I like the idea of only having 21 million bitcoins.
Bitcoins get lost all the time, lost private keys.
In time we will have fewer and fewer bitcoins, currently it is thought 3-4 million bitcoins are already lost. This makes me sad.
I propose a redistribution method:
>If an address did not have any activity in let's say the last 100 years the address is considered lost and the bitcoins are free to be mined in the next block.
To prevent losing your bitcoins you make sure to transfer them to a new address every 100 years (I am not aware of any other method of "proving" you still have access to an address).
P.S. This would be a change in the consensus mechanism, I know
P.S.S. I am aware of Satoshi's view on this "lost coins are a donation to everyone". Yes, but 4 million is a lot, do we want Bitcoin to still be used 1000 years from now? If this trend continues most if not all bitcoins would have been lost by then.
Bitcoins get lost all the time, lost private keys.
In time we will have fewer and fewer bitcoins, currently it is thought 3-4 million bitcoins are already lost. This makes me sad.
I propose a redistribution method:
>If an address did not have any activity in let's say the last 100 years the address is considered lost and the bitcoins are free to be mined in the next block.
To prevent losing your bitcoins you make sure to transfer them to a new address every 100 years (I am not aware of any other method of "proving" you still have access to an address).
P.S. This would be a change in the consensus mechanism, I know
P.S.S. I am aware of Satoshi's view on this "lost coins are a donation to everyone". Yes, but 4 million is a lot, do we want Bitcoin to still be used 1000 years from now? If this trend continues most if not all bitcoins would have been lost by then.
This is a perfectly reasonable idea, because there are fewer and fewer bitcoins. But it is possible that in a hundred years bitcoin will become only a collectible coin, and by that time many other fast coins will appear. But we will remember Bitcoin, it will forever be digital gold.
So how can your idea come to life?
If Bitcoins have not been involved in transactions for 100 years, then we will no longer get them from lost wallets, maybe only through some fork. But these will not be the real original bitcoins.
Therefore, the technical side of this case is hardly feasible, although the decision is definitely reasonable and fair.