[G3n0t]

Well, "SWIFT" international bank transactions require up to 5 work days. Here in Germany, sending money from one bank to another still takes at least one up to three _work_ days. So in the worst case, you're wiring money to sb on Friday and he will receive it by Wednesday. Compare that to 10 minutes required by Bitcoin anywhere on the planet.

Of course, there are special purpose banking products to accelerate transactions but they are also more expensive than Bitcoin's miner fee.

[enzo1982]

We have mandatory 1 business day bank transactions in Euro currency in Germany and the EU since 2012. If your bank is taking "up to three _work_ days" for regular Euro transactions they are violating the law (§675s BGB).

As of last year, most banks also offer instant (10 seconds) transactions for a small fee. This is planned to be made mandatory at the end of 2021. My bank is charging 0.50€ for such transactions which is significantly less than the median Bitcoin transaction cost (more than $1 in 2020 average, more than $5 currently).

[lxgr]

I'm in Germany as well, and bank to bank transfers across Europe (not just Germany) usually take either 1-2 seconds (when both banks support SEPA Instant) or a few hours otherwise.

Both methods are significantly cheaper (usually free) than Bitcoin transaction fees at the moment. As a concrete example, EUR withdrawals from Coinbase to a SEPA bank account are both faster and cheaper than BTC withdrawals to a wallet at this point.

If a transfer takes any more than two full business days (IIRC), one of the banks involved is out of SEPA compliance.

The only thing that _really_ slows down bank to bank transfers is when your payment gets flagged for review for security or compliance reasons, but arguably, both also benefit you (as a customer not wanting to lose money or a citizen not wanting to indirectly cover the effects of somebody else's tax evasion or money laundering). In my experience, this also happens very rarely, but performance of this can vary from bank to bank.

[tmarice]

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/be59a6bb09757ef4dec9ed7841...

$2M transfer costs $1. From/to anywhere in the world.

As a comparison, my freelance fees regularly came $13 short, and the only explanation was "interbank transfer charges". Plus the sender had to pay his own fees. And then my own bank would charge me ~$15 for accepting deposits from outside EU.

I'll take Bitcoin over the traditional banking cartel any day.

[lxgr]

True, many banks charge unreasonable fees for international transactions, but that‘s fixable: There is a very competitive market for international money transmission.

You‘re probably losing out much more than $13+$15 on bad exchange rates in the process too, so you should definitely shop around for options.

Chances are that the same transaction on Bitcoin, including conversion fees between your client‘s currency X and BTC, and BTC and your country’s currency Y (which you definitely will need, if not for food, then at least for income tax) is more expensive.

[martin_a]

> I'll take Bitcoin over the traditional banking cartel any day.

Good luck paying your lunch with Bitcoin.

[jpmoral]

In Australia, instant bank to bank transfers are free. And I always thought it was behind the rest of the world (except the US).

[girvo]

Surprisingly we’re often one of the first markets for new financial tech. Though we were behind for a while until Osko was adopted.

We’re getting mandated bank API access too, interestingly. Or we were. Dunno where that’s at now.