Quote from: ascent on July 04, 2011, 03:12:33 AM

And then when you say, "a bit of time goes by...", do you mean, less than 5 seconds?

The point I'm getting at here, in a nutshell, is, can we reliably process transactions less than, say $50, in 5 seconds or less, or not?

I would say Yes, and I'll use a real example from my own experience here:

I'm a miner on BTC Guild, they have an "Instant Payout" button, whenever I press that button, they automatically sends me my balance (usually 1-2BTCs), and as long as I have my client open at the time, I'd always INSTANTLY see that transaction appear in my client.
(ie: Received 1.25 BTC on BTCguild address, 0 confirmations)

Now since I trust that BTCGuild will not screw me over that 1-2 BTC, I never wait for the confirmation to happen.

I'd say the burger shop can safely assume that the buyer won't screw them over an $5 order. thus they should be able to instantly release that burger to the customer, after seeing a "0 confirmation" transaction appear on their client.