Topic: Bitcoin More Convenient than Credit Cards (Read 1158 times)

You can do this with Bitcoin, see for example my suggestion here. You'll need OP_EVAL and the seller's agreement to make this kind of transaction.

I wasn't around back then, but didn't more than a year pass since announcing the Bitcoin project to starting mining?

This. With Bitcoin you always know that a payment has been made and there can't be a disagreement on this by the two parties. I once heard someone going on and on with a contractor about how he wired him funds, and the contractor claiming he never received them. And that same person (who, by the way, often complains about how sending funds internationally is expensive and troublesome) had been dismissive of Bitcoin when I talked with him about it. Go figure.

I don't think it would have changed much if Satoshi had waited 2 weeks between announcing the project and releasing the genesis block. Also it doesn't matter at all with new altcoins for those 99.99% of the people who don't have any clue what a cryptocurrency is.

Back on topic: it really is a pleasure to use Bitcoin - the only inconveniences come from the fiat exchanges. It would be great if you just did not have to think about what's the current exchange rate or how you can get money in and out of the exchanges.

I'm really looking forward to a future where things are priced in BTC, independently from any exchange rate!

Firstly I don't consider such a thing to be 'competing' with Bitcoin at all.  Pretty much just the opposite in several ways.  1) by being backed at least in part by BTC, Bitcoin and the sub-systems which are backed by it would support one another.  2) it would lighten the load of a zillion little transactions for skittles and whatever.

Secondly, I don't really give a fig about what happens to the first coins and early adopters and such so I have not thought about that very much.  If the value of the currency is derived at least in part by Bitcoin backing, and especially if different inflationary properties are desired, it might not even make that much sense to issue coins on mined blocks.  Something would have to induce securing of course.  Possibly the reward would come out of the BTC backing pool.  Or be driven as a side effect of transactions somehow.

That's actually kind of interesting.  I guess it was drowned out by all the scamcoins that were launching.

This was pretty much done with Litecoin. I think it was announced about 1 week in advanced, not 2, but that's nit-picking.

http://litecoin.org/

For me, any competing cryptocurrency's number one requirement is to create the genesis block, announce your currency with a release time at least 2 weeks in the future, and then let everyone start mining from the genesis block.

Bitcoin is indeed a pleasure to use to transfer value around.  My experience to date is that it just works.  Early on when I was buying Bitcoin, I got my BTC right away with zero hassles, but had to spend the next several days trying to get money to the poor guy trying to use PayPal.  I ended up taking a chance and loaning him twenty bucks so he could close one account and use a different one.  (And yes, he did pay me back.)

That said...I don't think Bitcoin will every be terribly successful in the real world for large classes of use cases without some sort of claw-back.

As a consumer, I want the ability to make someone's life miserable if they screw me over or at the very least make sure that they get nothing from doing so, and I would happily suffer a loss of time and money to make that happen.  I might capitulate in some special cases and use something like Bitcoin or cash, but I will prefer PayPal or Visa when I have the option.  And I am a giant Bitcoin fan even.

I continue to believe that Bitcoin would be most useful as a backing store for crypto-currency variants which include provisions for things that users may wish to have, and as a consumer, claw-back is high on that list for me.  I think that a nice user currency design would combine claw-backs, currency securing work, and a user-ratings system built right into the currency.

The CC payment process referred me back to the bank's website, where I had to set up something called a 'secure code', and choose a password, and enter all my CC details again. In the end, the system crashed and I didn't get a proper confirmation. I'm still not 100% sure if I'm booked on the flight, or if the payment has been made. It was a lengthy process with a lot of uncertainty.

Bitcoin payment, (through Bit-Pay) has been a real pleasure. I entered my name and e-mail, and pressed the button. It gave me a bitcoin address and amount, which I sent through the desktop client and I was finished!

Now, I realize that you need to learn quite a lot before you know what you're doing with Bitcoin, but it certainly has the potential to make life easier for online payments.