Quote from: Accountsell on January 24, 2020, 03:26:06 PM

Quote from: Wokebeast on January 23, 2020, 07:16:21 PM

What happens to my two Bitcoins (just for example) if I lose my security key? I do not have any Bitcoin at the moment. But, I am quickly learning about Bitcoin as I want to very soon make my very first purchase of some amount of it. My question has to do with there being a finite amount of Bitcoin in circulation. Today about 17,000,000 (17 million) Bitcoins are in existence. By year 2140 as I understand it there will be no more than 21,000,000 (21 million) Bitcoins in existence. Furthermore, my understanding is that I am the only person with access to my Bitcoin through my private security key. Now, my question is. If I lose my security key to, let's say, one of my Bitcoin wallets that has maybe 2 Bitcoin in it. Then, what happens to that 2 Bitcoin in the context of the 17 million Bitcoin currently in existence. Who can find and use those 2 Bitcoin that I "lost". Or, do those 2 Bitcoin get lost forever, because I'm presuming no one ever will find/guess my lost security key? An analogy is, if I lose a hundred dollar bill, someone will likely find it and be able to use it to put it back into market circulation. However, if the hundred dollar bill gets flushed down a sewer drain, then it gets permanently removed from market circulation. So, I'm wondering, do the 2 Bitcoins in my example that I "lost", do they permanently get removed from market circulation. And, if so, then does that mean that in 2140 there will be 2 Bitcoins fewer in the total market circulating, for example, 21,000,000-2 would make it 20,999,998 Bitcoins in circulation. Or, can those 2 lost Bitcoins be *replaced* by Bitcoin mining over time so that the market has the full 21 million in circulation.

It's that easier.
You would loose your bitcoins if you loose your security keys. Bitcoins are a digital currency which wholely depends on the security keys, private keys, wallet id, etc and if you loose any of those, you could loose your money/bitcoins.

Certainly, private keys are so secure that you'd only be the one to get a hold of it, incase you lose it, you pretty much lose everything. If ypu hid your private keys in a wallet let's say then you have a good chance of retaining it, as long as you have connected the addresses beforehand and you have remembered your passphrase because most wallet in the system requires a special passphrase that you are required to enter first. So if you lose both of them. You wonmt be able to use your bitcoins anymore but they're still pretty much in the market per se.