I'm giving it a shot, but not 100 percent convinced yet. Remember, Venmo is also payments with a social layer; it's broadly used... And stupid. I don't think payment networks need social media, but social media (probably all media) needs a payment network. I'd rather zap an author directly, than pay for a membership to the Economist, for example.

As social media goes, I think the Reddit thread model is the best for natural conversation and debate (and now has a form of zapping). The problems of course are moderators, centralization, and censorship.