SWIFT just built a blockchain across 17 major banks and cut out everything crypto actually cares about. Is this a win or a loss for the industry?

SWIFT launched a blockchain-based shared ledger this week. 17 banks from six continents already piloting. Citi, HSBC, UBS, BNP Paribas, Wells Fargo, BNY. Round the clock money movement. They managed to build this in just 9 months

The catch: it runs on Hyperledger Besu. Banks retain full control of their own keys. SWIFT orchestrates everything. No decentralization. No open access. No crypto involved at any point.

So crypto spent 15 years making the philosophical and technical case that the global financial system needed this infrastructure. And the version that actually got built strips out literally everything the community cared about and hands control straight back to the institutions crypto was supposed to disrupt.

On one hand this validates the technology completely. On the other it feels like watching someone steal your idea, water it down, and get credit for inventing it.

Curious how people here are actually feeling about the SWIFT announcement specifically. It feels like a larger growing trend of traditional finance and banking coming in, taking what they need, and throwing out the rest.

Is this a win for crypto or the beginning of the end for the industry as it merges with the finance sector it was trying to usurp?