You say "transfers take place almost instantly." Can quantify "almost instantly," i.e., how many milliseconds/seconds/whatever would typically be required for a transfer to be completed and confirmed?
A: If someone sends SWIFT to you they will appear as received within seconds. The time can vary depending on network connectivity speed and various other issues. The confirmation time is 30 seconds (on average).
Somewhere else in this thread it says "with only 10 confirmations before coins are usable." So 30 seconds is ten confirmations, meaning the block time is 3 seconds?
So suppose I register a swiftID for my car, use swiftEXIST to do whatever the rest of those steps mean. The bitswift network now validates my ownership. Then (in the real world) I put an ad on craigslist, someone comes over and gives me a thousand bucks and I sign the title over to them. The bitswift network isn't modified by this real-world transaction, so the bitswift network is still validating my ownership, even though in the real world I no longer own the car.
A: SwiftEXIST is used to declare ownership and record that ownership in the history of events. The blockchain allows to record events and keep the history and proof of those events. If the car was sold later on in the future to a new owner the network would not know otherwise. The network would only know that on a specific date in the past, you owned the car. Unless of course, the network gave enough incentive for the new owner to join the network and transfer the ownership from you and bind it to their SwiftID. Or perhaps if the network gave enough incentive to use its internal SwiftSales, the car could be sold directly on the network. When the sale is final the ownership would be transferred internally to the new owner.
I don't follow that at all, sorry. With cars the actual, legal ownership is reflected in the title. There's no link between the blockchain and the physical car, the physical documents, and the registration of the title at the DMV.
And if the blockchain only records that someone owned that car at some point in history (if that were even possible), how is it useful in selling the car? If I'm buying a car from you I don't care whether you owned it at some point in history, I care about whether it's legally yours now so that it's your to sell. And then if I give you money for it I don't care about entries on a blockchain, I care about the legal title.
Is there going to be a whitepaper with technical details at some point?