We hope to extend cryptocurrency to daily payments, but to be honest, WeChat payment and bank transfer can already meet the payment needs. Does the public still have the motivation to use cryptocurrency for payment? Or ask, can cryptocurrency bring payment advantages that the public needs but cannot be provided by non-cryptographic currency?

The answer may be yes, because of the programmability of cryptocurrency. In the past year, we have witnessed programmable finance, that is, the creativity of DeFi; perhaps in the future, we will be able to see the innovation of programmable payment to payment methods.

In this article, we will start with an application called The Superfluid Protocol to discuss the possible features and application scenarios of programmable payment. The Superfluid Protocol provides a new payment method: streaming payment.

***co-founder and CEO Francesco George Renzi introduce about  the superfluid protocol***

1. Superfluid is currently live on the Ethereum, Polygon, and xDAI networks. Using an ERC20 token called Super Token, Superfluid allows users to perform multiple tasks in a single transaction, said Renzi.Let's say for example a user wants to donate to a few different open-source projects on a regular basis. "The first thing you'd do is get your hands on a Super Token, for example, DAIx on Polygon. You could do this by upgrading your existing DAI tokens using Superfluid, a process much like wrapping ETH into WETH," said Renzi."Once you have Super Tokens, you simply need to sign one transaction to start a stream. Once the transaction is confirmed on the blockchain, the stream will start. As the sender, your balance will start ticking down as the receiver's balance ticks up."Since Superfluid only requires a single transaction to initiate a money stream, there are no additional gas or transaction costs on a go-forward basis.Unlike payment channels, users don't have to keep a channel fully funded with Superfluid, and thus the protocol helps with capital efficiency, said Renzi. It, therefore, unlocks an entirely new subscription-based economy on-chain, he added."Streaming payments—meaning from one account to another, and then to others, concurrently, all in real time—has long been the holy grail of decentralized finance. State channels were thought to be the solution but by definition cannot scale due to the 'locked assets' problem and the capital inefficiency of design," said Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital. "Superfluid is pioneering an entirely new category of cash flow and incentive design."There are currently seven full-time employees and a few part-time members working for Superfluid, and the project is looking to hire at least eight more people across marketing, developer relations, and engineering functions, said Renzi. Superfluid is also creating a grants program with the fresh funding in place to enable more Web2 developers to join the crypto space, according to Renzi."We believe we need to create a new generation of crypto natives who will be paid in streaming money," he said.

some ideas about superfluid protocol of managing partner at Multicoin Capital Kyle Samani

Using our new smart contracts framework on Ethereum you can transfer any token or digital asset on-chain in several ways based on a novel primitive: predefined rules that we call agreements.By publishing a single transaction, you could agree to transfer 10 DAI per month in a constant stream. Every second, a tiny amount of DAI will flow between the two wallets, without any need for gas or any further transactions by sender or receiver. Similarly, cancellation is also only one transaction.Agreements are initiated with a single on-chain transaction. After this, all the magic happens automatically. The agreement will keep working forever without requiring any interactions or gas feesSince the dawn of Ethereum, people have been talking about programmable cashflows. Superfluid takes the idea of programmable cashflows to the logical extreme.

To understand Superfluid, let’s build up in three layers.

1.the base layer of Superfluid is streaming cash flows. This is straightforward: “stream $5 per hour.” This sounds like a state channel, but it is not. State channels require bilateral, synchronous signatures between sender and receiver. Superfluid allows the sender to authorize the stream with a single signature, and doesn’t require the receiver to be online at all. This reduces the key management burden. Stream recipients can claim the tokens that they have been streamed anytime with a signature (or never claim them at all, and stream them on to someone else using Superfluid).

2.The second layer of Superfluid is programmability. Smart contracts can manipulate incoming flows of tokens just like they do with deposits. For example: “stream $5 per hour to Bob as long as I am receiving at least $10 per hour.” The cashflow logic can be arbitrarily complex.

3.The third layer of Superfluid is a network of interlocking streams of value across many assets, all of which run concurrently without any additional gas consumption. For example: “Bob receives a stream of $20 per hour from his employer, streams $5 to pay back a loan, streams $10 of it into a savings account, pays a few subscriptions, and commits the rest to buy ETH every second.”

The third layer—the network layer—is what makes Superfluid so powerful. Superfluid streams can build on other Superfluid streams—so that Bob can stream funds to Carol as he receives streams from Alice.

