about the bitcoins in wallets that were lost over time. Of course, this is not something to worry about right now, but when will the limit of bitcoins be mined be reached? The circulation limit of the asset will not be just 21 million (value estimated by the system), it will be 21 million minus the bitcoins lost in wallets, which according to studies, is almost 4 million lost coins. This value will probably increase significantly as the year goes on.

What could happen to these lost bitcoins? Will they continue to be lost in "limbo" Huh

Yes
Neither the owner nor anyone else will have access to the coins
Well atleast it's not with someone else

hosseinimr93

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Quote from: EL MOHA on October 29, 2024, 12:12:28 PM

The only validly lost bitcoin is that sent to a burn address, like using the the usual OP-return method which means the output can never be spent, this is the only way the coin is lost in my opinion.

It's true that OP-return outputs are lost and can never be spent, but they are not the only coins that have provably been lost.
There were coins that were lost because miners didn't claim them when mining blocks and there were also coins that were lost due to the coinbase transactions having the same hashes.

EL MOHA

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Quote from: Fiatless on October 29, 2024, 11:27:45 AM

It will be difficult to correctly estimate the total number of lost coins. Some old dormant wallets which are suspected to contain lost coins can suddenly become operational in the future. In economics, the availability of an asset usually affects the price. Lost Bitcoins reduce the number of Bitcoins in the market which will slightly increase their worth. The higher the number of lost Bitcoin the more valuable the worth of Bitcoin.

I don’t even consider bitcoin been lost if they are actually still on a spendable address, many people consider bitcoin sent to a wrong adress as a lost coin, although it is not common but I believe if bitcoin is sent to an address that is with a correct checksum that particular bitcoin isn’t lost because there is tendency of it been spent. The only validly lost bitcoin is that sent to a burn address, like using the the usual OP-return method which means the output can never be spent, this is the only way the coin is lost in my opinion. Right most of all this assumed lost bitcoins could be long term holders who left it dormant

Fiatless

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

What could happen to these lost bitcoins? Will they continue to be lost in "limbo" Huh

It will be difficult to correctly estimate the total number of lost coins. Some old dormant wallets which are suspected to contain lost coins can suddenly become operational in the future. In economics, the availability of an asset usually affects the price. Lost Bitcoins reduce the number of Bitcoins in the market which will slightly increase their worth. The higher the number of lost Bitcoin the more valuable the worth of Bitcoin.

Rruchi man

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

What could happen to these lost bitcoins? Will they continue to be lost in "limbo" Huh

Since you are relatively new to Bitcoin, I advise you not to fall for the scam that all things lost can be found in the space because Bitcoin is one of those things that, if lost, cannot be recovered.

There have been many scammers who have tried many times to pose as having the capability to recover lost Bitcoin; some people have been victims of them, but to give you a warning, @OP, avoid such, because it is a scam!

Cryptohygenic

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It keep running on my head that how do we practically proof that there are lost bitcoins before deliberating on what would happen to them.
This is skeptical because there are long time holders who could even hold bitcoin for generational inheritance. So do we assume such wallet holding such bitcoins assuming over 15 years plus without processing of transcriptions all those while be termed lost funds as much as those who has lost permanent access to their wallets?
How do we literally different this ? I mean how can the system detect lost or misplaced bitcoins when the actually owners never voiced out?

But to my view, I think those misplaced bitcoins are gone forever but though I read that there is an ongoing development system that is being initiated to the capability of recovering those lost bitcoins but that would be determined in a far future .

Mia Chloe

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Quote from: ? on October 29, 2024, 09:28:42 AM

~snip

Well firstly,I really don't know if you are a core English person or if English is your regular language (no offence) but I believe forum or community is a better fit for thid context than environment. However with respect to you point, lost coins simply means that the owner of that particular wallet lost his keys and his seed phrase. Which literally means there's no possible way of spending the coins in that wallet. Although it actually isn't a donation to the network, but it's literally similar to burning your coins.

To burn some coins you send them to an address which you lost the keys and seed meaning there is actually no way to access or the coins.Lost coins are actually beneficial to the bitcoin network because it preserves price since it's like an anonymous HODLer is hodling indefinitely causing circulating supply to reduce increasing price.

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In satoshi word, lost bitcoin is a donation to every other bitcoin holder and just as act said it a charity since it will never be recovered even though it exists in the network, but no one can ever have access to such bitcoin and that means bitcoin becoming more scarce which eventually will increase the value and price if bitcoin and that is the reason satoshi titled it as a form for donation.

Topic: [DISCUSSION] What will happen to the "lost" bitcoins? - page 2. (Read 467 times)