Stripe Inc, an Irish-American online payments company, is venturing back into the crypto space after exiting it earlier in 2018. This time, it has partnered with Twitter to offer content creators on the platform to take out their payments in crypto, more specifically in crypto-based stablecoin, USDC.
“Stripe customers can now instantly pay funds to their sellers, freelancers, content creators, and service providers using cryptocurrency. In addition, using Stripe, companies like Twitter can offer creators the choice to receive payments in crypto. Initially, the payouts will be available using USD Coin (USDC), a stable coin pegged to the US dollar,” Stripe Incorporation said in a press release.
Twitter has several content monetisation products like ‘Ticketed Spaces’, Super Follows, among others. Content creators can use this to earn money. Stripe aims to provide them with an additional option of taking out their money earned in crypto blockchain-based USD Coins instead of traditional fiat currency.
Initially, Stripe will support the payout of USDC stablecoins to wallets compatible with the Polygon (MATIC) Blockchain. Content creators who choose this mode of payment can choose to hold their payments in USDC on the Polygon wallet, or convert them to any of the supported cryptocurrencies according to their requirement.
Stripe chose Polygon (MATIC) since it offers lower fees than rivals, and is also compatible with other crypto wallets like MetaMask, Coinbase, and Rainbow.
“Stripe will initially support payouts in USDC to wallets compatible with the Polygon network. Later this year, Stripe will roll out support for additional cryptocurrencies and Blockchain networks. Additionally, platforms and their end users can easily monitor and manage payouts—including crypto—in the Stripe Dashboard,” read the said press release.
Stripe is among the many fintech companies that have jumped into the Web 3.0 space. It had reportedly put in place a dedicated team as early as 2021 to explore Web 3.0 and crypto opportunities.
In March 2021, Stripe’s co-founder John Collison had announced on Twitter that Stripe would now support crypto businesses, exchanges, crypto wallets, and NFT marketplaces with a range of services like KYC, identification verification, and pay in and payouts, and fraud prevention, among others.
“Making commerce more global is one of the most powerful ways we are going after our mission to increase the GDP of the Internet. As crypto protocols are global by default, they are a natural vector for doing this. With crypto payouts, platforms using Stripe can send money to verified recipients nearly anywhere in the world, instantaneously,” the press release quoted Will Gaybrick, chief product officer at Stripe, as saying.
