Quote from: VishwaJay on April 08, 2013, 08:35:06 AM

This would of course depend on why you want instantaneous confirmation.

The true nature of our impatience is that we live in a consumerism-based society which demands that we show everything we have now, Now, NOW!!!

I am sorry??
So you can waste 1hour of your time to buy bread of several hours on the supermarket checkout queue?
Good for you, you probably don't have anything more interesting to do or maybe you just don't need to work for a living!
But most people can't wait that long and it is not consumerism, is just like money always worked, many transactions need to be instantaneous.
PERIOD

Quote from: VishwaJay on April 08, 2013, 08:35:06 AM

If we slow things down a bit, we learn that the confirmation means that our funds are MORE secure, being difficult to steal or fraud, because there is no central authority which sits on its hands or issues a confirmation before it actually confirms anything (how fraud works in the fiat currency world). When we have a central authority which controls all of the money, it then also necessarily controls how that money may be used, and it creates opportunities for fraudsters.

Are you saying that WE cannot have a decentralized system THAT confirms my transactions in 12-18seconds instead of 1hour.
Interesting...
Why is that?
Why is 10 minutes such a magical timeframe?

Why 10, and not 5 or 20?

Quote from: VishwaJay on April 08, 2013, 08:35:06 AM

To date, the only real issue with Bitcoin are the DDoS attacks on certain BTC-related web sites, which didn't succeed in taking any money, but instead cost the whole system some coins which may never be recoverable. It was the equivalent of trying to rob a bank, but accidentally setting the currency on fire. Overall, not a huge loss, financially, but it did cost the community a good resource.

Nobody complained about that in this thread. I did not question bitcoin's security.
I just challenged its speed.

Quote from: VishwaJay on April 08, 2013, 08:35:06 AM

Though I'm a newbie, I've been following Bitcoins for about the past 2 years, and I'm actually ready to invest a bit into the market.

Good for you, I am 1 week into trying to get some TBCs and it will probably take me a month more to be able to buy some. It is too difficult and SLOW and there are many untrustworthy and greedy intermediaries. Just like in the fiat world or even worse.

Quote from: VishwaJay on April 08, 2013, 08:35:06 AM

And on my main website, I have a "donate bitcoins" button right next to the PayPal "donate" button (and since I live off of donations as a member of the clergy, in exchange for the work I've done, I'm happy to have a medium which is largely anonymous).

Good for you again!
That use case is good for Bitcoin right now, and nobody here is trying to change those use cases.

What I am saying here is that either bitcoin should remove the word "instant" from their publicity or they should find a way to really allow "instant DECENTRALIZED payments" when they are needed.

I think that can be done with little redesign and cheap fees, more expensive than the traditional ones on the mining blockchain, but cheaper than those of Paypals, and VISAs.