This solution natively solves a whole bunch of problems concurrently: it increases capital efficiency, reduces gas consumption, and reduces the number of times users need to sign transactions

1.l strongly recommends using it to pay wages: if a person’s monthly salary is 10,000, the flow of payment means that he no longer receives 10,000 on a certain pay day, but can use it every day or even every moment because of the labor already paid. And get paid. This method is friendly to the person who provides the labor, and he can use the salary earlier than in the past.

2.In addition to paying salaries, streaming payments can also be used for investment or funding, which is similar to the role of DAICO. Investors receive investment funds gradually instead of taking them all at once; if the project progress does not meet expectations, Investors can get back the unpaid money. This method is a kind of protection for investors, and it is also a kind of restraint for the investees. They need to build projects instead of taking money away.

3.Streaming media may also become an application scenario for streaming payment. For non-subscription users, streaming payment is a reasonable way: the fee charged depends on the time the user watches the video, the time he listens to music or audio, and the time he stays in the live room. If he doesn’t like the program, he will You can withdraw at any time without having to pay the full fee for this show.

4. Extending streaming media one step is data streaming. Data is the most important means of production in the future. Once privacy calculations have constructed a foundation for data charging, the next problem to be solved is how to charge. Streaming payment may be an important method to choose from, using liquid money to pay for mobile data. data. In addition to the three application areas of salary, investment, and data streaming, streaming payment has other imagination, such as leasing, games, consulting services, etc., which will not be expanded here.

5. If you are not only interested in using this payment method, but also want to design or access stream payment, you can pay attention to ERC777***, The Superfluid Protocol*** is based on this standard.

6.The Bitcoin Lightning Network also has a streaming payment application, its name is Joule, which is designed for micropayments, automatic payments, and streaming payments. If you are more concerned about the Bitcoin network, then you can learn about it. Its development is led by Grant.io co-founder Willie O'Beirne

Programmability means that different functions can be implemented through code; programmability also means composability. In the DeFi field, this composability is increasingly able to provide a powerful impetus to the development of the system, and perhaps in the payment field, composability can also explode its potential.

This composability includes the combination of payment protocols and payment protocols, such as forming a payment chain. In terms of copyright, when a user purchases a song with a certain payment agreement, each participant can receive the fee under another payment agreement at the agreed proportion of the payment, so as to avoid fraudulent data on the platform; in terms of payment, the product will be used as a product. After being sold in one payment agreement, the supplier can receive money through another payment agreement to avoid malicious default...

Composability also includes the combination with DeFi, DAO, and other applications or protocols. In the combination with DeFi, the potential of the payment agreement may be through the combination to bring innovative products; in the combination with DAO, the payment agreement is to form an accounting system together with other financial agreements, which is equivalent to realizing the outsourcing of the company's financial system, DAO Just focus on your core business.

All the video tutorials for Superfluid in one place

https://docs.superfluid.finance/superfluid/resources/videos

The WORK token is an ERC20 Wrapper Super Token. This means there is an underlying ERC20 token, which is called protoWORK. The protoWORK is wrapped or "upgraded" to enable Super Token features like streaming, batch calls, and Super App interactivity.

The ERC20 wrapper contract works similarly to most token wrappers. When protoWORK tokens are sent to the contract using the upgrade function, new WORK tokens are minted for the sender. In reverse, downgraded WORK tokens are burned, and protoWORK are returned to the sender.

Superfluid Finance has raised $9 million in a seed funding round.The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Semantic Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Delphi Digital, DeFi Alliance, Divergence Ventures, and others. Angel investors, including Balaji Srinivasan, Ryan Selkis of Messari, Stani Kulechov of Aave, also backed the round.

They have cultivated a strong, organic community that is eager to build on top of the primitive they are pioneering. At the most Ethereum hackathon, over35 teamsbuilt on Superfluid despite almost no hype or marketing.There are currently seven full-time employees and a few part-time members working for Superfluid, and the project is looking to hire at least eight more people across marketing, developer relations, and engineering functions, said Renzi. Superfluid is also creating a grants program with the fresh funding in place to enable more Web2 developers to join the crypto space, according to co-founder and CEO Francesco George Renzi.

Programmability also has another important meaning: when money can be programmed, payment is no longer a single action that needs to be triggered by external forces, it can become an automatic part of the entire process. This realization is crucial for an automated society mainly composed of machines, and it prevents payment from becoming a point that requires intervention or a point that is prone to failure.

