> For example, you can't get a hotel room last-minute with a credit card in Vietnam, where I checked, because they need to verify your ownership/control of your credit card with a pair of small debits, probably because of the fraud/chargeback situation.
This problem is soluble (as sibling points out, it's been solved in the UK). Conversely Bitcoin always takes about half an hour to settle transfers, for fundamental design reasons. Bitcoin qua Bitcoin is never going to be an effective way to pay for your shopping, and if you're using "Bitcoin" via a Visa-like entity, the benefits over just using Visa are questionable.
> Another example, you want to donate to Wikileaks from the US. Not so easy.
I suspect for most people (that is, non-anarchists) that's actually an advantage. Bitcoin is the equivalent of paying in used notes; it inherently carries a whiff of, at minimum, tax avoidance or socially-disapproved earning sources, because the big places where Bitcoin is more useful than conventional currency are tax evasion and socially unpopular activity. Whereas someone paying with amex likely has a proper job.
This problem is soluble (as sibling points out, it's been solved in the UK). Conversely Bitcoin always takes about half an hour to settle transfers, for fundamental design reasons. Bitcoin qua Bitcoin is never going to be an effective way to pay for your shopping, and if you're using "Bitcoin" via a Visa-like entity, the benefits over just using Visa are questionable.
> Another example, you want to donate to Wikileaks from the US. Not so easy.
I suspect for most people (that is, non-anarchists) that's actually an advantage. Bitcoin is the equivalent of paying in used notes; it inherently carries a whiff of, at minimum, tax avoidance or socially-disapproved earning sources, because the big places where Bitcoin is more useful than conventional currency are tax evasion and socially unpopular activity. Whereas someone paying with amex likely has a proper job.