[bayesianhorse]

Bitcoins are almost useless for legal and non-illicit transactions. Paypal is cheaper than bitcoins in these situations, if you account for the astronomical currency risk and thus the premium bitcoin-traders and shops accepting btc have to charge in order to not go out of bussiness in an eyeblink.

[pantaril]

That's not true. If i'm not mistaken, paypal charges percentage of the ammount recieved to all merchants recieving money. Also, fees are charged for any international transfer and paypal can disable your account and freeze your funds on a whim.

On the other hand, i don't know what "astronomical currency risk" are you talking about. Merchants accepting bitcoin are not forced to keep their balance in bitcoins. They can exchange it for dollars or other official currency every hour if they wish so. They are not affected by the volatility of the bitcoin exchange rate as you probably asume.

[shredfvz]

There's 0% chargeback risk with Bitcoin, and 0% risk of fraud. Counterfeit is impossible.

These factors substantially reduce the cost of selling goods and services with Bitcoin.

[glesica]

There's also no way to recover your Bitcoins if they get stolen (as many, many people have discovered already). My credit card on the other hand, can be made whole again with a simple phone call to my bank (YMMV, please no stories about banks being big meanies).

[illuminate]

"There's 0% chargeback risk with Bitcoin" That is problematic for much of what currency is used for.

"and 0% risk of fraud" This is completely untrue, because it assumes the motives of both sides of a transaction.

[nym]

False. I pay my coworker back for lunch with bitcoin.