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There never was any credibility behind an unconfirmed transaction.
by hapless 13y ago
There never was any credibility behind an unconfirmed transaction.
- fragsworth 13y agoYou can't pretend like zero-confirmation transactions have never been useful. They have been used in practice for small amounts, many times, with no issues, and this system obviously changes things.
- lsb 13y agoYes, in financial transactions the standard is to use the credible approach instead of the expedient approach.
- iopq 13y agoThey have been used in practice for large amounts to double spend gambling sites that allowed them.
- vbuterin 13y agoThey are useful in customer-merchant contexts because the merchant can cancel the order after anyway in case of a double spend, and in in-person contexts because you're in person so the risk of trying to cheat is too high. That's the main reason why zero-confs are fine; you only really need the preliminary notification to be instant, not total security.
- josu 13y agoI have bought cookies in Mexico with zero confirmations. So there was some credibility. At least with small transactions.
- bitJericho 13y agoYou're going to reverse a bitcoin transaction on some cookies you bought? That, sir, makes you a jerk.
- josu 13y agoWhat? No, of course not. I'm just saying that, at least, for some transactions, there is some credibility.
- bitJericho 13y agoNot for small cookie transactions. Who wants to be "that guy?"
- josu 13y agoI have bought cookies in Mexico with zero confirmations. So there was some credibility. At least with small transactions.
- reqres 13y agoWouldn't that present a horrible UX in some cases when paying with bitcoin? You'd have to wait ~10 minutes to access your purchase while the transaction is confirmed Figure source: http://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time http://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time
- oleganza 13y agoNo, there is credibility demonstrated by actual practice. Merchants accept zero-confirmation transaction, specifically in-person. Yes, there's a risk that the transaction never gets in the block or is double-spent, but that risk for certain kind of transactions is low enough to be tolerated.