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I've been kicking myself lately. I toyed with Bitcoin pretty early on and had a wallet containing roughly 200 BTC. I'm pretty sure that wallet was wiped just be

by subway 14y ago

I've been kicking myself lately. I toyed with Bitcoin pretty early on and had a wallet containing roughly 200 BTC. I'm pretty sure that wallet was wiped just before turning in the work owned machine it sat on.

mrweasel 14y ago
Interesting, does that mean that those Bitcoins are lost forever? Regular currency, coin and bills, are replaced at a steady pace. If Bitcoins are not replaced when lost, then it would be possible to lose all Bitcoins a some point, or am I wrong? The idea is that there can only be 21 million Bitcoins, or something like that, but in the end there could be a lot less because they are lost.
- DiabloD3 14y ago
  Yes, gone forever.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- chm 14y ago
  Yes, they are lost. There are thus less bitcoins in circulation, and so their value goes up (it's deflationary).
  - sschueller 14y ago
    So eventually we will see someone try the 'Goldfinger' plot to wipe a large chunk of coins in order to increase the value of their holdings.
  - mrweasel 14y ago
    But you could then, worst case scenario, lose all Bitcoins in existence. Seems like an unfortunate feature in currency.
    - anu_gupta 14y ago
      Over a sufficiently large timescale, I think is an inevitable scenario. However, I have no idea whether that large timescale is measured in decades, centuries or millennia. If it's the latter, then it's probably not a huge problem.
    - Shish2k 14y ago
      As long as a single bitcoin exists, there'll still be more fractional bitcoins available to divide among people than there are US cents* * may not be precisely true, but it's something along those lines.
      - fr0sty 14y ago
        This is off by at least three orders of magnitude. 1BTC = 10M satoshi. 2012 US Penny Production = ~6B 6bn/10M = 600 Total number of us pennies made in the last 10 years tops 43B which pushes the difference from 600x to 4300x
        mike-cardwell 14y ago
        1 satoshi is classified as "the smallest denomination currently possible". The important part of that is "currently possible". The protocol allows for us to divide down as far as we want. All we need is a software update. Even if there were an upper limit of 21 trillion bitcoins, people would still be worring about them being lost, even though it makes no difference.
        mrb 14y ago
        1 BTC = 100M satoshi, not 10M Shish2k's point stands, only with "430 BTC is as many satoshis as there are US pennies". But this is irrelevant anyway. If 1 satoshi ever becomes too coarse-grained, the whole Bitcoin community would obviously agree to revise the protocol to further subdivide satoshis...
Sprint 14y ago
If you took another turn on the 14th June of 1996 you might have found a briefcase full of money. ;) Bitcoin is gambling to me, it is pure speculation. Don't drop a tear for that. In general society would be better without such schemes.
- ramblerman 14y ago
  > society would be better without such schemes. This is still Hacker news right? crypto currency could be one of the most exciting things to come out of this decade.
  - Sprint 14y ago
    Technically absolutely yes, but morally and ethically I find the bitcoin scheme utterly disgusting.
    - Fuzzwah 14y ago
      Could you elaborate?
    - th3doubl3d 14y ago
      Yes, PLEASE elaborate.
- Eleopteryx 14y ago
  Life is a gamble. Hide in the house or accept that you might fall off the bike and scrape your knees once in a while.
- VMG 14y ago
  Said the guy on the venture capitalist's news site.
mdelias 14y ago
You should add your loss to this list if you haven't already: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7253.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7253.0
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

by subway 14y ago

mrweasel 14y ago

Interesting, does that mean that those Bitcoins are lost forever? Regular currency, coin and bills, are replaced at a steady pace. If Bitcoins are not replaced when lost, then it would be possible to lose all Bitcoins a some point, or am I wrong? The idea is that there can only be 21 million Bitcoins, or something like that, but in the end there could be a lot less because they are lost.

DiabloD3 14y ago
Yes, gone forever.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
chm 14y ago
Yes, they are lost. There are thus less bitcoins in circulation, and so their value goes up (it's deflationary).
- sschueller 14y ago
  So eventually we will see someone try the 'Goldfinger' plot to wipe a large chunk of coins in order to increase the value of their holdings.
- mrweasel 14y ago
  But you could then, worst case scenario, lose all Bitcoins in existence. Seems like an unfortunate feature in currency.
  - anu_gupta 14y ago
    Over a sufficiently large timescale, I think is an inevitable scenario. However, I have no idea whether that large timescale is measured in decades, centuries or millennia. If it's the latter, then it's probably not a huge problem.
  - Shish2k 14y ago
    As long as a single bitcoin exists, there'll still be more fractional bitcoins available to divide among people than there are US cents* * may not be precisely true, but it's something along those lines.
    - fr0sty 14y ago
      This is off by at least three orders of magnitude. 1BTC = 10M satoshi. 2012 US Penny Production = ~6B 6bn/10M = 600 Total number of us pennies made in the last 10 years tops 43B which pushes the difference from 600x to 4300x
      - mike-cardwell 14y ago
        1 satoshi is classified as "the smallest denomination currently possible". The important part of that is "currently possible". The protocol allows for us to divide down as far as we want. All we need is a software update. Even if there were an upper limit of 21 trillion bitcoins, people would still be worring about them being lost, even though it makes no difference.
      - mrb 14y ago
        1 BTC = 100M satoshi, not 10M Shish2k's point stands, only with "430 BTC is as many satoshis as there are US pennies". But this is irrelevant anyway. If 1 satoshi ever becomes too coarse-grained, the whole Bitcoin community would obviously agree to revise the protocol to further subdivide satoshis...

Sprint 14y ago

If you took another turn on the 14th June of 1996 you might have found a briefcase full of money. ;) Bitcoin is gambling to me, it is pure speculation. Don't drop a tear for that. In general society would be better without such schemes.

ramblerman 14y ago
> society would be better without such schemes. This is still Hacker news right? crypto currency could be one of the most exciting things to come out of this decade.
- Sprint 14y ago
  Technically absolutely yes, but morally and ethically I find the bitcoin scheme utterly disgusting.
  - Fuzzwah 14y ago
    Could you elaborate?
  - th3doubl3d 14y ago
    Yes, PLEASE elaborate.
Eleopteryx 14y ago
Life is a gamble. Hide in the house or accept that you might fall off the bike and scrape your knees once in a while.
VMG 14y ago
Said the guy on the venture capitalist's news site.

mdelias 14y ago

You should add your loss to this list if you haven't already: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7253.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7253.0

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]