I assumed the USDT send was the only thing that could slow the flow.
It wasn’t.
The pause showed up earlier, in the pre-flight step where the workflow tries to prove it’s “ready” before value moves: which token pays fees, where the gas balance sits, whether the network choice matches the intent, whether anyone needs a buffer window.
That’s the part that turns settlement into coordination.
On Plasma Network, the sequence didn’t ask for that detour. I still watched for the usual dependency, but it never became a gate. The Reth EVM side stayed familiar enough that nothing had to be re-learned mid-run, and the stablecoin path behaved like a payment-first Layer 1 instead of a chain that makes USDT wait behind a separate fuel decision.
The difference wasn’t a headline feature. It was what never triggered.
No “do we have the right gas token?” thread.
No second check before execution.
No handoff without buffers turning into a negotiation.
I saw PlasmaBFT close the state fast enough that the monitoring reflex didn’t get time to form. Sub-second finality doesn’t feel like speed. It feels like the workflow losing excuses.
Someone still asked, “Are we clear to proceed?”
The system answered the only way it ever does: by checking again.