> Maybe that's where we're talking past each other.
I think we are :-)
I was referring to legal regulation and oversight, which is there for very good reasons and is the primary reason most banks/cus have someone whose job includes handling international wires. But also, talking with someone who really understands the legal and financial landscape before firing a few grand off to another country is enormously helpful (but not worth the $60 per xfer!).
I agree there's fat that could be trimmed, as well as just unnecessary charges for the sake of making money off of market position. But for me, the best case scenario is getting rid of that without the extra intermediary. But really, I suppose if the crypto currency is mostly used for bank-to-bank, I don't much care about the back end as long as it works and it's cheap.
edit: I'm not sure what got touched, random bits needed improving.
Bitcoin basically replaces steps 2-4. A bank just needs to get the Bitcoin address of the receiving bank in a reliable manner (ie. instead of IBAN/BIC) and then the transaction can be made and verified. The regulations are still important, because they hold each end accountable (so if Bob's bank can prove that they sent the money to Alice's bank, which they can, then the regulations make sure Alice gets her money) but right now there are a whole lot of unnecessary regulations for the middle part (steps 2-4 on the Wikipedia page). More importantly, using Bitcoin greatly reduces the number of international regulations and agreements that are required, and those are probably the fattest of all.
So yeah, I would love to see Bitcoin replacing SWIFT/Fedwire etc, but I doubt it will ever replace banks (although it might make it easier for smaller banks to compete). Realistically Bitcoin will probably need to replace credit cards before it can replace SWIFT, though, and we're still a ways off. (You may be interested in this article, if you haven't seen it yet: https://stripe.com/blog/bitcoin-the-stripe-perspective)
I think we are :-)
I was referring to legal regulation and oversight, which is there for very good reasons and is the primary reason most banks/cus have someone whose job includes handling international wires. But also, talking with someone who really understands the legal and financial landscape before firing a few grand off to another country is enormously helpful (but not worth the $60 per xfer!).
I agree there's fat that could be trimmed, as well as just unnecessary charges for the sake of making money off of market position. But for me, the best case scenario is getting rid of that without the extra intermediary. But really, I suppose if the crypto currency is mostly used for bank-to-bank, I don't much care about the back end as long as it works and it's cheap.
edit: I'm not sure what got touched, random bits needed improving.