Hacker News Reader

Comment by k2enemy | Hacker News Reader

I couldn't find any mention on the website -- does it support one time numbers for online transactions? If not, I'd be very reluctant to use it. One breach and your bitcoin account is gone.

View on HN

Nerver used bitcoin, but cannot you simply create another bitcoin account for petty cash VISA transactions and transfer funds when need be?

You can, but ironically, transfers are not painless in Bitcoin. It can take over 60 minutes for a transaction to be "confirmed", meaning the network has verified that the coins you spent were rightfully yours to spend, and there needs to be a transaction fee attached so that miners are incentivized to check your transaction.

Many bitcoin users prefer to generate a new incoming address for each transaction to improve privacy (Bitcoin is "anonymous" only insofar as your legal name is usually not directly attached to the transaction; in most other ways, it's more traceable than the alternatives).

If you have two Coinbase accounts, transfers are immediate (since Coinbase still owns the bitcoins, they just move them internally): https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/139...

You'll have all the rights of a Visa cardholder, such as the ability to file a chargeback.

Are you sure? This is debit, not credit. I believe your rights with debit a fair bit weaker (might depend on issuer though).

The "debit" part of the name means that it draws from an account of liquid funds rather than a line of credit. You can still opt to have your purchase transactions run as if they were credit which does indeed give you VISA credit card protection.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com