You do understand that Wiring money is not slow because of the technology right? And it has everything to do with government regulations around anti-terrorism, anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, etc.?

I think it’s hilarious that you think your wire was slow because of the geographical distance the message had to travel (“halfway across the world”) as opposed to the fact that it had to travel across jurisdictions with different laws.

If I want to send someone money within the US, for example, it’s near instantaneous, whether through a credit card/debit card purchase, Zelle/Venmo, PayPal, direct bank transfer, etc.

To the extent some forms of transfer require waiting a day it’s because, once again, banks do settlements once a day to reduce costs and to meet federal government regulations that prevent fraud and/or help keep the economy more stable.

Blockchain tech is significantly slower than decades old banking technology. You can go hours before someone mines something to close out a bunch of transactions. What slows down banking transactions is the very stuff the absence of which meant that $30bn of wealth evaporated overnight in FTX.