[gjsman-1000]

If I remember correctly, payouts always take two or three days to clear, to comply with all of the settlement and legal processes.

The “instant payout” is actually a temporary loan from an entity already approved as having all funds available for immediate disposal at multiple links in the chain. This is then used to create the illusion of an instant payout… while the “loan” guarantor receives payment 2-3 days later.

This is also why there’s actually a “instant payout” limit on your Stripe account, almost like a credit limit - because it basically is credit.

[lxgr]

> payouts always take two or three days to clear, to comply with all of the settlement and legal processes

No, that's usually just how long ACH transfers can take. In most cases, it's more like next-day these days, in my experience (e.g. from paying out from PayPal to my checking account or between checking accounts), but that depends on the specific ACH type and timeline, I believe.

> The “instant payout” is actually a temporary loan

It's usually not. Actual settlement of both card and ACH payments usually happen on the next business day, but since that goes for both legs of most transactions, the settlement periods "cancel each other out".

[twelvechairs]

Yes as noted on the page

> You can always pay out your funds using our standard schedule (2 business days) for free.

[contingencies]

Sounds like a blockchain startup in the making!

[vel0city]

Where you'll pay fees on the chain, fees at the exchange trading for fiat, and then fees sending the fiat back to your bank so you can actually make payroll with money normal people actually use.

[contingencies]

You would presumably use a faster and cheaper off-chain method of settlement (such as bank or exchange-local settlement) using on-chain contracts with near real time periodically executed and publicly auditable settlement of the derivative CDOs. See other response.

[lxgr]

How would blockchain accelerate ACH transfers (or make wire transfers cheaper, or convince banks to support FedNow)?

[contingencies]

Caching, reputation and promises make the world go 'round.

Exhibit A) SWIFT famously states it doesn't actually move money.

Exhibit B) Hawallah

ie. It's good enough to promise to deliver in due course most of the time. That's equivalent to a transfer, most of the time. The evidence is that it is the basis of many existing settlement networks (SWIFT/hawallah), but also the stock market / individual broker ledger system, the dominant off-chain transfer model of many exchanges for digital assets, crime ("you have X days to deliver Y or Z happens"), etc.

Where it's not good enough, you attempt to store enough to cover eventualities with forward prediction to maintain settlement volumes, offset with promises, utilise third party risk mitigators (insurance/liquidity providers) and/or leverage reputation.

Speaking hypothetically, because the original comment was made predominantly in jest, but in the knowledge that it was actually potentially applicable enough to yield startups, let me humor you. Specifically, in my mind where blockchain might add value is if you wanted to obtain local liquidity at short notice. I understand micro-lending markets are now well developed on Ethereum, but haven't bothered to dig in to the implementation myself. The point is, it would be theoretically possible to build such a system to translate real world promises to on-chain contracts and thus have the ongoing support of globally distributed capital behind providing stability to local micro imbalances of liquidity as a service. This is an existing business model seen in many aspects of the financial system.

Start looking at the world this way, and notice similarities between capitalism, crime, crypto, cold steel and cojones. It's all the same game. Physical or digital, settled or promised, it's about risk and reward, reputation, and "the availability of effective recourse" (ie. trust). The same band-aids are used everywhere.