[0]: VisaNet handles an average of 150 million transactions every day and is capable of handling more than 24,000 transactions per second.

[1]: 65,000 Transaction messages per second

[0] https://usa.visa.com/run-your-business/small-business-tools/...

[1] https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/about-visa/documents/vi...

Also, consider there are other networks like MasterCard:

[2]: MasterCard’s 2012 annual report asserts that its network can handle more than 160 million transactions per hour with an average network response time of 130 milliseconds. Operating 24 hours a day every day, MasterCard reports that its processing systems have consistently maintained availability 99.9 percent of the time.

[2] https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/consumer-finance-ins...

Thats around the world, not in one town/city

A currency with 'decentralization' as a goal should probably aim higher than satisfying the transaction rate requirements of a single town/city.

Id like to also add that there are an order of magnitude more transaction options provided by cryptocurrencies than there are for fiat payment systems. Id bet money that, collectively, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is able to process more transactions per second than all of the leading fiat processors combined.

Probably, but only because crypto doesn't scan for fraud and abuse among other things. Monero is happy to let someone completely empty your life savings.

Cc processors on the other hand are on the hook for fraud, so they are checking every transaction to make sure it doesn't match certain hueristics that could indicate theft or fraud.

I'm optimistic crypocurrencies (not all, but some) will achieve global adoption as a payment option. I think its possible to build a cryptocurrency that could emulate the fraud / refund detection features of cc processors. If there isn't one out there, I'm sure it will exist in the future. I certainly don't see monero being used in my local bodega or as a mainstream currency because thats not really what monero is trying to achieve.

I'd take that bet in a hot second (not that we could ever get verifiable numbers to prove it). There's just no way sorry