Yes. But the problem is there's no way for sellers to know this. I'd feel a lot more comfortable knowing the buyer has 2FA obviously. If anyone knows how to check, let me know.
Agreed, that would be very useful. I was not aware that PP chargebacks sellers in the event of hacked accounts. If someone buys a TV with a hacked account, I can't imagine they do anything but try to find the criminal and/or recover the TV. Digital goods as traditionally defined are different for the same logical process that makes piracy different from theft. As neither a TV nor a bitcoin can be copied, bitcoins must be treated like physical goods. I thought the issues with chargebacks involved buyers contesting proof of delivery.
I wouldn't treat them as physical goods. They are unique intangible goods with "unofficial proof of delivery" that aren't recognized by chargeback enforcers. Like I said before Bitcoin is a whole different monster. General guideline is if you're not 95% sure your buyer won't chargeback then don't sell to them. I've sold $2000 in digital goods before to an eBay buyer who had feedback showing a $5000 high-end purchase in their eBay feedback. Establish their identity with some verification techniques to make sure the account isn't hacked and felt my risk was under 5%. Even then I was nervous of the sale. It's never going to be very straightforward and each buyer will be different. I've figured out mostly through experience and of course writing the PayPal Virtual FAQ helps too. You'll always be anxious all the time though. As long as the chargeback window is open. Hard to get a good night's sleep.
There used to be some secret methods on PayPal called Mass Pay that you can tell used bank funds rather then credit card. But it was extremely difficult to get customers to pay that way since they had to have $$$ in their PayPal account. They don't offer that method anymore. Those were some interesting days of who could figure out the PayPal system better then the other.
Wow. I'm an idiot. I should write a Bitcoin Virtual FAQ too. Could probably make some decent money.
Here's the PayPal Virtual FAQ I wrote in 2010. It hasn't been updated.
http://virtualfaqs.com/forum/paypal/574-paypal-virtual-faq.html
