Dwolla introduces Proxi

The online and mobile payment platform Dwolla is introducing a new proximity based serve called Proxi that allows users to send and receive cash to people close to them. The service is suppose to make things faster and easier by allowing a user to “tie” their account to a location or vendor.

As described by Techcrunch, Dwolla’s ” vision is that consumers, not third-parties, should dictate how their payments network operates. What this means for Dwolla and its users is a payments network that’s devoid of personal information. And most importantly, Dwolla’s inroad to this planned disruption is cash, an under-represented market in electronic payments.”

Dwolla charges a flat fee of 25 cents per transaction so while its not free it is very affordable.

From the blog post:

“The new tech will allow users to convert their Dwolla enabled devices into movable Spots to seamlessly take payments without additional hardware, like NFC or dongles. We feel this is an essential part of creating software solutions to hardware problems.

At Dwolla, we continue to look at relationships that drive our payment network and we believe as strongly as you do there are more to payments than just a transaction.”

From Techcrunch:

“Proxi is the sort of feature that could take Dwolla from “interesting idea” territory to becoming a more practical application. Secure, person-to-person (or person-to-business) mobile payments without the high fees associated with PayPal, or the need for special hardware? Sounds good here.

The only drawback is that Dwolla doesn’t directly connect to your own bank account, in the same way that your debit card does, which could confuse first-time users who don’t understand why other financial institutions are involved. Instead, Dwolla has partnerships with The Veridian Group, a subsidiary of Veridian Credit Union, in Waterloo, Iowa, and The Members Group (TMG) another financial and credit union service organization owned by Iowa credit unions and their members. Through these organizations’, which hold the funds in Dwolla’s users’ accounts, people can send and receive money from their own bank accounts.”