Dharma Launches Feature for Sending Dai Payments to Twitter Handles

Dharma, an Ethereum-based crypto lender, has released a new feature that allows sending stablecoin to Twitter handles.

This peer-to-peer lending platform has announced the launch of Social Payments, which they describe as a Twitter-native financial ecosystem. They go on to say that this new service allows people to send USD to any Twitter handle, regardless of where the recipient lives or whether they have a Dharma account or not – via stablecoins.

Their FAQ page states that Dharma supports only the Dai stablecoin.

So how does this new feature work? First, using the app, the user needs to deposit funds to their Dharma account, that is, deposit Dai to their Dharma deposit address, from their debit card, any crypto wallet, or from exchanges. Then they find the Twitter Handle they wish to send the funds to, and send the payment. Lastly, they can retweet the notification via the Dharma Bot Twitter account to make sure that the recipient sees it, as the bot will tweet a link to download the app. The payment doesn’t follow the username, but the unchangeable twitter ID created upon the account’s creation, so Twitter username can be changed and the payment’s association will not be affected in any way, says Director of Engineering at Dharma, Graeme Boy.

Once the Dai’s been sent, the recipient can use the link the bot sent to download the app, at which point they’ll need to create their account with only their email address and connect it to their Twitter account to claim the Dai. The FAQ page explains that users can withdraw their funds directly to their bank accounts, meaning that they’d receive USD, or if not available, they can withdraw Dai to a crypto address.

Furthermore, the recipient earns interest as soon as somebody sends them money while it’s waiting to be claimed. Interest rates are determined by the protocol of decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Compound, says FAQ, and they fluctuate frequently.

The minimum amount for deposits or withdrawals is USD 0.01, and unlike popular payment services such as Venmo, there are no fees. Dharma is non-custodial, they say, meaning, they don’t hold on to users’ Dai. Therefore, there are no additional browser extension or gas fees, they say.

As reported last year, decentralized browser Brave tested a new feature for tipping tweets with BAT. Before that, an app for or Chrome and Firefox browsers Tippin was launched, which lets users tip tweets with bitcoin.