[epaga]

If you lose access to your Bitcoin address (e.g. by losing your impossible-to-guess password or deleting your private key), the Bitcoins in that address become completely unreachable. This means you theoretically could wipe out your entire life savings with the click of a button and no one could help you retrieve them.

In (not only) that sense, Bitcoins have more in common with hard dollar bills than with bank funds. If you burn your dollar bills or lose them in some other way, they are gone forever. Similarly, it is not possible to duplicate a dollar bill. In this regard, Bitcoin is even more secure since forgery is not possible either.