When Bitcoin was first created, it was revealed that there was a limit to how many coins would ever exist. That number is set at 21 million. However, what happens to Bitcoins that are never used, or lost, and what happens when someone dies? Are those Bitcoins just taken fully out of circulation? Can they ever be spent again? Researchers have found that 64% of owned Bitcoins have never been spent, so whether they can be is certainly interesting.
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Some Interesting Stories
There have been many stories over the years from people who invested in Bitcoin early and then went on to lose their currency, and in most cases, there seems to be no way to recover them.
Take the example of James Howells, an IT worker from Newport in Wales. He reportedly lost over 7,500 Bitcoins after throwing out a hard disk drive which contained his personal key. If he had kept hold of it, he would be a millionaire today, but he has no way of recovering the coins without the drive.
Then there’s the story of David Kitchen, a London developer who mined 50 Bitcoins back in 2010. David added the Bitcoins to a USB stick and forgot about it until Bitcoin started to make headlines in the news. After searching for the USB, he was unable to find it and believed it’s likely he just wiped over the USB with new files. His wallet would have been worth around £50k if he’d kept hold of it.
But is this always the case or is there a way to recover lost coins?
Can You Recover Lost Coins?
If you perform a Google search, you’ll find lots of tutorials that explain how to recover lost coins, and also companies that claim to be able to do this for you. The overwhelming advice, however, seems to be not to attempt to DIY recover your wallet. Unless you know what you are doing, you could end up causing more damage.
Instead, it is a better option to contact a company like Secure Data Recovery, drop your hard drive off with them and pay a professional to recover your coins. When you are investing a lot of money in cryptocurrency it is vital that you follow the proper practices to restore them.
How to Prevent Losses
Of course, it’s always easier to prevent a loss than it is to recover from one. There are a number of things you can do to prevent losing your Bitcoins, including upgrading to two-factor authentication, using password managers, using a hardware or cold storage wallet as opposed to an exchange or your smartphone, and ensuring your wallet is encrypted and up to date. You may also want to write a will detailing what should happen to your Bitcoin in the event of your death.
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While all of the above will take time to implement, you will be glad that you did them should you have any problems in the future. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
