Topic: what happens to the bitcoins in lost wallets (Read 598 times)

I see, makes sense now. My economics understanding isn't much, i'm still reading up about that to, i never figured it would be essential for me to know these things, but i guess i got tired of living of hope that something better then a 9 to 5 job will "come up", and started exploring other options. I just want to be informed before i start buying expensive hardware.

I agree with you here, i used the term "issue" as being one on my side, English isn't my native language (long live auto-correct). I agree that having money under the mattress is a good solution considering the economic instability we are facing and uncertainty of jobs.

Thanks' for the quick reply.

If you lose your wallet - the BTC are gone forever meaning less BTC in existence making the remaining BTC more rare and valuable 

If you didn't save a backup? Most likely, yes.

There is a small possibility that some weakness may be discovered in ECDSA, SHA-256, and RIPEMD-160 in the future.   In that case, bitcoin will be modified to use some other cryptographic functions, and everyone will send the bitcoins that they control to addresses that use the new functions. Any bitcoins from lost wallets will be susceptible to the weakness and will be available for individuals to discover "steal" (much like searching for lost wealth in sunken ships).


Yes.  This is why many people call bitcoin a "deflationary" currency.


If "issue 1" were an issue, then I suppose that "demurrage" could be considered to be a "solution".  However, "issue 1" is considered by most to be a feature, not an "issue".  When bitcoins are lost by individuals who don't take the proper care in securing their wealth, bitcoins become more rare.  This reduces the total supply. As a result (due to the effects of supply&demand) if the demand remains constant, and the supply is reduced then the bitcoins owned by everyone else become a bit more valuable.


You don't seem to be missing out on anything other than the concept that individuals ought to be allowed to save their accumulated value without concern that someone else will take it from them.  Why would we want to discourage the responsible behavior of saving for the future and force people to spend everything as fast as they earn it?  What is an individual expected to do in times of unexpected hardship?  How are they expected to plan for retirement or other expected periods of reduced income?

Hi there, i'm new around here, nice to meet you.

I thought i'd try my luck with mining. i thought about trying some altcoins cause my hardware only consists of one video card and bitcoin dificulty is very high.

Anyway, i've been reading up about bitcon, and i ran across something that i can't understand (maybe i'm missing some info here). Let's say i have 10 bitcoins in my wallet. I loose my walled (hdd dies). From what i've read there will be fixed number of bitcoins at one point as the cap is reached. What happens with my 10 bitcoins from my wallet, they are lost forever to the world?

Issue 1: wouldn't this mean that the bitcoin numbers will keep going down as people keep losing there wallets?

I've read about an altcoin it was freicoin that uses a method of "demurrage" -basically the longer you keep your coins in your wallet they "rot" away slowly, this to encourage people to spend/use coins not stockpile.

Issue 2: I guess that the "rotted" coins are given to the miners, by this method the coins are re-entered into usage. wouldn't this be a solution if "issue 1" where true?

Could anybody correct my thought flow, i think i'm missing out on something here.