[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

So out of the fixed number of coins there will be an attrition over time adding to their scarcity.

[Errant]

Yes, and I imagine more than one would think. I know of another who says he has "misplaced" several thousand that he purchased about 2 years ago. At the time, it was only a few hundred dollars worth.

In the spring, the mining "difficulty level" was 10 million. It is going reach a mining difficulty level of 1 billion in the next few days. Many ASIC machines are coming online and that is creating some serious competition for the remaining Bitcoins. On the plus side, all of this trading has increase the payoff for miners as they also process transactions.