Long term consequences of permanently lost Bitcoin on network viability?
I won’t get into estimates on how many Bitcoin are lost per year, but I know we can all agree that -some- percentage of Bitcoin have been permanently lost over the past 14 years of its existence, and that as time progresses the number of lost coins will increase. Indefinitely.
This “fact of Bitcoin” is dismissed or downplayed in the following ways:
- “The more Bitcoin that are lost the better as it increases the scarcity (and thus the value) of MY coins, so too bad for those who lost, be more careful next time”
This is selfish nonsense that no society of humans would find acceptable outside of fringe techno-anarchists. I
- “Bitcoin are infinitely divisible, so the network can absorb lost Bitcoin forever without impacting the network.”
Really? Infinitely divisible? What if there’s 1 coin left? For the world? Ok fine, maybe 1 coin left is too extreme and too hypothetical, but then that brings me back to the title question…
At what point do lost coins adversely effect the viability of the network? At what stage of bitcoins development is the “right” time to address this problem? What are some possible solutions?