From 2009, 21 million is the maximum number. I'm talking bitcoins by the way. 21 million was the maximum amount that will ever exist. 10 years on, 17.8 million have so far been mined.
Research suggests 4 million have been lost for good. Lost in the sense that, the owners no longer have access to them in some form of way. e.g. miss placed private keys, owners deceased, lost or damaged hardware etc. Probably the main reasons for this bad practice of ownership was, bitcoins price tag. How many 10 cent bitcoins were lost compared to how many $20,000 bitcoins.
Currently hovering around $10,000, with millions more people engaged you would like to think people will protect them from now on. The truth of the matter is, more will and always will be lost. How many bitcoin holders have a contingency plan for when they die. I'm predicting not that many.
Miners are rewarded bitcoin for every block that they mine. To start with it was 50 bitcoins per block. But every 4 years there is a halving event, so it dropped to 25, now currently 12.5. In 2020 it will halve again to 6.25 bitcoins per block and so on until the last bitcoin is mined. Apparently the maths suggests, the last one will be mined in 2140. 120 years from now.
So, if roughly 4 million have been lost / unobtainable in 10 years, how many will be lost / unobtainable in the next 120 years? Through death, wars, destruction, stupidity and naivety. Time will take and give back to the rest of us. You see, the less that are for sale, higher the demand. Imagine if 1 bitcoin existed now, it would be currently worth $195 billion. One man's loss is another man's gain.
How many we lose, is irrelevant. How many you HODL, is the key question.
In this global monetary system, the whole world is on the edge of a financial crisis. Currencies hyper inflated 10 fold its actual value, where else should you store your wealth? maybe in a deflationary asset that cannot be governed by anyone. Wake up and smell the freedom.