Twitter Upgrades Creator Payments in Crypto via Stripe with help from Polygon

Twitter users get paid in stablecoin via Stripe.

This is the first article in a new “Journal” on Web3 Digest title The Stripe Gen. It is as such a special feature article. Web3 Digest continues to evolve thanks to its readers who support it.

Back in October 2021, Stripe announced that it would be re-entering the cryptocurrency market — ending a four-year hiatus with hype around crypto definitely not abating.

Now on April 22nd, 2022 there’s a new important update, even as Elon Musk has secured the money for a bid, big question - will Elon Must turn Twitter into a Creator Economy utopia?

I’m following the intersection of Web3 and the Creator Economy pretty closely, from writers doing NFTs to gaming evolving platforms for NFTs, it’s all super interesting.

Tipping people in crypto is nothing new, but this is a major development. Online payments firm Stripe says it will start offering merchants the ability to pay their users in cryptocurrency through the stablecoin USDC.

Stripe and Polygon

The reality is Stripe to use Polygon Technology to power payments for creators on Twitter! Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. So there’s deeper collaborations here than meets the eye.

Twitter will be the first company to test this option by paying earnings via crypto to content creators who use its monetization products. People like Jack and Elon are very bullish about the potential of Bitcoin and crypto, even Dogecoin which Elon sometimes Tweets about.

In addition to payments to bank accounts and debit cards, select content creators can now elect to have USDC earnings sent to their wallets. Creators can use Twitter’s Super-Follow to introduce premium content like a subscription.

Twitter Testing Crypto via Stripe for Creators

On the macro side, Stripe is adding crypto payouts to Connect, its programmatic (API-based) payouts platform; and Twitter will be the first platform to let people get payouts in crypto using it.

Starting Friday, Twitter will let a certain number of creators receive their earnings from its paid Ticketed Spaces (audio) and Super Follows features in crypto.

It’s Stripe’s first significant push into crypto since dropping support for bitcoin four years ago. If Twitter is serious onboarding crypto into its Twitter spaces feature, the audio communities could be the Web3 version of Twitter, very very soon.

Creators know that Niche marketing is the most lucrative for them, and Twitter does niche dialogue really exceptionally well. Opening it up to crypto just really makes sense here in the tradition of Jack and Elon.

I never thought I’d say this but Twitter is a first-mover now in this. While the social media giant already uses (Stripe) Connect to pay its creators, Twitter will be the first company to integrate the new crypto payout feature, with expected rollout to other businesses in the next few weeks. Substack pays its creators via Stripe, as well.

Stripe is a Web3 Payments Platform

Stripe is a huge enabler to be honest of many payments in Web3. For Creators, it’s the most seamless solution and I’m happy personally to pay the 3%. Substack itself takes 10% which is far more reasonable than many other ecosystems (including the worst offenders like Roblox and Facebook). I’ve noticed in 2022, sponsorships are becoming more common on LinkedIn and Substack, we badly need a “Stripe of Sponsorships” for Creators who enable the social graph to connect the right companies with the right creators. Hopefully Google with YouTube have thought about this in more detail.

So what’s going on here? This means Stripe is a Web3 platform. Many of us already knew this.

Payments will occur via the Polygon (MATIC) network, a layer-2 blockchain known for its low fees, fast transaction speed, innovative zero-knowledge technology and integration with Ethereum (ETH). Outside of ByteDance, Stripe is by far the most important to go IPO either in 2022 or 2023.

What does it Mean for Creators?

Twitter already helps Creators monetize in things like Tips, Super Follows and ticketed Spaces events. Connect is available in local currencies already in 70 countries. Twitter’s monetizing service is not, but this gives it the potential to expand at some point. It’s all coming together quite nicely for the future of payment to help build Web3.

Twitter is just a beneficiary. The real story is in Polygon’s integration with Stripe. The real winners are those with serious followings on Twitter. With Elon Musk poised to own the company with backers and take the company private they can mold it into a Web3 winner where “free speech” and freedom of expression is more valued and moderation does not impede in that basic human right.

Stripe is getting very sophisticated. Stripe last month (TechCrunch) released a series of APIs and other tools for developers to start integrating Stripe’s crypto features. Support to use fiat currencies to buy more than varieties of 135 crypto tokens (not a fragmented market at all!), cash-out facilities, NFT trading and compliance features like Know Your Customer (KYC) were among the functions that were rolled out across some 180 countries. That’s massive!

Stripe is Closing the Circle on its Payments Dominance

As companies like Paypal are in a decline, that same cannot be said for Stripe or Block (formerly Square). Coinbase could eventually enter this picture.

Stripe will allow businesses to pay their users via cryptocurrencies, starting with Twitter, in the latest sign of how large financial firms are warming to digital assets. Institutional enter into Bitcoin has solidified its price. The Fed’s nearly unlimited QE during the pandemic greatly facilitated this. It gave huge liquidity reserves and power to shoot on all cylinders to piggy pack their wealth on crypto FOMO.

Stripe is a $95 billion online payments company that will now start offering merchants the ability to make payouts in crypto through the stablecoin USDC, which is issued by crypto firm Circle. Stablecoins are tokens that are pegged to fiat currencies to maintain a stable price. In USDC’s case, as the name suggests, the cryptocurrency is backed by the U.S. dollar. It’s all just pretty incredible if you think about it.

Summarized

So basically according to my understanding, payments processor Stripe will use Ethereum scaling platform Polygon in a move that will enable Stripe’s customers to pay sellers, freelancers, content creators and service providers in crypto.

• Initial payouts will be made using USDC stablecoins native to Polygon’s network and through Polygon-compatible wallets

• This could sync well with an Elon Musk takeover of Twitter to fast-track Web3 integrations and features.

Stripe Hugs Bitcoin

This in mid-2022 is a little surprise to some. It’s Stripe’s first significant push into crypto since dropping support for bitcoin four years ago. The San Francisco-based start-up stopped accepting payments via bitcoin in January 2018. Bitcoin is very different today in the early 2020s and stablecoins and ecosystem currencies like Roblox has created, are being cloned by people like Meta (Facebook).

If you want to support me so I can keep writing, please don’t hesitate to give me tips, a paid subscription or some donation. With a conversion rate of less than two percent, this Newsletter exists mostly by the grace of my goodwill (passion for technology and Web 3 decentralization) & a relative state of poverty as I pivot into the Creator Economy myself.

Sorry I’m not only pumping crypto, I must be neuro-divergent with a bias to critical thinking somehow.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed the topic, that’s all for today.