#blockchain

ADSactly Crypto: How Many Bitcoin's Have Already Been Lost Forever?

Bitcoins recent surge to that oh so elusive $10 000 mark has seen renewed faith and positivity in the currency of late making headlines across the world. As it gains more traction with it comes media attention and popularity. More investors become interested in this miraculous internet money that is worth more than any single bar of gold or world fiat currency by single unit value.

But the rise to $10 000 has been ten years in the making and believe it or not there was a time when BTC wasn't worth a penny nevermind a single dollar. In the early days of Bitcoin as recent as 04 November 2011, the currency was still worth less than a dollar

Gone and now forgotten

During those times and even to this day, surprisingly, people did not take the currency seriously and look after it and have lost access to it for some reason. This lost Bitcoin is now basically removed from circulation, just like Gold sitting at the bottom of the ocean or paper money that was burned it can never be found and added back into the system.

Lost Bitcoin Image source: - fortune.com

How many Bitcoins are lost?

Over the years Bitcoin was lost due to physical thumb drives and cold storage wallets being lost or overwritten, damaged or lost paper wallets, devices with hot wallets being corrupted or destroyed. These incidents coupled with the fact that and users not storing copies of their private keys in various places so they may recover their money.

Due to this, there are many wallets on the Bitcoin network which are now holding funds but are inactive with no way of getting to them short of stumbling across the keys or using a quantum computer to brute force your way in, which is highly impractical at this point.

According to new research from digital forensics agency Chainalysis that studied the bitcoin blockchain, they found that around 3.79 million bitcoins are already gone for good based on a high estimate—and 2.78 million based on a low one.

Those numbers mean that 17% to 23% of existing bitcoins are now lost forever. Which makes current Bitcoin even more valuable as well as newly minted virgin Bitcoin.

What do lost Bitcoins do to the price?

While the lost Bitcoin is a painful and costly learning experience for the wallet owner, it is by no means an issue for the blockchain and the Bitcoin network. The more Bitcoin removed from circulation means that along with a decrease in yearly inflation. The amount of Bitcoins traded becomes less each year.

This reduction in supply pushes up scarcity which has a knock-on effect on prices as demand rises.

Dealing with your loss

What would you do if you lost Bitcoin? What would you do if you magically recovered lost Bitcoin now? How do you make sure you take care of the Bitcoin you own? Let me know in the comments :)

Previous ADSactly Crypto posts

Authored by @chekohler

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Comments · 10

@enginewitty(78)· 2491d
I know I have a minimum of 17.something or anther out there on a cracked up old hard drive I used for mining when it wasn't even worth a penny. When 10 MH was a beast of a miner :P
@marcybetancourt(70)· 2495d
You really are a great teacher. You have the gift of explaining in a simple way the cryptocurrency market. I don't know what I would do if I lost bitcoin in my wallet. What can't happen to me is to stop reading your publications so interesting, thoughtful and educational. A big hello to you @chekohler and thanks to @adsactly for sharing your post.
@arcange(79)· 2495d
Congratulations @adsactly! Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
- Upvotes - Ranked 10 with 784 upvotes
@gifty-e(45)· 2495d
Thanks a lot for this post. I don't own any bitcoins, but I don't dare imagine how I'd feel if I ever owned and lost it. Hmmmmm, well, it could never be compared to the loss a dear one, I'll survive.
@anomadsoul(80)· 2496d
Hey guys running @adsactly, I don't know you and you don't know me, but I just gave you a nice vote with @ocdb to try and catch your attention so you read my comment.

The reason I'm writing you is to link you to a post (I hope it's ok I do some self promotion) where I talk about changing the voting mentality and give New Steem a chance by spreading our voting power to other users, perhaps even focusing on minnows if that's what you want.

Here is the post I'm talking about. I hope to get some feedback from you. Have a great day!

Open letter - a Plea to give New Steem a chance
@steem-plus(74)· 2496d
Hi, @adsactly!

You just got a 0.3% upvote from SteemPlus! To get higher upvotes, earn more SteemPlus Points (SPP). On your Steemit wallet, check your SPP balance and click on "How to earn SPP?" to find out all the ways to earn. If you're not using SteemPlus yet, please check our last posts in here to see the many ways in which SteemPlus can improve your Steem experience on Steemit and Busy.
@josemalavem(75)· 2496d
As it usually is in your posts, @chekohler, accurate and useful information. I'm not a BTC owner, but I appreciate it. I suppose the owners of BTC should take their forecasts and be attentive.
@nancybriti(71)· 2496d
I think I'd die! To lose something so costly must be terrible. I once saw in a chapter of the series The Big Bang Theory how Sheldon and his friends lost a lot of BTC just because they formatted a computer and at that moment it seemed incredible to me that so much money could evaporate just because of that. I think we should have all the backup and security measures with the cryptomoney wallet, to avoid any loss or theft. Better safe than sorry! Good post, @chekohler
@katrin-lux(72)· 2496d
Such an interesting article! Do Not know what i would do when i lost all my btc. I think i would buy again some. And i hold Most of my btc in a Hardware wallet, ledger nano. I think its the safest was :)

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@mlmtraffic(51)· 2496d
Nice post! I like it.

Follow me @mlmtraffic Thank you so much 😍