Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] BIP 70 refund field

From: Wladimir <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:38:51 +0100

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 12:25 PM, Andreas Schildbach
<[email-masked]>wrote:

> I see the problem.
>
> However, I don't see how PaymentDetails can be an answer. None of the
> fields (other than outputs and network) can be known in advance (at the
> time of the initial payment).
>
> You're probably aiming for an expires field? How would you refund a
> payment after expiry? Note its not your choice wether to refund a
> payment -- it can be ordered by a court years after the payment happened.
>

Communication between the merchant and buyer would be needed in this case.

I'd say that would be not unreasonable if something is to be refunded after
a year or more. After all, people may have moved, bank accounts changed,
even outside the bitcoin world.

It should probably not be accepted to set a very low expiration time for
the refund address, like <3 months, as it's as bad as not providing a
refund address at all and brings back all the pre-BIP70 confusion.

Wladimir