Wire transfers will soon become obsolete
If you need instant payments you may want to use card-to-card transfers which are as instant as it gets. You may have to pay a fee but with wire transfers you have to pay almost the same fee anyway, so it doesn't make any significant difference. On the other hand, Bitcoin transaction fees are growing in dollar terms quite in line with Bitcoin price itself, therefore the fees may be quite comparable in size to fiat transfers unless you are transferring dizens of bitcoins, of course. But in the latter case the fiat fees will be likely limited as well
If you need instant payments you may want to use card-to-card transfers which are as instant as it gets. You may have to pay a fee but with wire transfers you have to pay almost the same fee anyway, so it doesn't make any significant difference. On the other hand, Bitcoin transaction fees are growing in dollar terms quite in line with Bitcoin price itself, therefore the fees may be quite comparable in size to fiat transfers unless you are transferring dizens of bitcoins, of course. But in the latter case the fiat fees will be likely limited as well
I question whether instant payments are mission critical issues and whether they deserve high priority status.
If it is true that people deliberately spam bitcoin transactions with low transfer fees to sabotage legitimate bitcoin transactions.
It could naturally follow that these forums are spammed by people who exaggerate the importance of instant payments to give us the false notion that instant payments are a critical issue in need of attention.
To some degree bitcoin's transaction speed could be a factor of its security features the same way encrypted wifi connections are generally slower the more secure they are.
If that is true, there could be some social engineering at work in terms of people investing a good deal of time and effort into exaggerating the need for instant bitcoin transactions, possibly to push for bitcoin's security features being relaxed in order to suit some agenda.
It makes zero difference to me if bitcoin transactions are instant or take time to confirm.
I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of bitcoin users were indifferent to the time it takes for btc to confirm transactions.
Thanks for your comment.
I'd just like to say that I'm not sponsored and don't believe I've been swayed into one side of the BigBlock/SmallBlock debate.
My reasons for wanting 'as frictionless/cheap as possible' transactions is totally selfish and personal. I envisaged Bitcoin to be a way in which we/I could vote with our money. Being able to quickly and with minimal effort change our 'vote', therefore having maximum control over the vote that we have.
To me, investing is like giving something my seal-of-approval. I invest in a project/asset because I believe in its values or its importance but the only way to invest currently is on a big-scale, paying through a 3rd party service.
I'd like to see micro-investing in diverse/decentralized things a possibility (<$10) - without the fees cutting into it to much.
Maybe Bitcoin adds more value to the world as a 'store of value and marker of property' for troubled people and regions and not as a cheap, micro-payment system system for the more wealthy?
) but I can't help but think that when our banks administer their own blockchain currencies that offer efficiency and with that efficiency comes additional use-cases that really work.
