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503 sats \ 6 replies \ @nout 21 Sep 2022
People always talk about SWIFT like some fancy technology for international settlement that has all sorts of advanced automated verifications.
I don't think many people realize that SWIFT in practice means that each bank employs ~20 people that run specifically configured Windows in a virtual box that runs an MS-DOS application.
The most common flow is that the person prints out all transactions/wires they need to do that day and then manually inputs those to the MS-DOS application (yes, by manually reading and rewriting the printed transaction from another software. This tech is before copypaste was invented). One person does around 60 transactions per day this way.
They also make notable % of mistakes and so part of day is spent communicating with other banks on resolving the mistakes. There are differences between countries, e.g. Deutsche Bank makes less mistakes than Spanish banks...
This is SWIFT...
I know this because I was recently debugging issue in this space for a major bank.
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204 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryptocoin OP 21 Sep 2022
Haha, that's crazy. Especially with bank wires through SWIFT being immediately finalized (i.e., non-reversible).
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40 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 21 Sep 2022
indeed...
reminds me of this famous hack
https://www.wired.com/2016/05/insane-81m-bangladesh-bank-heist-heres-know/
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35 sats \ 0 replies \ @artdesignbySF 21 Sep 2022
Dinosaur tech
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25 sats \ 0 replies \ @KingZing 22 Sep 2022
SWIFT strength doesn't lie on the tech, but the necessity of it. China has been working on an alternative SWIFT, but part of it uses SWIFT and AFAIK hardly any notable ones are using it.
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25 sats \ 1 reply \ @nerd2ninja 21 Sep 2022
MS DOS out of the box doesn't have user permission management...
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 21 Sep
That's the top issue you noticed in this overall system description? 😅
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40 sats \ 1 reply \ @2big2fail 21 Sep 2022
all banks will employ tech similar to strike for moving dollars.
bank A needs to send money to bank B:
- buy btc
- send btc
- sell btc and have dollars
this type of structure will replace eurodollar transfers for offshore banks that do not really trust each other
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25 sats \ 0 replies \ @nerd2ninja 21 Sep 2022
Similar to strike, similar to pouch.ph yeah yea, but in the words of F.A. Hayek "I think we can forget about existing banks"
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25 sats \ 1 reply \ @faithandcredit 21 Sep 2022
I think i agree. Because VISA could adopt Bitcoin as a currency and "move" it around within their network
SWIFT could technically adapt as well, become a custodian/facilitator of Bitcoin on-chain transactions. Iirc even microstrategy is using a custodian for their BTC.
So at the end of the day BTC doesent really replace anything, except perhaps the dollar
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30 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 21 Sep 2022
No, Bitcoin will not replace anything. Will make all the rest OBSOLETE.
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25 sats \ 0 replies \ @puddingtonbeer 21 Sep 2022
Visa will adopt Bitcoin and Lightning before Bitcoin replaces Visa.
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