[vishnugupta]

> Cryptocurrencies just remove those risks instead of externalizing them.

Cryptocurrencies unilaterally move the risk to the spender and I don't see how that is same as removing risk. A financial transaction is always risky for all the participating parties, there is a chain of liability. You can't make the risk disappear, someone has to bear it and/or underwrite it. Which is why you have all these payment processors that charge x% transaction fees for merchants in exchange for taking on that risk.

A larger point here is disputes will always arise in a business transaction. Which is why we have arbiters who hear both sides of a story and settle the matters. You can't say "Payment reversal is an open invitation to criminals to steal from sellers." and make payers unilaterally liable for every payment they make. That is a recipe for killing a market.

In your friend's case PayPal acted as an arbiter and given that the seller had no proof of sale PayPal made a judgement call to side with the payer. The harsh reality is your friend should have been more careful or said only-cash-accepted.