Dharma Launches New Social Payments Feature

Dharma, an Ethereum-based peer-to-peer crypto lending platform, has unlocked a new social payment feature. According to the company’s announcement, the update will allow users to send USD to any twitter handle, regardless of the person’s location or whether they have an account on the platform.

Global Asset Transfers Now Possible

The new feature comes with several implications for users. For one, it means that users of the Ethereum-based lending platform can source for digital currency in a viral manner. With the virality of Twitter, where anyone can turn into a celebrity within hours, this means different causes can raise funds through Dharma at a faster and higher rate.

The feature also doesn’t require the recipient to have a pre-existing Dharma account. This means the age-long barrier of onboarding a new user before transfers can be made has been defeated by the stride towards social payments. 

Dharma explained that the new feature could be used to conduct several transactions, including micropayments, cross-border remittances, and charitable donations.

To get started, users have to deposit funds into their Dharma wallets. Dharma explains that recipients would begin gaining interest “as soon as” someone sends them money, even before the recipient claims it. At the moment, Dharma offers a 3.5% interest per annum, according to its website information.

This follows the trend of crypto platforms seeking to integrate as many social media channels as possible into their system. The move seeks to further decentralize payment systems globally while integrating fund transfers into the everyday routine of users.

This update follows Dharma’s switch to a new Compound-connected platform in August 2019. The switch allowed Dharma-enabled users to tap into Compound’s liquidity pool, thus enabling lenders to immediately earn interest on deposits.

Dharma is one of the payment platforms backed by famous investors. In its different series of fundings, Dharma raised money from Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, and. In 2019 alone, the peer-to-peer lending system raised $7 million to build out a global lending platform for many crypto traders and investors.

Is Live Tipping the New Direction for Twitter?

This isn’t the first time that a crypto firm will be launching a payment service using Twitter as its medium. Last August, blockchain-based browser Brave launched a feature that allowed Twitter users to use its Basic Attention Token (BAT) to tip content creators on the social media platform. 

The service’s feature also came as an in-browser offering via Brave Rewards. So, users who had opted into the Brave Rewards program could see a tip option on Twitter posts when browsing through Twitter via the Brave browser. The service also supports tipping on video streaming service YouTube and game streaming service Twitch.