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A guy at a coffee shop said SWIFT transfers are slower than crypto and I couldn't even argue with him
I was waiting for my latte last Tuesday and this random dude starts talking about sending money overseas. He said he moved $2,000 to family in Mexico in under 10 minutes using some app. Here I am still telling people wire transfers take 3-5 business days. It hit different because I realized our whole system is built on trust and verification but his just... works faster. Has anyone else had a normal person call out how slow banking actually is compared to what's out there?
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cooper.phoenix1mo ago
My buddy tried to send me $50 through one of those apps last month and it showed up before he even put his phone down. Meanwhile my bank charges me $35 to wait three days for a wire transfer. Makes you wonder why we put up with it for so long. You ever had a cashier at a store tell you crypto payments go through faster than card swipes?
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murphy.linda1mo ago
Oh, I have to jump in here because that's not quite right. @cooper.phoenix, those cashiers aren't usually comparing crypto to cards in real life. Most stores that take crypto payments actually use a third party service that converts it to cash instantly, so the store still gets paid like a regular card transaction. The speed you're thinking of is when two people send crypto directly to each other, which can be fast but isn't always instant depending on the network and fees. And those payment apps you mentioned, they work so quickly because they're basically just moving numbers around inside one company's system, not actually settling real money between banks. Wire transfers are slow and expensive because they go through multiple old systems that haven't been updated in decades. So crypto can be faster than some things, but it's not always the silver bullet people make it out to be.
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the_parker1mo ago
Yeah I get what you're saying about the third party converters but I think you're downplaying how much faster crypto actually is in practice. Those converter services add their own fees and delays and half the time the payment still takes longer than just swiping a card. And sure payment apps are fast but they only work within that company's walled garden. Good luck sending money from Venmo to Cash App quickly without paying a fee or waiting days. Crypto is one of the only ways to send money across different platforms in minutes without someone taking a cut. The wire transfer thing is a joke though I'll give you that.
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