[badgar]

I never thought much about the effect of permanent loss on Bitcoin. Unlike cash, encrypted wallets and the block chain make theft harder than just destruction of the money.

A virus which deletes wallets instead of trying to exfiltrate BTC seems much easier to implement and would be pretty devastating for the currency.

[jl6]

Damaging but not fatal. Bitcoins are divisible down to 8 decimal places so the value would just scale up according to the reduced supply. And 8 decimal places is a software limit; a revised protocol could increase that.

[lectrick]

That's what backups (and brainwallets, etc.) are for.

[badgar]

Sounds like bitcoin requires a backup system by default, then. Because otherwise, the first virus written by some pissy kid that just deletes wallets will devastate a lot of people.

[lectrick]

At least you can back it up... unlike a real cash wallet.