[jiveturkey]

You appear to have a fundamental misunderstanding of ACH vs wire. They aren't the same thing, with one of them having a fee just for the speed of it.

3-5 days is actually a feature of ACH. This delay includes the ability to reverse a transaction, a built-in risk management. For example, here is a quote from an article on the front page of HN right now (#5, SIM swap horror story):

> After a couple of days, our bank reversed the $25,000 charge and told us that the fraud department caught the ACH withdrawal before it was fully processed so that neither my family nor the bank lost this money forever.

Google will give you lots of good information on the difference between wire and ACH.

[hello_1234]

Here's a great podcast on NPR's planet money if you want to learn more - https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/01/10/576879734/epis... You cannot just give me two anecdotes to defend one of the most inefficient systems in the US.

[ForHackernews]

How is ACH "inefficient"? It's certainly slow, but speed and efficiency are not the same thing. It's far more efficient than bitcoin.

It's a mainframe batch-processing system built in the 1970s, and it's mostly worked just fine for 40 years. That's pretty efficient!

[hello_1234]

The mainframe batch-processing computers might be efficient. I have no idea. I am taking about the "ACH system". It's supposedly automated but it shuts down during the weekends. There is no way to tell how long it will take for transaction will take to complete. If you listen to the NPR podcast, it took one of their transactions 8 days to complete. And why is "speed" not a measure of efficiency when it comes to transferring something?

[ForHackernews]

We transfer most freight by slow container ships instead of fast airplanes because it's much more efficient: It's less expensive, requires less energy-per-kilo, and amortizes the cost of the vehicle over a larger volume of cargo.

[snarf21]

Exactly this. Extra hoops to transfer your wealth are like most things in life. Do you want security or convenience? Maybe you don't care about security for a $5.00 coffee. What about a $5K contribution to your IRA? What about a $50K downpayment on a house? All risks have models and it is silly to pretend they are all the same.