How UMA works
UMA uses the Bitcoin Lightning Network for fast, low-cost, and efficient payments. Like SMTP, the protocol enabling people to send and receive emails seamlessly, UMA enables a user experience that allows people to reliably send and receive money 24/7 in the currency they choose. UMA uses the Bitcoin Lightning Network behind the scenes to enable instant, real-time, low-cost settlement. UMA is open-source which means any wallet, exchange, or bank can integrate the standard and build new payment experiences. UMAs are also interoperable; all that's needed is for both recipients to have an enabled account with their provider of choice.
People begin by claiming their own personalized UMA on their preferred wallet, exchange, or bank. During setup, they also choose a currency preference, so every time they receive a payment, it’s in the currency they want. Once they have their UMA they can send money to anyone else with an UMA-enabled account.
Example payment flow
UMA works even when the recipient doesn’t have an UMA yet. UMA users can help their friends and family sign up. A sender can generate an invite link to share with the person they want to send money to. The invite recipient will then be guided to find a wallet, exchange, or bank in their country. Then they can set up their own UMA-enabled account so both parties can send and receive payments. It's simple and fast!
Features & Benefits
Sending money across borders can be expensive, slow, and complicated. UMA enables payments between anyone with an UMA-enabled account, globally and between users of different wallets, exchanges, and banks. UMA transactions are low-cost and offer a near-instant settlement for a better, more secure, and reliable payment experience.
Low-cost
UMA-enabled wallets can deliver low-cost transactions to help get best rates for money transfers.Open
Any wallet, exchange, or bank can offer UMA to their customers.Fast
Move money with final settlement in near real-time.Personalized Addresses
Unique and human-readable addresses are easy to remember and share - just like email addresses.Always On
Enable transactions 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.Interoperable
Any UMA-enabled account can send to any other UMA-enabled account, including at different wallets, exchanges, and banks. Subject to the terms of each account provider.
pay_request = uma.create_pay_request(
currency_code=currency_code,
amount=amount,
payer_identifier=sender_identifier,
payer_name=sender_name,
payer_email=sender_email,
payer_compliance=sender_compliance_data,
)Open source and developer friendly
Using the open-source UMA standard, developers and companies can create novel payment experiences and products to solve real-world problems for money movement using a secure and interoperable solution. UMA enables companies to provide global, fast, and compliant transactions while leveraging existing infrastructure.