Y = a·X^2 Y = a·X is a linear function, we can also use a quadratic function, such as Y = a·X^2. In this case, the flow of money is not uniform but accelerated. As time grows, more and more money needs to be paid per unit of time. Is there such a payment scenario? Of course there is. For example, some developers in the open source community only participate for a few hours a month, and some participate for hundreds of hours a month. For the development of the community, the latter is much more important. Then if the payment method is to participate in more units of time The higher the salary, the better to encourage the latter.

The opposite is the square root, Y = m·√X, the flow of money is decelerating. As time grows, the amount of money that needs to be paid per unit time becomes less and less. This seems to provide a more flexible membership payment method. The more you participate, the lower the fee, but the user does not need to make a commitment in advance, and there is no pressure to choose. He is encouraged in the process of using the service. Go get more involved.

But the quadratic and the root of the second are just examples. For general payment scenarios, the changes of these two curves over time are too steep. In practice, it may be necessary to choose a curve closer to a linear function.

Z = a·X + b·Y + c In addition to using time as an independent variable, you can also add other independent variables or constants to the function, because in some payment scenarios, money is not only related to time, for example, it may also be related to workload or quality of work. Take DAO as an example to discuss this requirement.

Many people believe that freelancing will become a major trend in the future, and compared to freelancing, DAO may be a better form of participation, because under this organizational structure, freelancers can maintain their freedom while maintaining depth. Participate in the daily and development of an organization; on the other hand, the work of founders and managers can also be a free profession, and they can also get a higher degree of freedom.

But how to distribute income to DAO participants will be a tricky problem. First, you need to find out the key indicators, such as the number of codes, evaluation scores, etc. This is of course difficult, but it is necessary to assume that the indicators have been determined. Put these indicators into the function, and implement decentralized automatic payment through code, that is, programmable payment. This payment method is very important for DAO, otherwise it will be difficult for DAO to implement its self-organization and automatic operation in the payment process.

However, just like the development process of DeFi, and even the process of ecological development on Ethereum, composability is to release the power after the basic components are complete, and before that, it is necessary to concentrate on research and development, but also to challenge and possibly encounter Growth period of frustration. The Superfluid Protocol is just the basic streaming payment. Programmable payment still has a long way to go, but once it achieves a breakthrough, I believe it will bring some kind of change beyond our previous understanding.

https://www.superfluid.finance/home

We hope to extend cryptocurrency to daily payments, but to be honest, WeChat payment and bank transfer can already meet the payment needs. Does the public still have the motivation to use cryptocurrency for payment? Or ask, can cryptocurrency bring payment advantages that the public needs but cannot be provided by non-cryptographic currency?

The answer may be yes, because of the programmability of cryptocurrency. In the past year, we have witnessed programmable finance, that is, the creativity of DeFi; perhaps in the future, we will be able to see the innovation of programmable payment to payment methods.

In this article, we will start with an application called The Superfluid Protocol to discuss the possible features and application scenarios of programmable payment. The Superfluid Protocol provides a new payment method: streaming payment.

***co-founder and CEO Francesco George Renzi introduce about  the superfluid protocol***

1. Superfluid is currently live on the Ethereum, Polygon, and xDAI networks. Using an ERC20 token called Super Token, Superfluid allows users to perform multiple tasks in a single transaction, said Renzi.Let's say for example a user wants to donate to a few different open-source projects on a regular basis. "The first thing you'd do is get your hands on a Super Token, for example, DAIx on Polygon. You could do this by upgrading your existing DAI tokens using Superfluid, a process much like wrapping ETH into WETH," said Renzi."Once you have Super Tokens, you simply need to sign one transaction to start a stream. Once the transaction is confirmed on the blockchain, the stream will start. As the sender, your balance will start ticking down as the receiver's balance ticks up."Since Superfluid only requires a single transaction to initiate a money stream, there are no additional gas or transaction costs on a go-forward basis.Unlike payment channels, users don't have to keep a channel fully funded with Superfluid, and thus the protocol helps with capital efficiency, said Renzi. It, therefore, unlocks an entirely new subscription-based economy on-chain, he added."Streaming payments—meaning from one account to another, and then to others, concurrently, all in real time—has long been the holy grail of decentralized finance. State channels were thought to be the solution but by definition cannot scale due to the 'locked assets' problem and the capital inefficiency of design," said Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital. "Superfluid is pioneering an entirely new category of cash flow and incentive design."There are currently seven full-time employees and a few part-time members working for Superfluid, and the project is looking to hire at least eight more people across marketing, developer relations, and engineering functions, said Renzi. Superfluid is also creating a grants program with the fresh funding in place to enable more Web2 developers to join the crypto space, according to Renzi."We believe we need to create a new generation of crypto natives who will be paid in streaming money," he said.

