[JumpCrisscross]

> was there any currency that was also a payment method?

Every currency has, by definition, native payment methods. (If it doesn't, it's a settlement system, not a currency.) Most simply: physical cash.

Electronic payment systems are more complicated. In some countries, consumers can directly access them. In others, e.g. the United States, consumers indirectly access the settling-in-seconds and costing-pennies Fedwire system through banks.

> Bank wire transfers take up to three days in Europe

Maximum settlement time for SEPA transfers has been 1 business day since 2012.

[1] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/sepa_brochure_2009en... footnote on page 20

[grondilu]

> Maximum settlement time for SEPA transfers has been 1 business day since 2012.

I had not noticed. It's still much longer than 10 minutes, isn't it?

[JumpCrisscross]

> It's still much longer than 10 minutes, isn't it?

Wrong tool for the task. Ironically, every transaction I’ve done in Europe used U.S. dollars and Fedwires, which close immediately and cost basically nothing. When people go off about petrodollars or whatever, the simple fact of American international payment superiority is often missed.

(The ECB has been taking about an always-on instantaneous system for a while [1]. I haven’t kept track of its progress.)

[1] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/retpaym/instant/html/index.en...