Although SWIFT began as a decentralized system, and today remains a nominally decentralized system, it has been captured by nation-state actors who use it for their own purposes. Chief among these is the United States, and the latest example is the situation with Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. From the point of decentralization, SWIFT is not functioning as intended.
As you noted, alternatives such as SPFD and CIPS exist. Although they are small in scale relative to SWIFT, participants in these alternative systems primarily trade with each other. Over time, more alternatives to SWIFT will come online for other, more localized regions.
Cryptocurrencies have a place as an alternative to SWIFT, especially if other nations follow the lead of El Salvador and declare some cryptocurrency or other as legal tender. While not perfect (because nothing made by human beings ever can be), cryptocurrency offers better protection against hacking thanks to blockchain. (When people say that "Bitcoin was hacked!" what they really mean is that the centralized exchange where the wallets were stored was hacked; the Bitcoin network itself remained untouched by hackers since it would require immense time and resources to succeed in truly hacking Bitcoin.)
Thank you for publishing this post regarding SWIFT!
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