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> Similar to how bank transactions have been instant in Europe for more than two decades

Please elaborate. Are you talking about some country-specific schemes? Cause I’m not aware of any EU-wide instant payment scheme that has existed for 20 years. AFAIK Instant SEPA Credit Transfers are still a relative novelty. My bank charges extra for them and there’s a cap of several thousand euros on the transfer amount.

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In the Netherlands, instant transfers have been possible for at least 5 years. I think also in Belgium. This is indeed being rolled out to the whole EU.

[1] https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/en/focus/giro-based-and-onli...

How this technically works under the hood is less about any technical implementation and more about banks having agreements with each other. That said, it's amazing how fast you get used to instant bank transfers.

Instant transfers are the default method and there is no charge in Slovakia. But if it’s over few hundred Euro then it will usually downgrade to regular SEPA (usually next day).

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