Author: Teweldemedhin Aberra 2017-12-11 17:30:37
Published on: 2017-12-11T17:30:37+00:00
It is estimated that out of the 16.4 million Bitcoins ever mined, about 4 million are lost forever due to unknown private keys of certain Bitcoin addresses. This leaves only 14.4 million Bitcoins in circulation, and with a cap of 21 million Bitcoins that can be mined, the total number of Bitcoins in circulation will eventually reach zero. To combat this issue, a BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) suggests implementing a dead man's switch to dormant Bitcoin addresses. Dormant addresses would be considered inactive if they have not been used in transactions for a fixed amount of time, such as ten years. The dead man's switch would cause the Bitcoins assigned to these dormant addresses to expire automatically. If a sufficient number of Bitcoins expire, it could potentially increase miner rewards since the calculation of the reward takes into account expired Bitcoins.
Updated on: 2023-05-20T04:31:39.987410+00:00