Jack Dorsey creator, co-founder and chairman of Twitter and co-founder and CEO of Square speaks on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a cryptocurrency conference held at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood, Miami on June 4, 2021. Florida.
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Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, said Friday the company was considering building a hardware bitcoin wallet that would give consumers more control over the cryptocurrency they own.
Square’s shares rose 2.7% on Dorsey’s comments posted on Twitter, where he is also CEO.
Bitcoin transactions have become a booming business for Square, allowing consumers to shop using the Cash app and store the currency digitally. The company’s Bitcoin sales jumped from $ 516.5 million in 2019 to $ 4.75 billion in the past year.
Dorsey suggests a new way for users to store their bitcoins so that they are not controlled by Square or any other company. A bitcoin wallet could allow users to store the cryptocurrency in a secure gadget and have it spent later.
“Square is considering developing a hardware wallet for Bitcoin,” said Dorsey. “If we did, we’d build it completely open, from software to hardware design and in collaboration with the community.”
He explained how Square’s product, when built, could differ from available alternatives.
“The exchange you used to buy your bitcoins is probably taking care of your security with good intentions, but circumstances can show that ‘custody’ actually means ‘IOU’. The decision to hold and protect your Bitcoin is a complicated one. “
Dorsey refers to how some exchanges currently work. For example, PayPal lets you buy Bitcoin, but it controls the “private key” and, as Dorsey explains, works more like a promissory note. PayPal also doesn’t allow customers to move bitcoins to wallets outside of the PayPal ecosystem.
Dorsey said Square could simplify the way people hold Bitcoin by creating “assisted self-custody” that would make it easier for customers to spend a percentage of the money they have available from their phone while keeping the rest of the money safe to secure in your wallet. Dorsey said the integration with the Cash app was “obvious” but “only part of the solution”.
Dorsey said the solution doesn’t have to “belong to Square” and that he will give further thought “if we decide to build the product”.
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