Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bduerst 3156 days ago
Except the majority of customers don't want to pre-purchase gift cards to shop at a retailer, but instead want to spend as soon as they make the decision to purchase.

Likewise, the frequency of chargebacks is so low it doesn't justify waiting up to 10 minutes to buy something for every purchase.
1 comments
joshribakoff 3155 days ago
If both the shopper & retail store are using the same BTC exchange, or exchanges that trust each other, the exchange can just move the coins internally, which is instant. Retail outlets could also share information about scammers & create a blacklist of who not to trust, and then just accept the small amount of risk. Like you said, credit cards also have this problem but the frequency of chargebacks is low enough that retail stores do not require you to wait months before leaving the store with your goods. Even accepting cash entails the possibility of fraud. But these are good points you've made. I don't think demand is high enough that we'll see BTC go mainstream for retail, but if demand were to be high enough there are ways to make it work without waiting 10 minutes, but these would rely on exchanges & mutually trusted 3rd party agencies, which you could argue defeats the purpose of using BTC in the first place since its not decentralized but you'd still get the benefits of there being a fixed amount of BTC. People could also budget their monthly spending & transfer it ahead of time into an exchange. People already do this with checking/savings accounts, keeping some funds in checking for when they want to shop.
link
bduerst 3155 days ago
I read your entire paragraph and this just seems like a hammer looking for a nail. Credit cards automatically handle all of this (blacklisting, risk and fraud management, trustful 3rd party, etc.) so why would anyone want to use BTC for payments unless it's for things that CC companies won't touch (drugs, pirated software, etc.)?
link
joshribakoff 3151 days ago
> why would anyone want to use BTC for payments

You're right, that's why I said it probably won't happen, but if demand were high enough it could be made to work. One scenario that would increase demand would be inflation of the US dollar. Look at what happened in Zimbabwe. I'm not saying that's likely to happen, just playing devil's advocate.

link