4 ms·

I don't know what you mean by the bank account analogy. I don't go to the bank everyday, but I can interact with my bank account several times per day. I can ma

I don't know what you mean by the bank account analogy. I don't go to the bank everyday, but I can interact with my bank account several times per day. I can make free money transfers to any SEPA account, so this is also part of what micropayments should be. It's just tedious, and the money takes two to three days to arrive.

stephen_g 7y ago
Two to three days to arrive? Why? In Australia, our regular banking system lets you register your mobile phone number (or business/company number or email) as a 'PayID' and then that's all the info you need to send somebody an instant payment... Even our older system usually only takes until the next afternoon or morning on a business day (I believe the older inter-bank payments are settled in two batches per business day).
- tom_mellior 7y ago
  There is certainly no technical reason for the delay, a transfer should just be a transfer of a few bytes of information. I think the usual explanation is that this system gives banks a pool of money that they are always free to invest in the time that it's neither in the original owner's nor the recipient's account.
buboard 7y ago
i mean that bitcoin has de facto become a store of cash rather than cash at hand. It's indeed not like a bank since there are no chargebacks, no insurance nothing. It's different. But there are also multiple solutions to the speed issue, so speed is not really what s holding back widespread adoption. SEPA is bank transfers with delays of entire days - that makes them completely unfit for micropayments.
- Scarblac 7y ago
  For much of Europe, SEPA transfers are already as good as instantaneous and I think the other countries will follow.
zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 7y ago
That's sort-of not true anymore, SCT Inst is a thing and allows transfers between participating banks within seconds around the clock, every day of the year. It's just that some banks don't seem to see the need, and some think it's somehow a premium feature that you can charge for, some even multiple EUR per transaction (outbound, I don't think anyone charges extra for receiving SCT Inst transfers). But then, many banks seem to understand that that is bullshit and offer it at the same price as regular transfers, which for many banks means free of charge for non-businesses. I can only hope the former will notice that offering ancient technology is not a good way to keep customers.
pmarreck 7y ago
> It's just tedious, and the money takes two to three days to arrive So then it's not free. Instead of charging you a transaction fee, they charge you "time", since time is money, and they can make money off the in-flight money (via interest, ostensibly).

stephen_g 7y ago

Two to three days to arrive? Why? In Australia, our regular banking system lets you register your mobile phone number (or business/company number or email) as a 'PayID' and then that's all the info you need to send somebody an instant payment... Even our older system usually only takes until the next afternoon or morning on a business day (I believe the older inter-bank payments are settled in two batches per business day).

tom_mellior 7y ago
There is certainly no technical reason for the delay, a transfer should just be a transfer of a few bytes of information. I think the usual explanation is that this system gives banks a pool of money that they are always free to invest in the time that it's neither in the original owner's nor the recipient's account.

buboard 7y ago

i mean that bitcoin has de facto become a store of cash rather than cash at hand. It's indeed not like a bank since there are no chargebacks, no insurance nothing. It's different. But there are also multiple solutions to the speed issue, so speed is not really what s holding back widespread adoption. SEPA is bank transfers with delays of entire days - that makes them completely unfit for micropayments.

Scarblac 7y ago
For much of Europe, SEPA transfers are already as good as instantaneous and I think the other countries will follow.

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 7y ago

That's sort-of not true anymore, SCT Inst is a thing and allows transfers between participating banks within seconds around the clock, every day of the year. It's just that some banks don't seem to see the need, and some think it's somehow a premium feature that you can charge for, some even multiple EUR per transaction (outbound, I don't think anyone charges extra for receiving SCT Inst transfers). But then, many banks seem to understand that that is bullshit and offer it at the same price as regular transfers, which for many banks means free of charge for non-businesses. I can only hope the former will notice that offering ancient technology is not a good way to keep customers.

pmarreck 7y ago

> It's just tedious, and the money takes two to three days to arrive So then it's not free. Instead of charging you a transaction fee, they charge you "time", since time is money, and they can make money off the in-flight money (via interest, ostensibly).