But this is the power of bitcoin right? Now I can live in South America and get near-instant (crypto)currency transfers as well.

In fact what parent is saying is that fast transaction speeds are not something that are solely enabled by bitcoin. There is absolutely no technical reason why transfers have to take days between banks. That's just down to the banks in your country having a crappy infrastructure.

In fact, among the interesting properties of Bitcoin, I'd rate transaction speeds as the least relevant - chiefly because network throughput and transaction speed is actually pretty poor if you compare it to what is achievable with classical tech.

> There is absolutely no technical reason why transfers have to take days between banks. That's just down to the banks in your country having a crappy infrastructure

This is one of the reasons crypto is a great solution though. You don't have to rely on institutions for the infrastructure.

> There is absolutely no technical reason why transfers have to take days between banks. That's just down to the banks in your country having a crappy infrastructure.

I agree that there's no technical reason. For example, "crappy infrastructure" is an economic reason why fast bank transfers wouldn't work. I'm evaluating bitcoin as a political/economic tool.

That's not really a unique value proposition, as there are PayPal (and probably others) for many years already. And PayPal is free for private transfers, compared to BitCoin's ~$5/transaction.

I wonder if everyone has access to that. And for the people that don't, I wonder if they have access to bitcoin.

I live in the EU. I don't have instant money transfers (they are within the day but not instant). Across EU countries it still takes days.

Wrong banks then. I can instantly transfer money between my accounts in Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Latvia, Belgium and The Netherlands.

Some wire transfers are instant and they are much more expensive than BTC or ETH

But then the money is immediately available and I can buy a new pair of shoes with it

Honestly, how much money one needs to move that the cost of the operation actually matters?