Quote from: cAPSLOCK on Today at 01:14:17 PM

Quote from: Dabs on Today at 11:57:57 AM

Quote from: Copetech on June 29, 2021, 11:12:51 PM

Quote from: savetherainforest on June 29, 2021, 10:17:03 PM

But anyway, I was fond of his entertainment persona. That will be missed. And I don't think it was a suicide.

I wonder what will happen to all his coins... ?? .... Huh

And this is something I've been pondering recently... A maybe yet to be realized mitigating factor in the long-term course of this new currency.
We've already mentioned coins lost to forgotten keys and typos... but what about the generational wealth transfer that breaks down far more often than it succeeds as our first generation of HODL'ers fail to properly secure a means of passing coins on in the inevitable unfortunate demise.

With paper Fiat it's not uncommon to find out years later that old Uncle Festus had hidden thousands of $$$ under his floor boards. Or that Grandpa Irving had an old savings account or safety deposit box with forgotten fortunes waiting to be claimed.

At the simplest, bitcoiners may possibly have a paper backup, or the seed words, or some other private keys safely stored. Those can be under the floor boards or more likely in some safe or box or file cabinet.

There are also some multi-sig procedures so heirs can get access to coins.

If you currently do not have a recent back up, or tested a restore from your backup, or tried to load up your wallet (air gapped / cold of course) then now would be a good time to test if the procedure works. You can always destroy the new wallet if you don't intend to use it.

Extremely important post. Better to handle these things sooner rather than later...

Backing up wallets are important, but regarding lost coins on the Bitcoin blockchain, tend to agree with Satoshi.

Quote from: satoshi on June 21, 2010, 05:48:26 PM

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.