๐๐๐ซ๐ฅ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐๐จ๐ข๐ง ๐จ๐๐๐ซ ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐๐ฌ ๐ง๐ข๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐จ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ง ๐ฐ๐ข๐ซ๐
It's not what you think, so better read it all <3
๐ผ๐ค ๐จ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐โ ๐๐๐๐๐
To be a bean counter here. There will never be 21 million BTC. The maximum amount is 20,999,999.9769 BTC. 2.310.000 Satoshis less than 21 Mio BTC.
The 50 BTC from the Genesis Block cannot be spent. [1]
Due to an error, newly created BTC could be "overwritten" earlier. The transaction hash of the Coinbase - transaction was the same and thus overwrote the old transaction with the same hash. This happened with the block pairs 91812 & 91842 as well as 91722 & 91880. 50 BTC were lost in each case, in total 100 BTC. [2]
In block 124724, 1 less Satoshi was intentionally created than would have been possible. In addition, the mining fees were not collected. Thus, 0.01000001 BTC were lost or not created.
Between blocks 162705 and 169899, 193 times less mining fee was collected than would have been possible. Total 9.66184623 BTC. [3]
Between blocks 180324 and 249185, 836 times less mining fee was drawn than would have been possible. Total 0.52584193 BTC. [3]
At block 501726 the complete Coinbase - transaction was lost, 12.5 BTC. [3]
The creator of block 526591 created 6.25 BTC less than would have been possible. [3]
โค๐๐ฃ๐ค๐ฅรถ๐ฃ๐ฅ๐ ๐น๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐
With OP_RETURN there is a way to "destroy" bitcoin. The purpose of this method is to write data to the blockchain. The generated transaction outputs cannot be used further, thus destroying the used BTC.
The sum of the Bitcoin destroyed in this way is currently about 27.25 BTC [4, 5].
Another method to make Bitcoin unusable is to send them to addresses for which there is (presumably) no private key. Such "burn addresses" can theoretically not be recognized without further ado. After all, anyone can send their Bitcoin to an address to which they do not have a key. However, for a number of addresses, due to their nature, it is assumed that no private key exists for them. Theoretically, however, the Bitcoin on these addresses can be used at any time with the appropriate key. Currently, there are 2900.64616006 BTC on the best known Burn addresses. [6]
In total 3106.84384823 BTC.
Of which 18.75000001 were never generated.
๐ซ๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐บ๐๐พ ๐พ๐๐พ๐๐๐๐๐พ ๐พ๐ ๐๐พ'๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐พ. ๐ณ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฟ ๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐บ ๐ฝ๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐พ๐๐พ๐๐๐๐๐พ.
- Satoshi Nakamoto
[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block
[2] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply
[4] https://txstats.com/dashboard/db/op_return-statistics
[5] https://transactionfee.info/charts/output-opreturn-amount/
[6] sry but URL viiiiuch too long to write out and the URL shorteners all have character limit or just cut the URL and pastebin deletes the URL after upload directly. https://controlc.com/359bc571 highlight whole text and paste as URL in a new window.
