We need Reverse Transactions

[jongameson]

Hey OP, why don't you just use PayPal and not waste time here?

lol, I'm sure Bitcoin will have it's own Paypal eventually that people will use to scam.

You can't be sure about this.
If we , the people, don't allow it, it won't happen.

who can trust a business to track/trade which is untraceable?

the shadow knows?

[Kazimir]

Wouldn't it be better that if you voluntarily identify you as a legal entity holding a wallet address and that if you did not authorise a transaction

With Bitcoin, if you hadn't authorised a transaction, it wouldn't have been sent in the first place.

[rohnearner]

Hey OP, why don't you just use PayPal and not waste time here?

lol, I'm sure Bitcoin will have it's own Paypal eventually that people will use to scam.

You can't be sure about this.
If we , the people, don't allow it, it won't happen.

But we all know "people" are made up of "average joes"  .

Don't underestimate brain of average Joes , we people i think now know what's gonna work and whats not..!

[pazor]

N O ! 

we do not need Reverse Transactions!

[rohnearner]

I see irreversible transactions as a strength, not a weakness in Bitcoin.

not many will agree with you..! and they have enough reason for that..! i think having a irreversible transaction is a feature which can be misused a lot, which already happens a lot with all those reversible PP , so for some small biz owners and many other having a Non-reversible transaction is one of the Features of BTC.

[chowderman]

There needs to be some form of reversing transactions and fraud protection. Its only the thieves and scammers that argue against it and they belong in prison anyway. People that just want to abuse the system are all for their irreversible non-sense.

[hilariousandco]

There needs to be some form of reversing transactions and fraud protection. Its only the thieves and scammers that argue against it and they belong in prison anyway. People that just want to abuse the system are all for their irreversible non-sense.

No it's not. It's thieves and scammers that will abuse this reversibility like they do on Paypal. If you want protection, use an escrow or a payment processor that will insure against problems.

[mgio]

We don't need this. The ability to do escrow is built into the protocol (although no clients seem to support this as of yet).

[cr1776]

Personally I don't think this is a priority.

In my opinion the following are priorities.

Security: eliminate the need for pools - they WILL eventually overwhelm. Imagine BTC is 100000 USD per unit, wouldn't YOU hack the system as a pool owner just to buy 5 houses?
Security: protect the zero-confirmation transaction by implementing the pre-mined block announcements, so you can see which transaction HAS been received by miners, while it's not 100% guarantee - it helps for the merchants.
Security/AntiDDOS: implement bitmessage like path-cost
Clean up: delete the irrelevant parts of protocol (like locktime, size etc), this will lower the size of blockchain and transmissions.
Speed: implement partial block announcement so clients can get just the inputs/outputs related to it's addresses.
GUI: can't even count the UI mess we have now. at least implement blockchain.info functionality to trace transactions and processing.

As far as the pools go, p2pool eliminates many of the issues - coins are paid right away so there is no pool wallet to hack for example, mining is more distributed, lowering the possibility of a 51% attack. 

[StevenS]

Is there any work being done on reverse-transactions in bitcoin?

Yes. They just aren't widely implemented yet.

See:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts#Example_2:_Escrow_and_dispute_mediation

Bitcoin has the added benefit that both sender and recipient can choose in advance who has the power to reverse a transaction in case of a dispute.

This is easily the best answer to the OP. While it is not the same as a reversal (charge-back), it is a escrow system that works with Bitcoin today. It is entirely optional, and only requires that the buyer and seller agree on an arbitrator (and if you can't agree on an arbitrator, you shouldn't be doing business together).

Escrow has some advantages and disadvantages over reversals.
Advantages:

• Funds are released immediately when both parties are satisfied. (E.g. when the buyer receives the goods.)
• After funds are released, seller doesn't have to worry that the funds can be taken away at a later date.
• Parties can agree to change the timing. (E.g. seller can ask the buyer or mediator for an extension if there is a delay in shipping.)
• A good mediator can keep both parties well-informed, decreasing misunderstandings. (Compare to a credit card charge-back, when the seller can be surprised months after the sale.)

Disadvantage:

• Funds cannot be used by the seller until the escrow is released.

In my opinion, the advantages of escrow completely overwhelm the disadvantages.