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by jonknee 4164 days ago
If you fail with your wallet there is no recourse and you're out of luck. If any of the "HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS" of merchant systems fail you are not held responsible and in the worst case get any missing funds back after a small waiting period. Usually the worst thing that happens is you'll have to update a couple recurring payments, but they'll sometimes even help you with that (Amex!).

I'll take the CC please!

1 comments

You are wrong, in many cases the customer has no recourse for credit card fraud: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8918865 People think credit card anti-fraud measures are perfect. They are not.
I don't think anything is perfect, but with BTC there is a 0% chance of recourse. I'll take the option with a ton of consumer protection law and someone to sue over the Wild West any day of the week.
These consumer protection laws protect you regardless of the manner of payment: bitcoins/dollars/whatever.

You CAN and SHOULD use the legal tools at your disposition (lawsuit, small claim court, FTC/BBB complaints...) if you get scammed after paying in bitcoins. You definitively have a chance of recourse. These tools work, that's why we have them.

For example the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission successfully prosecuted Trendon Shavers (he was running his scam denominated in bitcoins).