Topic: It's year 2050 and Bitcoin is the world currency... - page 5. (Read 5101 times)
Statistically at some point all the bitcoins/bits will be lost.
You would need a hard fork to replace coins in a scenario like that. You would have to define that those coins cannot be spent by the original keys and that a different private key can now move them.
I don't see that happening, the coins would be gone.
To me its a feature; stupid people loosing coins means fewer stupid people deciding what the economy should do! In reality nothing REAL is lost - we would still have the same amount of cars, oranges and houses as before the event.
I don't see that happening, the coins would be gone.
To me its a feature; stupid people loosing coins means fewer stupid people deciding what the economy should do! In reality nothing REAL is lost - we would still have the same amount of cars, oranges and houses as before the event.
For hypothetical purposes, let's say there are 20million Bitcoins in circulation (it's less than that I know).
A company that has possession of 5 million coins has terrible private key management. Their building burns down, along with it, all of their private keys and backups (again, they were stupid).
I know this scenario is a stretch - but what happens in the future if all of a sudden a serious percentage of Bitcoins are unspendable (and all at once)?
Will we as a society decide to "replace" these coins and put more back into circulation? Or ride the deflation wave? Everybody's coins become more valuable? Even if everybody depends on the value?
A company that has possession of 5 million coins has terrible private key management. Their building burns down, along with it, all of their private keys and backups (again, they were stupid).
I know this scenario is a stretch - but what happens in the future if all of a sudden a serious percentage of Bitcoins are unspendable (and all at once)?
Will we as a society decide to "replace" these coins and put more back into circulation? Or ride the deflation wave? Everybody's coins become more valuable? Even if everybody depends on the value?
Its an interesting question, but i personaly think that the coins would be replaced if the coins were to be proven indees as unrecoverable.
But ure right when you say that the scenario as a stretch, because theres no way on earth that someone would have 25% world's coins and risk loosing them in such a stupid way.
Even tho bitcoin now has no instrument of handling these scenarios, i believe that there will be some sort of oversight that would react in cases of such events.
cheers
From the Bitcoin Wiki:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#But_if_no_more_coins_are_generated.2C_what_happens_when_Bitcoins_are_lost.3F_Won.27t_that_be_a_problem.3F
That should answer your question.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#But_if_no_more_coins_are_generated.2C_what_happens_when_Bitcoins_are_lost.3F_Won.27t_that_be_a_problem.3F
Quote
But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem?
Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item decreases. This is a deflationary economic model. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.
Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item decreases. This is a deflationary economic model. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.
That should answer your question.
For hypothetical purposes, let's say there are 20million Bitcoins in circulation (it's less than that I know).
A company that has possession of 5 million coins has terrible private key management. Their building burns down, along with it, all of their private keys and backups (again, they were stupid).
I know this scenario is a stretch - but what happens in the future if all of a sudden a serious percentage of Bitcoins are unspendable (and all at once)?
Will we as a society decide to "replace" these coins and put more back into circulation? Or ride the deflation wave? Everybody's coins become more valuable? Even if everybody depends on the value?
A company that has possession of 5 million coins has terrible private key management. Their building burns down, along with it, all of their private keys and backups (again, they were stupid).
I know this scenario is a stretch - but what happens in the future if all of a sudden a serious percentage of Bitcoins are unspendable (and all at once)?
Will we as a society decide to "replace" these coins and put more back into circulation? Or ride the deflation wave? Everybody's coins become more valuable? Even if everybody depends on the value?
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