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Re:Bitcoin by analogy by meowface on Thursday April 24, 2014 @11:30PM (#7644611)
You're right, but Bitcoin does little to prevent fraud as well. The only kind of fraud Bitcoin prevents is "check's in the mail" type schemes, or fraud involving a customer trying to scam a vendor (by performing a chargeback after receiving a product, for example).

I think Bitcoin has a ton of great uses, but fraud protection is not one of them for consumers at least.

Re:Bitcoin by analogy by fordh on Friday April 25, 2014 @12:11AM (#7644733)
That's correct, but this shouldn't be understated. Bitcoin provides the ability to be sure that a transaction is legitimate when you're on the receiving end, and that the it can't be canceled later. This can be done without knowing anything about the person on the sending end, much less require a level of trust based on the sender's reputation.