Thanks for the clear description. In Stripe's case, this arbitrage won't work. When we refund a bitcoin payment, we refund the USD value of the payment (converted to bitcoin at the time of the refund). The customer does not necessarily receive the same bitcoin amount that they sent.
For example:
(1) At the initial time, each bitcoin is worth 100 USD. A Stripe user accepts a 10 USD payment (0.1 bitcoin).
(2) Bitcoin then increase in value to 1,000 USD each. The Stripe user fully refunds the payment. Their customer receives 0.01 bitcoin (10 USD).
The Stripe user and their customer both have a net of zero USD in this scenario.
We could have implemented refunds in the opposite way: a net of zero BTC and non-zero USD. However, that would have introduced the issue that you describe.
Thanks for the clear description. In Stripe's case, this arbitrage won't work. When we refund a bitcoin payment, we refund the USD value of the payment (converted to bitcoin at the time of the refund). The customer does not necessarily receive the same bitcoin amount that they sent.
For example: (1) At the initial time, each bitcoin is worth 100 USD. A Stripe user accepts a 10 USD payment (0.1 bitcoin). (2) Bitcoin then increase in value to 1,000 USD each. The Stripe user fully refunds the payment. Their customer receives 0.01 bitcoin (10 USD).
The Stripe user and their customer both have a net of zero USD in this scenario.
We could have implemented refunds in the opposite way: a net of zero BTC and non-zero USD. However, that would have introduced the issue that you describe.