But 2.1 quadrillion only requires 41 bits of precision to represent (0x1E8F1C10800).
Are you sure about that?
21,000,000 * 100,000,000 =
2,
100,
000,
000,
000,000
0x1E8F1C10800 =
2,
100,
000,
000,
000You seem to be off by a factor of 1000.
This means that the upper 23 bits must be zero, no?
If there ever were a situation where all the possible bitcoins were sent to a single output (that really is impossible, but lets use it for an upper bound), then the resulting value would be:
0x775f059e40090
This would require 51 bits, leaving an extra 9 bits that remain unused.
How many of the
2,
100,
000,
000,
000,000 Satoshi is currently in circulation?
Subtract 1 000 000+ from Satoshi's stash
Subtract coins being send to Burn addresses
Subtract Lost coins
Subtract Coin that are hoarded/Cold storage
Subtract the coins that are not mined yet.
We should not be looking at the Total amount, but rather how many is in circulation. ^smile^
When you write software, especially something as precise as Bitcoin, you would never be so negligent as to write code that doesn't consider every corner case. So no, removing those not in circulation would never be an option.