some ideas about superfluid protocol of managing partner at Multicoin Capital Kyle Samani

Using our new smart contracts framework on Ethereum you can transfer any token or digital asset on-chain in several ways based on a novel primitive: predefined rules that we call agreements.By publishing a single transaction, you could agree to transfer 10 DAI per month in a constant stream. Every second, a tiny amount of DAI will flow between the two wallets, without any need for gas or any further transactions by sender or receiver. Similarly, cancellation is also only one transaction.Agreements are initiated with a single on-chain transaction. After this, all the magic happens automatically. The agreement will keep working forever without requiring any interactions or gas feesSince the dawn of Ethereum, people have been talking about programmable cashflows. Superfluid takes the idea of programmable cashflows to the logical extreme.

To understand Superfluid, let’s build up in three layers.

1.the base layer of Superfluid is streaming cash flows. This is straightforward: “stream $5 per hour.” This sounds like a state channel, but it is not. State channels require bilateral, synchronous signatures between sender and receiver. Superfluid allows the sender to authorize the stream with a single signature, and doesn’t require the receiver to be online at all. This reduces the key management burden. Stream recipients can claim the tokens that they have been streamed anytime with a signature (or never claim them at all, and stream them on to someone else using Superfluid).

2.The second layer of Superfluid is programmability. Smart contracts can manipulate incoming flows of tokens just like they do with deposits. For example: “stream $5 per hour to Bob as long as I am receiving at least $10 per hour.” The cashflow logic can be arbitrarily complex.

3.The third layer of Superfluid is a network of interlocking streams of value across many assets, all of which run concurrently without any additional gas consumption. For example: “Bob receives a stream of $20 per hour from his employer, streams $5 to pay back a loan, streams $10 of it into a savings account, pays a few subscriptions, and commits the rest to buy ETH every second.”

The third layer—the network layer—is what makes Superfluid so powerful. Superfluid streams can build on other Superfluid streams—so that Bob can stream funds to Carol as he receives streams from Alice.

This solution natively solves a whole bunch of problems concurrently: it increases capital efficiency, reduces gas consumption, and reduces the number of times users need to sign transactions

1.l strongly recommends using it to pay wages: if a person’s monthly salary is 10,000, the flow of payment means that he no longer receives 10,000 on a certain pay day, but can use it every day or even every moment because of the labor already paid. And get paid. This method is friendly to the person who provides the labor, and he can use the salary earlier than in the past.

2.In addition to paying salaries, streaming payments can also be used for investment or funding, which is similar to the role of DAICO. Investors receive investment funds gradually instead of taking them all at once; if the project progress does not meet expectations, Investors can get back the unpaid money. This method is a kind of protection for investors, and it is also a kind of restraint for the investees. They need to build projects instead of taking money away.

3.Streaming media may also become an application scenario for streaming payment. For non-subscription users, streaming payment is a reasonable way: the fee charged depends on the time the user watches the video, the time he listens to music or audio, and the time he stays in the live room. If he doesn’t like the program, he will You can withdraw at any time without having to pay the full fee for this show.

4. Extending streaming media one step is data streaming. Data is the most important means of production in the future. Once privacy calculations have constructed a foundation for data charging, the next problem to be solved is how to charge. Streaming payment may be an important method to choose from, using liquid money to pay for mobile data. data. In addition to the three application areas of salary, investment, and data streaming, streaming payment has other imagination, such as leasing, games, consulting services, etc., which will not be expanded here.

5. If you are not only interested in using this payment method, but also want to design or access stream payment, you can pay attention to ERC777***, The Superfluid Protocol*** is based on this standard.

6.The Bitcoin Lightning Network also has a streaming payment application, its name is Joule, which is designed for micropayments, automatic payments, and streaming payments. If you are more concerned about the Bitcoin network, then you can learn about it. Its development is led by Grant.io co-founder Willie O'Beirne

Programmability means that different functions can be implemented through code; programmability also means composability. In the DeFi field, this composability is increasingly able to provide a powerful impetus to the development of the system, and perhaps in the payment field, composability can also explode its potential.

This composability includes the combination of payment protocols and payment protocols, such as forming a payment chain. In terms of copyright, when a user purchases a song with a certain payment agreement, each participant can receive the fee under another payment agreement at the agreed proportion of the payment, so as to avoid fraudulent data on the platform; in terms of payment, the product will be used as a product. After being sold in one payment agreement, the supplier can receive money through another payment agreement to avoid malicious default...

