Not just cross-currency, but also cross-border payments.
I've implemented processing of cross-border payment instructions delivered via SWIFT and there's no way banks will STP a cross-border payment for $150 million. Large payments will always be subject to an authorisation review, at least where I work. That costs money and takes time.
Fundamentally, cash payments will always suffer from counterparty default risk without a central bank. How are you going to build an international central bank or central bank system? The best you'll see are regional efforts like TARGET2.
Digital currencies solve these problems without requiring ridiculous amounts of infrastructure to be created first. If we had to sit around waiting for banks to solve these problems, it would simply never happen.
This is fundamentally why I see digital currencies as the future, and why the hype is indeed warranted (even if perhaps people don't understand why).
I've implemented processing of cross-border payment instructions delivered via SWIFT and there's no way banks will STP a cross-border payment for $150 million. Large payments will always be subject to an authorisation review, at least where I work. That costs money and takes time.
Fundamentally, cash payments will always suffer from counterparty default risk without a central bank. How are you going to build an international central bank or central bank system? The best you'll see are regional efforts like TARGET2.
Digital currencies solve these problems without requiring ridiculous amounts of infrastructure to be created first. If we had to sit around waiting for banks to solve these problems, it would simply never happen.
This is fundamentally why I see digital currencies as the future, and why the hype is indeed warranted (even if perhaps people don't understand why).