Will occasional losses of bitcoin wallets limit available maximum bitcoins? - page 4.

ShadowOfHarbringer

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Bringing Legendary Har® to you since 1952

Quote from: kiba on December 25, 2010, 03:45:32 PM

Bitcoins are never lost. just that the key is lost in the ocean somewhere.

One day, some guy might get very very very lucky to find a key to a vault full of bitcoin.

You mean by brute-forcing private key of the wallet owner or what ?

kiba

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Bitcoins are never lost. just that the key is lost in the ocean somewhere.

One day, some guy might get very very very lucky to find a key to a vault full of bitcoin.

Mahkul

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Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.

Too bad one cannot find someone else's lost wallet on the street. Wink

Timo Y

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bitcoin - the aerogel of money

Quote from: eMansipater on December 25, 2010, 03:44:54 AM

And this in a system that is naturally deflationary to begin with! Isn't this a pretty huge systemic problem?

Most people in the Bitcoin community think that deflation is actually good for the economy.

The last three months we've already had massive deflation (approx. -75%) and the Bitcoin economy is doing fine.

See:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deflationary_spiral

Also, the deflation from losing wallets is going to be negligible compared to deflation from new users joining.

Unlike credit cards, Bitcoin feels like real money to people, and I think that most users treat a wallet.dat file differently to just any data stored on their harddisk. I would be very surprised if many people who own more than few hundred BTC don't keep at least one backup of their wallet.

Cryptoman

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Some idiot loses his wallet. My wallet becomes worth more. No problem! Cheesy

eMansipater

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Quote from: The Madhatter on April 14, 2010, 08:55:04 PM

Bitcoins that are lost are lost forever. No it doesn't recover. It is "natural deflation". Tongue

Sorry to bump this old thread, but it seemed mildly less obnoxious than starting a new one on an already-discussed topic. This problem was actually my first thought when I heard about bitcoin--given that wallets are often stored on run-of-the-mill computers, and that a huge proportion of computers crash without proper backups in place, won't the resulting deflation be quite significant? Even if it's just small amounts lost by reckless users(think digital equivalent of teenagers losing spare change due to holes in pockets), this would add up fast if bitcoin were in widespread use. And this in a system that is naturally deflationary to begin with! Isn't this a pretty huge systemic problem?

ksd5

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Well, if in some case EVERYONE loses their coins, they can just start the whole coin generation process all over again.

The Madhatter

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My avatar pic says it all

Bitcoins that are lost are lost forever. No it doesn't recover. It is "natural deflation". Tongue

Minsc

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What happens if somebody has some data issue and completely loses their bitcoin wallet for good? Will this mean the bitcoins that they had would be lost permanently from the potential maximum bitcoin money supply? Then as this happens occassionaly, the maximum bitcoin money supply shrinks.

As this happens over time, will it destroy bitcoin or can bitcoin recover?

Topic: Will occasional losses of bitcoin wallets limit available maximum bitcoins? - page 4. (Read 26881 times)