Bitcoin and instantaneousness

[carlerha]

Since blocks are found on average every 10 minutes, how can bitcoins be used to pay for in-store items and services when there's no time to lean back while waiting for a confirmation? Imagine sitting in the drive-thru line etc.

Off the top of my head:
- bit bills
- some trusted third party company (uhm, i.e. bank) issuing btc debit cards which can guarantee that the customer holds the purchase amount

Other suggestions, or maybe I have overlooked something fundamental?

[Prze_koles]

Or something like https://www.mybitcoin.com/

[grue]

you don't have to wait for confirmations.

[carlerha]

then why can I not spend coins that have 0 confirmations in the official client?

[error]

The retail seller doesn't wait for confirmations after you swipe your credit card. That takes 3 days!

[Stephen Gornick]

Since blocks are found on average every 10 minutes, how can bitcoins be used to pay for in-store items and services when there's no time to lean back while waiting for a confirmation?

  There is some information here: http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/In-store_Transactions

[kokojie]

The retail seller doesn't wait for confirmations after you swipe your credit card. That takes 3 days!

The retailer gets a confirmed authorization immediately.

[Quantumplation]

The retail seller doesn't wait for confirmations after you swipe your credit card. That takes 3 days!

The retailer gets a confirmed authorization immediately.

That doesn't guarentee they'll get the money though, that guarentees you're approved and under your credit limit.  You can dispute the transaction, and for relatively small amounts the credit company will just give it to you, and the store can't really do anything because taking you to court would be too expensive.  Do it too frequently, though, and your credit card company will start bringing you up on fraud charges.