Just to add, if you are using BTC it's a slow network, best option imo for faster transactions is a chain thats better designed for fast payments. Personally I am not a fan of layer 2 tech like lightning, it adds complexity since the wallet has to then be a lightning compatible wallet, the other reasons are just to do with the tech overall.
USDT on Tron is nice because its fast and 1:1
BTCH (bitcoin cash) is a fork of bitcoin when there was a dispute about making the blocks larger (so they hold more transactions) which would speed up the transaction times.
ETH I personally wouldnt go near. high fees, slow network and other crypto politics reasons
ADA (Cordano, is ment to be pretty fast although I havnt used it)
Dot is also a pretty fast network.
Personally though, I would go USDT on tron, the $1:1USDT means that your not going to send $200 and the model ends up with $190 because crypto is on the down swing before it's final bounce of the run and it goes into a heavy crash for the next couple of years.
Yeh It's something I already have and so I don't need to buy more of. I guess the next questions would be would it be faster to do a swap trade from BTC to another currency THEN send that one or just wait of the BTC transfer?
Kind of depends on the exchange and how they run it. Generally exahcnges will be almost instant on currancy trades because gotta be fast to make their % from the traders. Some do require you to wait for the transaction to settle before you can do anything with the funds though.
Is the transfer delay because it's BTC being transferred? I've had my BTC for years but I've never used it in a transactional way so was surprised when all these time sinks cropped up.
Yep BTC is generally a slow network, it was more of a proof of concept than a production ready system, works well for things you dont need instantly, like getting paid wages for example where it just needs to be on a specific day but something that requires a fast purchase it's not really suitable for and never will be.
I guess my simplified question would be is the timesink my exchange, the blockchain recording the transfer or their exchange confirming the transaction that's causing so much delay?
The time delay is the network confirming that the transaction is a valid transaction.
Basically the transaction gets put into a block with other transactions made at the same time, you then have to wait until someone picks up the transaction block is valid before the funds are exchanged. The way it's displayed in new wallets dosnt really reflect the way things actually work because they have been designed to be more like what people are used to, but in the original bitcoin wallet, the balance wouldnt change until the transaction had been verified and the funds were transferred.
The fastest option IMO would be to exchange the btc on the exchange for something that runs on a faster network and then use that to send the payments, ofc you would have to make sure the model can accept whichever currency.
