2 ms·

If Grandma is that technically incompetent, the only thing viable for her is cash and check. They couldn't pay with PayPal anyway. Someone who is technical enou

by Jach 12y ago

If Grandma is that technically incompetent, the only thing viable for her is cash and check. They couldn't pay with PayPal anyway. Someone who is technical enough to pay with PayPal, however, can pay with Bitcoin all the same -- the hurdle is in making sure it's understood as a cash transaction with refunds at the mercy of the seller.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
The hurdle is with not letting someone take your money. Right now every other month there's a scandal because either some technically savvy cryptoanarchists were apparently not savvy enough and got their money stolen, or some exchange decides to rob everyone altogether. So explain to me how any grandma is supposed to work with a system that even techies constantly get burned by it?
- Jach 12y ago
  The same way they currently work in a system everyone gets burned by? The main benefits of the current system from my perspective are that fraud detection algorithms are really good now, in the cases of credit card fraud the CC companies usually just credit back the stolen amount to the customer (which unfortunately hurts sellers since buyer fraud is still common), and when events like $300m-$900m getting stolen from banks happen, the overall system generates so much profit that it mostly gets swept under the rug and the average person isn't hurt. (FDIC helps too.) Despite all these benefits, the elderly are still routinely scammed out of money. (Some reports suggest increasingly.) I haven't heard anything about outright bitcoin thefts from privately owned wallets with a password protecting them, but then again I don't follow bitcoin too closely. The typical drama I hear is an exchange shutting down (why would the elderly have their btc on an exchange when their bank account funds aren't on an exchange?) and occasionally someone's unencrypted wallet backup on a compromised server being taken. There was also the issue with the android wallets a while back generating insecure keys. I'm not convinced the elderly would lose any more than they already do on average given they're using bitcoin (which I think they're fully capable of using if they're already using online payment systems). Anyway this is kind of a fruitless discussion for this instance. Grandmas don't use MEGA.

by Jach 12y ago

TeMPOraL 12y ago

The hurdle is with not letting someone take your money. Right now every other month there's a scandal because either some technically savvy cryptoanarchists were apparently not savvy enough and got their money stolen, or some exchange decides to rob everyone altogether. So explain to me how any grandma is supposed to work with a system that even techies constantly get burned by it?

Jach 12y ago
The same way they currently work in a system everyone gets burned by? The main benefits of the current system from my perspective are that fraud detection algorithms are really good now, in the cases of credit card fraud the CC companies usually just credit back the stolen amount to the customer (which unfortunately hurts sellers since buyer fraud is still common), and when events like $300m-$900m getting stolen from banks happen, the overall system generates so much profit that it mostly gets swept under the rug and the average person isn't hurt. (FDIC helps too.) Despite all these benefits, the elderly are still routinely scammed out of money. (Some reports suggest increasingly.) I haven't heard anything about outright bitcoin thefts from privately owned wallets with a password protecting them, but then again I don't follow bitcoin too closely. The typical drama I hear is an exchange shutting down (why would the elderly have their btc on an exchange when their bank account funds aren't on an exchange?) and occasionally someone's unencrypted wallet backup on a compromised server being taken. There was also the issue with the android wallets a while back generating insecure keys. I'm not convinced the elderly would lose any more than they already do on average given they're using bitcoin (which I think they're fully capable of using if they're already using online payment systems). Anyway this is kind of a fruitless discussion for this instance. Grandmas don't use MEGA.