# Last edited on 2014-09-14 12:16:27 by stolfilocal
# NOT POSTED YET

[quote author=jaberwock link=topic=178336.msg8786216#msg8786216 date=1410500058]
[quote author=JorgeStolfi link=topic=178336.msg8786002#msg8786002 date=1410497804]
Buying bitcoins to pay for e-payments may save some money for international purchases, like airline tickets and hotels.  For domestic purchases I have yet to see an advantage over credit cards and bank transfers, only disadvantages.
[/quote]
You need to have a bank account to make bank transfers. There might be costs to keep and create them, and they are way harder to create than Bitcoin addresses. Plus you can't transfer funds at will, if you do many transactions, you will pay more fees. Also you will need to disclose personal information to the other part. 

And your funds in bank are always vulnerable to being frozen or confiscated by the bank or by the government, and they can't do it with Bitcoin. I know your government already confiscated the people's savings some decades ago, and considering what we see in South American politics, it is not impossible such events happen again.

Credit cards and paypals charge fees from the sellers(around 5% or more from each purchase), so they indirectly  make the product more expensive. 

Also Bitcoin transfer are faster than bank transfer, even domestic ones.

What exactly are the disadvantages of using Bitcoin as payment?
[/quote]

Almost all people who have money to buy things through the internet have bank accounts.  On the other hand, to use bitcoin for payments you must buy bitcoins, and for that you need at least a Coinbase/Bitpay account.

Bitcoin transactions seem free now because they are paid by a hefty "inflation tax" (the block rewards).  We will see how much the miners will charge when the block reward ends and fees become mandatory.

Paying for purchases with credit card, thrugh the internet or in person, is as quick as it cound be; under 1 minute usually.  Confirmation of a bitcoin payment may take much longer.

Having your identity known by the bank and merchant is usually a good thing, for many reasons.  (After all the discussions I have read about anonymity in money transactions, I am starting to belive that it sucks.)

Yes, governments can steal money from bank accounts.  But it is more likely that bitcoin price will crash, even to zero, than that 
governments will steal 50% of everyone's bank accounts.  Anyway, to keep savings safe, there are much better options than bitcoins or bank accounts.

[quote]
Also the % of frauds and chargebacks are bigger than with BTC.
[/quote]

Depends of what you count.

Properly securing your bitcoins is not trivial.  No matter how well you explain, Joe Plumber (or Joe Financial Manager) will inevitably do something stupid, because he does not know which of all the things he can do on his computer are safe and which can be exploited by hackers.  Even a paper wallet is ineffective if it is improperly used.  Once malware gets your private key, your bitcoins are immediately and permanently lost, and there is no one to cancel the keys or refund your loss.

As percentage of total bitcoin payments made, the amount of bitcoins that people have lost due to fraud or theft is currently much bigger than the same number for credit cards.  Very few (almost none) of those incidents resulted in conviction or return of stolen coins -- even when the thief is known and/or the victim point to the coins in the blockchain.

Will the situation get better, as devices like Trezor become standard? Or will it get worse, as the number of users grows, and the potential catch becomes more tempting to hackers?

Unfortunately, so far the response of the bitcoin community to the crime problem has been to hide and deny it...