{"id":377,"date":"2016-12-21T20:40:37","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T20:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bitcoinwhoswho.com\/blog\/?p=377"},"modified":"2016-12-29T00:19:49","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T00:19:49","slug":"btc-burn-addresses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bitcoinwhoswho.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/21\/btc-burn-addresses\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Forever 26.04 BTC Burned In 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lost coins only make everyone else’s coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Satoshi Nakamoto<\/p>\n

There will eventually be 21 million bitcoins mined however that will never be the true number in circulation. The distinction is important if you want to precisely measure bitcoin value and market capitalization which is setting new records. Not all bitcoin addresses can be spent. The genesis block can never be spent. Likewise any bitcoin sent to a “burn” address are also forever unspendable. A bitcoin burn address is like an impossible vanity address<\/a>. There is no private key to a burn address and one would be impossible to generate. These are not merely ‘zombies<\/a>‘ but truly gone forever. How many bitcoins have been “burned” exactly? <\/p>\n

As of last October a website called BTCBurns.cf<\/a> identified 397 burn addresses containing 2,657.8686 BTC lost forever. It has gone offline. Since it stopped keeping track 26.04 additional bitcoins have been sent to these addresses. <\/p>\n

The total number of unspendable bitcoins is at least 2,733.9086. This does not include situations like lost hardware and private keys. Nor does it include Satoshi’s first mined blocks which are unlikely to be spent.<\/p>\n

The address with the highest balance is 1CounterpartyXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXUWLpVr<\/a> with 2,130.85 BTC burned. <\/p>\n

The address with the most transactions is 1111111111111111111114oLvT2<\/a>
\n with 36504 and is also the address with the most recent transaction (today).<\/p>\n

Top 5 Burn Addresses: BY BALANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n