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Whilst there is a lot of hype and speculation I think you are mistaken about there being no real-world applicability. My bank has so many fees and loopholes fo

Whilst there is a lot of hype and speculation I think you are mistaken about there being no real-world applicability. My bank has so many fees and loopholes for sending money even within the EU and they can take days. I owed a friend some money and I sent him BTC which arrived in a couple of hours with fees that were about 10% of what I pay using the banking system. Real-world applicability and a satisfied user.

pjc50 9y ago
> so many fees and loopholes for sending money even within the EU Get yourself a bank which does SEPA properly.
- scalesolved 9y ago
  Easier said than done at least in Spain. Poor opening hours and poor customer service. It's one of the reasons I'm a fan of crypto for the ease of transferring.
  - bkor 9y ago
    But the issue is lack of competition, not something that can only be solved by crypto currency. The original statement was that crypto is still looking for an actual problem to solve. Lack of competition and slow transfers isn't something related to crypto. Meaning, at a point Bitcoin took hours to work as well which a really high fee. SEPA apparently is 1 EUR and 10 seconds. Ease of transferring seems dubious as well, crypto can also be slow or quick.
    - scalesolved 9y ago
      These are fair points, my reply was to the OP who said crypto was 100% hype and speculation which I didn't agree with. I'm giving a data point of crypto being useful for me, yes BTC has been slow at points but I've also had with each bank I've ever used (Natwest/Santander/Banco Sabadell/Barclays) points where my accounts were under maintenance and couldn't be moved.
    - ttoinou 9y ago
      But the issue is lack of competition And cryptos brings competition back in the financial space
  - walshemj 9y ago
    Probably because historically banking licences where handed out to those sympathetic to the Franco regime.
- 0xFFFF0000 9y ago
  Well, with BTC you don't need a bank at all.
philfrasty 9y ago
With the new SEPA instant a transfer takes 10 sec max [1] [1] https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-instant-credit-transfer https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-insta...
fearface 9y ago
In the EURO Zone, SEPA transfers worked really well for me so far: - SEPA fee is less than 1 EURO, regardless of the volume (e.g. with UBS, but some banks might rip you off) - it takes at most 2 banking days, but half of the payments made before the bank day opening, are transferred during the current day in my experience
- patrickk 9y ago
  SEPA is completely free (as a customer), in my experience.
- azag0 9y ago
  In the Eurozone, SEPA transfers are free. Outside Eurozone, but within EU, there are typically small fees.
- ttoinou 9y ago
  SEPA is made free by a law, not by good technical design. It means it is not free because the banks would like to charge us and can't, so maybe the whole bank account fees are superior in some way we can't see. It's the same with the EU law for mobile roaming data. It looks like laws made for the riches cosmopolitan against the poor that don't travel much in Europe
Toine 9y ago
1) I don't what bank you're using but it's really bad 2) It's been a LONG time since we can transfer money really fast at a really low cost
- jdamon96 9y ago
  really? what can you use to transfer money from the US to the Philippines "really fast at a really low cost"?
- 0xFFFF0000 9y ago
  >>2) It's been a LONG time since we can transfer money really fast at a really low cost Transferring money from many places in the world is not cheap or easy (think of third world countries) - but even in more developed countries it can take quite long and have heavy fees. Crypto enables people to be their own bank.
- Ftuuky 9y ago
  I transferred nearly 1000€ worth of BTC yesterday and it took one hour and cost cents.
adrianN 9y ago
Those problems are not technical though. Centralized systems using banks are more efficient in theory. It's just databases talking to each other, there is no technical reason why transfers can't be near instantaneous and basically free. Cryptocurrencies might provide incentives for banks to lower their fees and polish their crusty legacy code, but I can't see them displacing banks for everyday use.
- ttoinou 9y ago
  Good point but crypto are not only new payment system but also new currencies... No more helicopter money
erispoe 9y ago
Within the EU and EFTA, SEPA transfers are free.

pjc50 9y ago

> so many fees and loopholes for sending money even within the EU Get yourself a bank which does SEPA properly.

scalesolved 9y ago
Easier said than done at least in Spain. Poor opening hours and poor customer service. It's one of the reasons I'm a fan of crypto for the ease of transferring.
- bkor 9y ago
  But the issue is lack of competition, not something that can only be solved by crypto currency. The original statement was that crypto is still looking for an actual problem to solve. Lack of competition and slow transfers isn't something related to crypto. Meaning, at a point Bitcoin took hours to work as well which a really high fee. SEPA apparently is 1 EUR and 10 seconds. Ease of transferring seems dubious as well, crypto can also be slow or quick.
  - scalesolved 9y ago
    These are fair points, my reply was to the OP who said crypto was 100% hype and speculation which I didn't agree with. I'm giving a data point of crypto being useful for me, yes BTC has been slow at points but I've also had with each bank I've ever used (Natwest/Santander/Banco Sabadell/Barclays) points where my accounts were under maintenance and couldn't be moved.
  - ttoinou 9y ago
    But the issue is lack of competition And cryptos brings competition back in the financial space
- walshemj 9y ago
  Probably because historically banking licences where handed out to those sympathetic to the Franco regime.
0xFFFF0000 9y ago
Well, with BTC you don't need a bank at all.

philfrasty 9y ago

With the new SEPA instant a transfer takes 10 sec max [1] [1] https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-instant-credit-transfer https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-insta...

fearface 9y ago

In the EURO Zone, SEPA transfers worked really well for me so far: - SEPA fee is less than 1 EURO, regardless of the volume (e.g. with UBS, but some banks might rip you off) - it takes at most 2 banking days, but half of the payments made before the bank day opening, are transferred during the current day in my experience

patrickk 9y ago
SEPA is completely free (as a customer), in my experience.
azag0 9y ago
In the Eurozone, SEPA transfers are free. Outside Eurozone, but within EU, there are typically small fees.
ttoinou 9y ago
SEPA is made free by a law, not by good technical design. It means it is not free because the banks would like to charge us and can't, so maybe the whole bank account fees are superior in some way we can't see. It's the same with the EU law for mobile roaming data. It looks like laws made for the riches cosmopolitan against the poor that don't travel much in Europe

Toine 9y ago

1) I don't what bank you're using but it's really bad 2) It's been a LONG time since we can transfer money really fast at a really low cost

jdamon96 9y ago
really? what can you use to transfer money from the US to the Philippines "really fast at a really low cost"?
0xFFFF0000 9y ago
>>2) It's been a LONG time since we can transfer money really fast at a really low cost Transferring money from many places in the world is not cheap or easy (think of third world countries) - but even in more developed countries it can take quite long and have heavy fees. Crypto enables people to be their own bank.
Ftuuky 9y ago
I transferred nearly 1000€ worth of BTC yesterday and it took one hour and cost cents.

adrianN 9y ago

Those problems are not technical though. Centralized systems using banks are more efficient in theory. It's just databases talking to each other, there is no technical reason why transfers can't be near instantaneous and basically free. Cryptocurrencies might provide incentives for banks to lower their fees and polish their crusty legacy code, but I can't see them displacing banks for everyday use.

ttoinou 9y ago
Good point but crypto are not only new payment system but also new currencies... No more helicopter money

erispoe 9y ago

Within the EU and EFTA, SEPA transfers are free.