If confirmation takes 10 minutes, how will I buy coffee at Starbucks?

[xzempt]

I think a more important question here is why are you buying coffee at Starfucks?

do they not have sales tax in the UK on coffee.... so the government is getting tax revenues.... from you....

[wachtwoord]

GOOD FOR THEM!

I think a more important question here is why are you buying coffee at Starfucks?

Yup. They did not support the UK war machine!

[501]

If credit cards take 180 days to be confirmed how will you buy coffee at Starbucks?

This.

Non-merchants usually don't realize that it actually takes 6 months to confirm a credit card transaction. Merchants just let you have your stuff immediately because it would be stupid to tell you wait 6 months for a coffee. The reason they can do this is because usually only about 1% of customers try to scam you anyway, so it's not important.

[hilariousandco]

GOOD FOR THEM!

I think a more important question here is why are you buying coffee at Starfucks?

Yup. They did not support the UK war machine!

No, they're an American company so they support the American one.

[wachtwoord]

GOOD FOR THEM!

I think a more important question here is why are you buying coffee at Starfucks?

Yup. They did not support the UK war machine!

No, they're an American company so they support the American one.

Do they pay US taxes?

[hilariousandco]

GOOD FOR THEM!

I think a more important question here is why are you buying coffee at Starfucks?

Yup. They did not support the UK war machine!

No, they're an American company so they support the American one.

Do they pay US taxes?

Probably not, ha.

[LiteCoinGuy]

for just a coffee its enought to have zero confirmation.

[candoo]

Dont worry. Starbucks is not afraid of double spend.

Its gonna take 5 years until starbucks accepts btc and then there are everywhere cameras (MERICA!) and they have your face and post it online if you did indeed double spent the shit.

[pand70]

Fellow Bitcoiners,

This is something I don't understand. In order to be sure that a bitcoin transfer is successful, you have to wait for a confirmation. Standard market practice is to wait for 3 confirmations. A confirmation takes 10 minutes on average.

If bitcoin becomes massive, how will I buy a coffee at Starbucks? Will I have to pay with bitcoins and then wait 10/30 minutes before picking up my coffee?

I think it's the same risk as accepting small fake bills. It just don't worth the trouble imho to double spend a coffee buy.

[Peter R]

Dont worry. Starbucks is not afraid of double spend.

Its gonna take 5 years until starbucks accepts btc and then there are everywhere cameras (MERICA!) and they have your face and post it online if you did indeed double spent the shit.

And remember, double-spends are recognized by the network and thus also recognizable by the merchant before they give you your coffee.  For example, blockchain.info will show a big "DOUBLE SPEND DETECTED" warning should someone actually go through the process of building a custom "double spend" wallet app for their phone.  


TLDR: it's hard to double spend but easy to catch.  If you try it, you'll get caught before you leave with your coffee and look like a scammer.

[salfter]

I think a more important question here is why are you buying coffee at Starfucks?

Good for them.

This.  I don't care much for Charbucks, but if they have the Occutards pissed off at them, more power to 'em.

[wachtwoord]

This.  I don't care much for Charbucks, but if they have the Occutards pissed off at them, more power to 'em.

Pissing off occutards should be applauded indeed.

[burnum]

Preorder, or realize that BTC is going to become a commodity and not a currency with all the other options that transfer faster, buy into those that transfer faster with your BTC and stop worrying about yo.
i cant buy nothing with an oz of gold, yet i can trade it off for USD and nobody refuses that  

[pand70]

TLDR: it's hard to double spend but easy to catch.  If you try it, you'll get caught before you leave with your coffee and look like a scammer.

I guess that they 'll try to double spend after they take their coffee.  I mean how long does it take to get a coffee from starbucks 

[hilariousandco]

This.  I don't care much for Charbucks, but if they have the Occutards pissed off at them, more power to 'em.

Pissing off occutards should be applauded indeed.

I don't care for the occupy movement either, but I think you've got to be a capitalist pig to think it's ok for multi billion dollar companies to get away with paying zero tax whilst the ordinary citizen foots the bill.

[(A)social]

For small purchases, you don't really have to wait for a confirmation.  You just need to make sure the transaction appears on the network.  If there are any losses, they can be written off as a cost of doing business or treated as theft.  The chances of double-spending for a cup of coffee are less than the chance of someone walking out on a restaurant bill.

This is correct, and who knows if this isn't workable, maybe bitcoins will not be for buying coffee.

Bitcoins are for pizzas!

[Peter R]

TLDR: it's hard to double spend but easy to catch.  If you try it, you'll get caught before you leave with your coffee and look like a scammer.

I guess that they 'll try to double spend after they take their coffee.   I mean how long does it take to get a coffee from starbucks  

Then it won't work.  The longer you wait to push the second fraudulent transaction, the more likely it is that the real transaction has already propagated across the network (and thus the fraudulent transaction will just be ignored).

You can confirm this for yourself.  http://brainwallet.org/#tx allows you to create transactions (without broadcasting them onto the network).  Send a single coin to a new address you control.  Use http://brainwallet.org/#tx and this new address to create two transactions: one to address A and one to address B.  (Make sure you control both address A and B).  Go to https://blockchain.info/pushtx and broadcast the transaction to address A.  Wait till it's picked up by the network (should be really fast).  Now, wait the amount of time it takes to leave the store with your coffee and then broadcast (double spend) the second transaction to address B.  You'll see that it won't go through.

[pand70]

TLDR: it's hard to double spend but easy to catch.  If you try it, you'll get caught before you leave with your coffee and look like a scammer.

I guess that they 'll try to double spend after they take their coffee.  I mean how long does it take to get a coffee from starbucks 

Then it won't work.  The longer you wait to push the second fraudulent transaction, the more likely it is that the real transaction has already propagated across the network (and thus the fraudulent transaction will be ignored).

Well i guess the kids that will try to double spend their coffee they will not get that hurt if their double spend attempt fails. I think people will try it only for fun anyway. Regular customers that do that will get noticed anyway.

[Topazan]

I think everything that needs to be said has already been said about the OP's question.  I just wanted to comment concerning Starbucks and tax.

We shouldn't be celebrating crony capitalism.  Regulations and taxes that are selectively enforced against smaller competitors to the mega-corps are not better than regulations and taxes that apply to everyone.

[justusranvier]

We shouldn't be celebrating crony capitalism.  Regulations and taxes that are selectively enforced against smaller competitors to the mega-corps are not better than regulations and taxes that apply to everyone.

Right, and the answer is to end the regulations and taxes.

The problem with uneven oppression is not that certain people aren't oppressed enough.