Hacker News Reader

Comment by EthanHeilman | Hacker News Reader

Fraud protection in the sense that, if you protect your private key no one can steal your bitcoins. With credit cards you are constantly giving away your secret to third parties when you transact with them.

Bitcoin/cash shifts protection from third parties, like stores, to the user. This dramatically changes the nature of security in both good and bad ways.

View on HN

> Fraud protection in the sense that, if you protect your private key no one can steal your bitcoins.

To swap out a word or two: "Fraud protection in the sense that, if you protect your wallet, no one can steal your cash."

I don't think that matches the commonly understood meaning of "fraud protection".

Right, except it isn't a physical object like cash is, it can't be stolen from your person like cash can, and most people keep nearly all of their 'cash' in electronic accounts anyway.

The snarky parent was probably trying to say that „theft protection” might be a better term.

I agree with your interpretation, but bitcoin eliminates that kind of fraud, while requiring you to protect against theft.

It's not just theft protection though. Bitcoin provides protection from forms of fraud which specifically use mechanisms in a currency or transaction system, like chargebacks on PayPal (a ubiquitous form of fraud), or fake Western Union payments.

Chargebacks may be a mechanism of fraud by purchasers against sellers, but they are also a tool for addressing fraud by sellers against purchasers.

I prefer a user-securable account (like Bitcoin) over a laughably insecure account (like credit cards, where your "authentication" details are just a handful of numbers that you have to share with everyone you transact with) with a dispute resolution team.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com