Composability also includes the combination with DeFi, DAO, and other applications or protocols. In the combination with DeFi, the potential of the payment agreement may be through the combination to bring innovative products; in the combination with DAO, the payment agreement is to form an accounting system together with other financial agreements, which is equivalent to realizing the outsourcing of the company's financial system, DAO Just focus on your core business.

All the video tutorials for Superfluid in one place

https://docs.superfluid.finance/superfluid/resources/videos

The WORK token is an ERC20 Wrapper Super Token. This means there is an underlying ERC20 token, which is called protoWORK. The protoWORK is wrapped or "upgraded" to enable Super Token features like streaming, batch calls, and Super App interactivity.

The ERC20 wrapper contract works similarly to most token wrappers. When protoWORK tokens are sent to the contract using the upgrade function, new WORK tokens are minted for the sender. In reverse, downgraded WORK tokens are burned, and protoWORK are returned to the sender.

Superfluid Finance has raised $9 million in a seed funding round.The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Semantic Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Delphi Digital, DeFi Alliance, Divergence Ventures, and others. Angel investors, including Balaji Srinivasan, Ryan Selkis of Messari, Stani Kulechov of Aave, also backed the round.

They have cultivated a strong, organic community that is eager to build on top of the primitive they are pioneering. At the most Ethereum hackathon, over35 teamsbuilt on Superfluid despite almost no hype or marketing.There are currently seven full-time employees and a few part-time members working for Superfluid, and the project is looking to hire at least eight more people across marketing, developer relations, and engineering functions, said Renzi. Superfluid is also creating a grants program with the fresh funding in place to enable more Web2 developers to join the crypto space, according to co-founder and CEO Francesco George Renzi.

Programmability also has another important meaning: when money can be programmed, payment is no longer a single action that needs to be triggered by external forces, it can become an automatic part of the entire process. This realization is crucial for an automated society mainly composed of machines, and it prevents payment from becoming a point that requires intervention or a point that is prone to failure.

Y = a·X^2 Y = a·X is a linear function, we can also use a quadratic function, such as Y = a·X^2. In this case, the flow of money is not uniform but accelerated. As time grows, more and more money needs to be paid per unit of time. Is there such a payment scenario? Of course there is. For example, some developers in the open source community only participate for a few hours a month, and some participate for hundreds of hours a month. For the development of the community, the latter is much more important. Then if the payment method is to participate in more units of time The higher the salary, the better to encourage the latter.

The opposite is the square root, Y = m·√X, the flow of money is decelerating. As time grows, the amount of money that needs to be paid per unit time becomes less and less. This seems to provide a more flexible membership payment method. The more you participate, the lower the fee, but the user does not need to make a commitment in advance, and there is no pressure to choose. He is encouraged in the process of using the service. Go get more involved.

But the quadratic and the root of the second are just examples. For general payment scenarios, the changes of these two curves over time are too steep. In practice, it may be necessary to choose a curve closer to a linear function.

Z = a·X + b·Y + c In addition to using time as an independent variable, you can also add other independent variables or constants to the function, because in some payment scenarios, money is not only related to time, for example, it may also be related to workload or quality of work. Take DAO as an example to discuss this requirement.

Many people believe that freelancing will become a major trend in the future, and compared to freelancing, DAO may be a better form of participation, because under this organizational structure, freelancers can maintain their freedom while maintaining depth. Participate in the daily and development of an organization; on the other hand, the work of founders and managers can also be a free profession, and they can also get a higher degree of freedom.

But how to distribute income to DAO participants will be a tricky problem. First, you need to find out the key indicators, such as the number of codes, evaluation scores, etc. This is of course difficult, but it is necessary to assume that the indicators have been determined. Put these indicators into the function, and implement decentralized automatic payment through code, that is, programmable payment. This payment method is very important for DAO, otherwise it will be difficult for DAO to implement its self-organization and automatic operation in the payment process.

However, just like the development process of DeFi, and even the process of ecological development on Ethereum, composability is to release the power after the basic components are complete, and before that, it is necessary to concentrate on research and development, but also to challenge and possibly encounter Growth period of frustration. The Superfluid Protocol is just the basic streaming payment. Programmable payment still has a long way to go, but once it achieves a breakthrough, I believe it will bring some kind of change beyond our previous understanding.

https://www.superfluid.finance/home