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It's easy-ish (far harder than using a credit card), but it's also:

- possible the transaction won't happen immediately or happen at all

- extremely expensive

- stupid (if you expect your particular cryptocurrency to increase in value over time)

- missing all the protections and benefits of a credit card

If I transfer from my Coinbase account to yours, the transaction is not subject to the vagaries of the blockchain. It’s more or less like transferring from my PayPal account to yours.

Are you suggesting it's sidechain? Or that our funds in Coinbase are pooled?

Either way, it completely defeats the purpose of decentralization, consensus, etc. Coinbase, in that case, is exactly like a traditional bank except that you're trading non-money instead of money.

If you are depositing anything in an online Bitcoin account and you’re making transactions that aren’t insanely expensive, they’re either side chain or pooled.

- Introduces exchange risk and tax complexities for most merchants.

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