How many are lost forever
Discussion
It's estimated that around 3.5 million Bitcoins are lost, but recently a miner from 2010 sold about 2,000 Bitcoins, suggesting that this number might be lower. Many early holders will likely pass their Bitcoins as inheritance or start using them when the price hits 1 million dollars. The original Bitcoin community, known as OGs, likely didn’t lose their assets. Just reading Bitcoin Talk shows that this group had ideas and thoughts far ahead of their time.
It's an interesting thought experiment. I believe one day in the future people will try to fork the network to try and get those lost coins back.
Only time will tell
Impossible to tell if coins are lost, or just haven't moved for whatever reason.
So, by trying to "get lost coins back" you/those future people are basically trying to steal coins that you/they can't be sure are actually lost.
They're free to fork however they want anyway, FOSS ftw.
WTF?