>settling credit card payments ... may take several days, even weeks. But there is a trusted 3rd party (the issuing bank) that gives an instant reply as to whe

>settling credit card payments ... may take several days, even weeks. But there is a trusted 3rd party (the issuing bank) that gives an instant reply as to whether the purchaser's account has enough funds (or credit) to make the purchase, and assumes much of the risk if they are wrong and the purchaser is uncollectible. Maybe they don't need to take 2-5% of each transaction to provide this service, but it does seem like a pure, anonymous bitcoin transaction can not provide this service to a retailer.