> Not for digital goods (maybe email)
Yep, for one-time purchases of digital goods, Bitcoin is superior. For repeat purchases, like my Amazon Kindle purchases, you have to beat one-click.
> Most bitcoin payments are done either through mobile phone scanning a QR-code, or through uri's opening bitcoin software. I've never manually typed in a bitcoin address (worst case is copy pasting the payee address)
Ah yes, I forgot about this part. Although you can store your CC# in your auto-fill or password management software. And most stores will save it for you. The argument here is that is insecure, because you're storing your CC# and it can be stolen. But likewise, you're storing your Bitcoin private addresses on whatever device and they can be stolen as well. Except without any chance of recovery.
> Not sure what you've been reading, but my bitcoin purchasing experiences have all been extremely straightforward. Scan QR-code, press send, done.
Well I'm comparing getting an invoice, scanning a code, sending, waiting for confirmations with literally clicking a button to buy and then another button to tell Amazon where to ship my stuff. Or in some cases, just one button to buy and ship.
Then I accounted for the stories in which the invoice expired before enough confirmations, and apparently the order just evaporated despite the bitcoins being sent. And there's plenty of Coinbase horror stories from people trying to get refunds.
Broadening the use cases.. There's stuff like paying bills where I literally have to do nothing. Netflix, my electric company, Comcast, etc all just pull the funds necessary every month. I literally have to do nothing.
> Uh...no you aren't. There's no chargebacks, not no refunds. That is, to get a refund the merchant has to agree.
That was in reference to Overstock and Tiger Direct specifically. If I remember correctly, neither allow actual refunds of stuff bought with Bitcoin. They just give you store credit.
> Basically, risk moves from merchant to customer (banks usually require the merchant to prove they delivered the goods in chargeback cases)
That's a problem I have with it. Merchants are better equipped to manage risk than consumers, so pushing it back onto consumers is a bad thing.
> bitpay already offer 0% fees for a flat $30/month, and things can only get cheaper (as there get more/better exchanges and less volatility)
Didn't know that. I was going off of Coinbase's rates. Thanks for the correction.