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Comment by ewjordan | Hacker News Reader

I can wire a hundred thousand bucks for $25 through my bank and it clears in an hour or so, quicker if I call them. And the recipient can immediately withdraw that as cash. This doesn't seem like a killer application of the tech, am I missing something other than the fact that banks aren't always open?

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«banks aren't always open»

There you have it. In an always connected world, it's practically an anachronism to have to wait the "next business day" to send a wire when you missed the cutoff time of the day :-/

Plus: irreversibility of txns, escaping corrupt governments seizing funds, escaping inflation, etc.

Really ? Cause I can't. Can you explain which (European) bank allows this, because I don't know a single one, and I'd love to have this option available.

Really? I can transfer $20K with one click, $0 cost if im fine waiting for one of 6 daily Elixir sessions, ~$2 if I want Elixir express.

https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight...

I'm American, sorry :/

You have to trust the banks not to freeze the funds.

really an hour? maybe inside the country, internationally is days and more expensive of course depending of the bank, then you add the bank commission for having an account with them, all the paperwork, and all the time, you don't really own the money, the bank owns the money.

so, in the UK and EU things are pretty reasonable for electronic funds transfers. in the EU area SEPA instant (~10-20s) payments have been available since november this year between a limited number of member states, and should be rolling out to others during 2018. as for standard SWIFT style international payments, from the UK they should reach the destination the next day, although this will cost more - most banks have charges of tens of pounds. inter bank transfers inside the UK are free, and instant, even for large ones.

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