When people say “unit of account” basically what they are saying is:

Cryptocurrency is an Open Source rewrite of the banking systems that currently run on Cobal. “Banks, please start using them as your database and reconciliation layer instead of your legacy software.”

Meanwhile, users continue to use credit / debit cards as they do now, and they continue to see some number on their bank accounts going up and down regardless of where the “money” actually is. Which is the same as today. That’s why we see “Pending” across so many of our transactions.