Y Combinator startup Dharma promises to bring more users into blockchain apps

If you’ve dabbled a bit in the blockchain world already — bought a few dollars’ worth of cyrptocurrency or even run a node on your PC — you’ve been through that rather complex process of having to transfer fiat money into a crypto wallet, then wait for your currency to convert. It can take days, and it’s not a super intuitive process.

If we’re going to see mass adoption of blockchain applications and cryptocurrencies, this onboarding process will need to be much simpler and much quicker. Users who show up to try out a blockchain-based decentralized app — or “dApp” — aren’t going to want to go through a days-long hassle of acquiring currency.

A Y Combinator startup called Dharma thinks it can solve that problem. The company, which launched in beta two months ago, lets dApp makers give blockchain newcomers a small, quick cryptocurrency loan to help them get started.

“With a few lines of code, blockchain developers can easily integrate a DharmaCredit button into their application [to give users a quick loan in the necessary token currency] rather than forcing customers to buy cryptocurrency in order to even get their foot in the door,” the company said in a statement. The loan takes “under 5 minutes.”

We should see other, similar solutions emerge over the next few months to tackle this onboarding issue. It will be an interesting space to watch.

Dharma is launching publicly today.