SWIFT Causes Headaches for Remitters, Cryptocurrency Offers Reprieve
SWIFT transfers are notorious for taking long and costing a lot, but this was highlighted when it was recently revealed that a UK charity could not get £11,000 to 36 orphans in Zambia after weeks of waiting.
The sending bank, Barclays, blames a lack of communication from the receiving bank in Zambia, but the charity organizers were just happy to get their money back after being in limbo. The issue was exposed during an investigation by the Observer, whom also discovered many similar experiences by other bank users. Typically, users can expect SWIFT to make transfers in a few days, but it can take as long as a few weeks depending on the country, which is not to even mention the extraordinary fees. At this rate it becomes faster to put the cash in a briefcase and hand deliver the amount.
However, this then highlights another problem of the current financial system around the world – withdrawing your own money. Due to current anti-money laundering laws, it can often become a hassle to withdraw your own money, depending on the amount. Within the US, between $2,000-$10,000 USD it is at the bank’s discretion to file regulatory forms, but after $10,000 USD it becomes mandatory. To bring into perspective, $10,000 USD is often not even enough to buy a moderately well-maintained used car. Many banks around the world also self-impose ATM withdraw limits, which highlights fractional reserve banking and the fact that banks do not have enough cash on hand to fulfill all their liabilities.
Cryptocurrencies provide faster, cheaper, and better solutions
Cryptocurrencies eliminate these hassles since transfers can be made in minutes for a few dollars on the slowest networks. On faster networks, such as Dash, an InstantSend transaction can be made, right now, in 1-2 seconds for $0.01-$0.02 USD, which is about to become the norm with Automatic InstantSend. Additionally, transactions can be followed since blockchains are public, so if a receiver claims to have never gotten the money, like the instance above, consumers can track their money rather than relying on the word of third parties. Cryptocurrencies also empower consumers the full right to own and use their money, since as eluded to above, significant amounts of money stored in banks cannot be withdrawn, in whole, without significant delays and/or forms to complete.
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