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I'm old enough to remember a time when using your credit card to buy something on the internet was considered wildly stupid and irresponsible. Just saying.

by pault 13y ago

tedunangst 13y ago
One difference is that slashdot didn't lead with a new "all the credit cards are gone!" story every day...
- pault 13y ago
  Yes, but only because it didn't exist yet!
rgbrenner 13y ago
When exactly was that? The Fair Credit Billing Act was passed in 1975. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Credit_Billing_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Credit_Billing_Act
- pault 13y ago
  Yes, consumers using credit cards definitely had more protections at that time than they do today with bitcoin. My point is merely that less than 20 years ago people had an almost universal aversion to putting their credit card information into a form on a website. That changed rapidly. I believe that the pieces aren't yet in place to give people the same level of confidence in bitcoin, but I also believe that it's a (short) matter of time until they are. Multi-signature transactions are very interesting in that regard. I don't believe that bitcoin will destroy fiat or the finance industry as a whole, but I do think it will become a very convenient way of moving money around, especially between national currencies. Much in the same way that sending an email is more convenient than sending a letter internationally. It's not a complete solution; it's a foundation to build services upon, and those services will most likely be offered by the same large financial institutions we have today, along with a few upstarts. Just my 2 μBTC.
tlrobinson 13y ago
Bitcoin can be even safer to spend online than credit cards, since you're not handing the merchant your card number which they can turn around and use at their whim. For that to be a reality, we need to combine hardware wallets (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardware_wallet https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardware_wallet http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ http://www.bitcointrezor.com/), the new payment protocol (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0070 https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0070), and escrow transactions (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Escrow_Service https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Escrow_Service), but the result would be pretty awesome.
rjd 13y ago
Like from Adobe circa last month :P

I'm old enough to remember a time when using your credit card to buy something on the internet was considered wildly stupid and irresponsible. Just saying.

by pault 13y ago

I'm old enough to remember a time when using your credit card to buy something on the internet was considered wildly stupid and irresponsible. Just saying.

tedunangst 13y ago

One difference is that slashdot didn't lead with a new "all the credit cards are gone!" story every day...

pault 13y ago
Yes, but only because it didn't exist yet!

rgbrenner 13y ago

When exactly was that? The Fair Credit Billing Act was passed in 1975. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Credit_Billing_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Credit_Billing_Act

pault 13y ago
Yes, consumers using credit cards definitely had more protections at that time than they do today with bitcoin. My point is merely that less than 20 years ago people had an almost universal aversion to putting their credit card information into a form on a website. That changed rapidly. I believe that the pieces aren't yet in place to give people the same level of confidence in bitcoin, but I also believe that it's a (short) matter of time until they are. Multi-signature transactions are very interesting in that regard. I don't believe that bitcoin will destroy fiat or the finance industry as a whole, but I do think it will become a very convenient way of moving money around, especially between national currencies. Much in the same way that sending an email is more convenient than sending a letter internationally. It's not a complete solution; it's a foundation to build services upon, and those services will most likely be offered by the same large financial institutions we have today, along with a few upstarts. Just my 2 μBTC.

tlrobinson 13y ago

Bitcoin can be even safer to spend online than credit cards, since you're not handing the merchant your card number which they can turn around and use at their whim. For that to be a reality, we need to combine hardware wallets (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardware_wallet https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardware_wallet http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ http://www.bitcointrezor.com/), the new payment protocol (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0070 https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0070), and escrow transactions (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Escrow_Service https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Escrow_Service), but the result would be pretty awesome.

rjd 13y ago

Like from Adobe circa last month :P