That irreversible click of the mouse is scary. I don't think the general public will ever accept it.
Sam
the general public has no problems dealing in cash transactions. if its a reputible business, there will be a refund policy regardless if payment was made in bitcoin or USD. if the policy is that there will be no refunds, you'll know this going in, and will be able to make a risk reward evaluation for yourself.
Cash is a bit different. If you intend to give cash to one person, it would be very hard to accidentally give it to another person if you did the transaction in person. Nevermind, they're pretty much the same, you're right.
I think this is why firstbits could prove to be important in the future. Especially firstbits that mean something (i.e. 1mtgox). Think about it. Mtgox could generate all new addresses as starting with 1mtgox. Then no one would be confused as in the above situation - if they weren't sending to a 1mtgox address, then they would know they weren't sending to mtgox.
A single video card would likely be enough processing power to generate 1mtgox addresses 24/7 and not run out of them when people request new ones.
With enough processing power, they could even go the route of creating a special address with firstbits that end with the start of a user's username. So if my mtgox username was natural mine might be 1mtgoxnat. It'd be handy to have an easy-to-remember address that you know went to your own mtgox account without even having to log in.
Actually, I guess that is already doable seeing as you can generate your own addresses and apply the private key to your mtgox account. Hmmm....
Downside is, it forces transparency on companies or customers that may not wish for it. Still, something to think about.
