> Credit cards take 180 days for the transaction to confirm.
I've worked on batch settlement software and never heard of this. The payment processor has very strict timelines that must be followed for each phase (auth, submission, clearing, settlement). Funds usually appear in bulk the next business day after settlement.
> Cash can be counterfeited.
And easily spotted (in the US). This is more an issue for people than retailers because the banks will almost certainly notice it.
> Even some bank wires can be clawed back.
This is really fucking hard and easily mitigated by immediately wiring the money to another account at a different bank.
> Funds usually appear in bulk the next business day after settlement.
That's not a confirmation, that's you temporarily being loaned the funds; confirmation is when charge back is no longer possible and you actually for sure have the funds.
But if you defraud someone of bitcoin and they can't reverse the transaction, you may have possession of it but you don't have the legal right to it.
The credit card and paypal systems have evolved to place most of the risk on the merchant because the merchant is generally both better able to prevent fraud and better able to bear the cost of it, while having merchants defrauding customers is extremely unpopular and ruins adoption of the system.
Bitcoin does it the other way round: all the risk falls on the customer. Unsurprisingly this makes fraud, loss and counterparty risk big problems for bitcoin adoption.
Yes, but most fraud is hitting merchants via charge back and they don't like it. Bitcoin reduces merchant fraud, and that's the point; it's cash, when you buy something with cash you don't get to take it back after you get home. Cash is always more risky for the customer, but you can build up escrow systems on top of said cash system to handle customer fraud issues. Bitcoin solves the merchant fraud problem by giving them an option besides the fraud ridden and unsafe credit card system and the evil charge back that hurts so bad. It's hard to sell things online when you have to deal with card fraud and charge backs.
This notion that "customers" must have fraud protection is false; people use cash every day without any fraud protection. The credit card companies have sold people on the idea of fraud protection because it's necessary in a system when you give your private key (card number) to every merchant you deal with and your private key is often stolen. Credit card protection is a solution to a badly designed pull based credit card system; it solves a self created problem. A cash based system like bitcoin does not require fraud protection, it's cash.
it's cash, when you buy something with cash you don't get to take it back after you get home
Well, sometimes you do, consumer protection law guarantees that if it's defective or not as described.
It's hard to sell things online when you have to deal with card fraud and charge backs
How widespread is this, quantitively?
people use cash every day without any fraud protection
Yes - in face to face transactions where you can inspect beforehand and complain afterwards. And people are advised not to send cash through the mail because - guess what - it'll get stolen.
The credit card and a bunch of related non-cash systems like traveller's cheques were invented because travelling with or doing large cash transactions is a risky hassle.
Anecdotelly, I work in online retail, fraud is always a problem and we turn away business to avoid iff'y situations because of it and get attacked by streaks of stolen cards from time to time. Fraud is a real problem for merchants; you can't fight a charge back, you're out the money and the good and you just have to eat it and say thank you while getting killed on credit card fees. Credit cards suck for merchants, we accept them because we must, everyone prefers cash.
The purchaser can only unilaterally reverse if 1: they opted in to that, in which case the recipient shouldn't accept a zero-conf and 2: it hasn't hit the blockchain yet.
A credit card user can declare the card stolen within a day or two and all transactions will be cancelled. Sure, if the merchandise was shipped to his house or otherwise traceable to him, they might go after him legally, but you can go after a bitcoin user legally as well. You can't really fight a "card was stolen" fraud, except that eventually a credit card company will catch on and blacklist you.
I've worked on batch settlement software and never heard of this. The payment processor has very strict timelines that must be followed for each phase (auth, submission, clearing, settlement). Funds usually appear in bulk the next business day after settlement.
> Cash can be counterfeited.
And easily spotted (in the US). This is more an issue for people than retailers because the banks will almost certainly notice it.
> Even some bank wires can be clawed back.
This is really fucking hard and easily mitigated by immediately wiring the money to another account at a different bank.