[threeseed]

When I was holidaying overseas my credit card was left in a taxi. The taxi driver then proceeded to spend over $5000 in 3 days. I spoke to my bank and within a week the money was refunded to me. Those merchants should have had better processes to handle locals using foreign credit cards. And likewise they have the ability to work with local authorities to recoup the lost money.

These processes work every day to protect consumers. People using Bitcoin may use it once but the first time they are burned they will never use it again.

[politician]

I wish your taxi driver good luck spending stolen Bitcoins without the owner's private key. The fact that your credit card worked for 3 days for $5000 in unauthorized transactions is a bug, not a feature.

[vertex-four]

What if you left your phone or laptop in the taxi? You could say that at least for the laptop, your wallet should be encrypted with a password... but you're depending on everyday people picking good passwords then, which we all know they don't do.

[atweiden]

Storing your coins in a multisig address will mitigate this threat. Look for multisig service providers to offer MFA address security this year. I expect several will tie into major wallets and be very easy to use.

If you're keeping serious amounts of cash in a physical wallet, it's on you to remain vigilant about not leaving it out in the open. Same principle with Bitcoin, although I'd say losing your phone with a Bitcoin or two in it won't be quite as devastating since the digital wallet can exist in multiple locations simultaneously. If someone steals your phone, you can restore a backup of the wallet and transfer out the coins just to be sure.

[vertex-four]

> Storing your coins in a multisig address will mitigate this threat.

Assuming you mean a 2-of-3 address, where one key is on the laptop, one is a password-derived key, and one is... stored at home or with a friend, I suppose, in case the laptop is lost?

We must assume that (a) your laptop is never stolen while the wallet is decrypted, which implies making absolutely certain that end-users never leave their laptop unlocked, and (b) that nobody ever threatens violence in order to get the password, aka the rubber hose attack.

The only way to prevent this from happening in an irreversible payment system is to ensure that the end-user does not have access to all their money at one time, especially while on holiday. This is an absolute downside in comparison to credit cards.

[tzs]

You've missed the point by concentrating too much on the detail that it was a lost credit card. Just change it to "I bought $5000 worth of equipment online and the seller shopped cheap junk instead and then disappeared".

Bitcoin: too bad for you.

Credit Card: chargeback. Either you get the $5000 back from the seller, or from his merchant account provider if their risk assessment folks didn't set a high enough amount to hold back in reserve in his account. (Or rather, you get it back from your card's issuing bank, and they get it back from the seller or his merchant account provider).

[maxerickson]

You're right, people looking to steal bitcoin invariably target the private keys.

(Less antagonistically, different things are different and considering a few of the differences usually isn't super useful)

[TomGullen]

Credit cards are exactly that, credit. Bitcoin is not a credit system.

If you had had a debit card and money was fraudulently spent, good luck getting that back from your bank. Debit cards are used to make hundreds of billions $ worth of purchases online each year.

> Those merchants should have had better processes to handle locals using foreign credit cards.

Isn't this victim blame?

[jusben1369]

Yes to be clear, at least in the US, most debit cards have this protection. Although it's not quite as simple as a chargeback.

[wmf]

My debit card has similar protections as credit cards. And I'm not sure why the lack of credit in Bitcoin is a feature.