<p>I love the concept of Bitcoin, however I have noticed a few weaknesses to the system that not may folks talk about.  One of the issues is the 21,000,000 limit. After "X" amount of time, a certain amount of the currency is lost.   For instance lets say every year, 3% of bitcoin is lost due to hardware crashes, owners death, another Mt Gox, etc...  I am aware we can go all the way down to a satoshi, however I am not sure that is feasible because given enough time, even a Satoshi would be prohibitively expensive when looking at a global scale.  Assuming that rate of loss, you lose half of the bitcoins out there after less than two decades.   Should there be a way to handle reissuance of "dead" coins?  Or even to expand the 21,000,000 limit?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-25T15:52:25.643Z
please read [What could be the consequences of many bitcoins being lost out of circulation if people lose their wallets?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/1638/5406), [Why doesn't Bitcoin return lost coins back into the block reward?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/484/5406), and [What happens to the overall value of Bitcoin when a huge amount of coin is lost?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/41744/5406). If you feel that your question is a duplicate of one of them, please flag to close as a duplicate of it. Otherwise, please clarify how your question is different than the above.
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-27T18:39:40.233Z
Any attempt to solve a problem that won't manifest for at least a hundred years now is pointless. Who knows if Bitcoin will even exist then, and it's extremely unlikely that it will look much like it does now.
David Schwartz
<weaknesses><reward-schedule><shrinking-money-supply>
The 21,000,000 BTC Limit Issue
user32352
# The 21,000,000 BTC Limit Issue

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-01-25)

I love the concept of Bitcoin, however I have noticed a few weaknesses to the system that not may folks talk about. One of the issues is the 21,000,000 limit. After "X" amount of time, a certain amount of the currency is lost. For instance lets say every year, 3% of bitcoin is lost due to hardware crashes, owners death, another Mt Gox, etc... I am aware we can go all the way down to a satoshi, however I am not sure that is feasible because given enough time, even a Satoshi would be prohibitively expensive when looking at a global scale. Assuming that rate of loss, you lose half of the bitcoins out there after less than two decades. Should there be a way to handle reissuance of "dead" coins? Or even to expand the 21,000,000 limit?

**Tags:** weaknesses, reward-schedule, shrinking-money-supply

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: please read [What could be the consequences of many bitcoins being lost out of circulation if people lose their wallets?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/1638/5406), [Why doesn't Bitcoin return lost coins back into the block reward?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/484/5406), and [What happens to the overall value of Bitcoin when a huge amount of coin is lost?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/41744/5406). If you feel that your question is a duplicate of one of them, please flag to close as a duplicate of it. Otherwise, please clarify how your question is different than the above.  
> **username_2**: Any attempt to solve a problem that won't manifest for at least a hundred years now is pointless. Who knows if Bitcoin will even exist then, and it's extremely unlikely that it will look much like it does now.  

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