Jack Dorsey’s Square continues to make waves in the cryptocurrencycryptocurrency industry.
Earlier this week, the payments giant secured yet another crypto-related patent—this time, one that specifically registers a system for converting payments made in fiat to “non-fiat instruments.” The news was first reported earlier today by industry publication CoinDesk.
Square’s patent application puts it like this: “A method includes receiving a request for payment associated with a transaction between a first user and second user, where the request specifies a payment amount in a fiat currency and identifying an indication that the first user intends to satisfy the request for payment using a non-fiat instrument.”
Square Crypto releases Lightning Development Kit for Bitcoin devs
Square Crypto—the Bitcoin-focused, crypto venture led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey—today released the company’s first official product: a Lightning Development Kit (LDK). The Square Crypto team explained in a Medium post that the dev kit or the Bitcoin Lightning Network is designed to assist wallet developers looking to create “custom” experiences. The LDK will include language bindings, an API based on the Rust-Lightning project—a language built to reduce system dependencies—and demo apps for bus...
In other words, users on this proposed “Cryptocurrency payment network” (as the application calls it) may pay with fiat, while recipients can choose to receive their funds in digital currency. The exchange of currencies occurs directly through the network itself, and the transacting parties do not need to take any additional steps.
The payment network would work in reverse as well, meaning someone could easily issue digital currency while requesting that a fiat payment be given to the other person. This could potentially provide another way for retail customers to use cryptocrypto to purchase goods at traditional online shops and brick-and-mortar stores.
The patent lists several advantages to the platform’s technology, including its ability to process crypto transactions in “real time.” According to the document, cryptocurrency payments—especially those involving BitcoinBitcoin—can often take a minimum of 10 minutes to confirm, whereas Square’s proposed system could potentially cut that down to seconds, making crypto transactions comparable to those of credit cards.
Of course, Square has had its sights set on crypto for some time. Just days ago, Square’s crypto arm—appropriately called Square Crypto—released its first product, a Lightning Development Kit (LDK) designed to ease the process of integrating Lightning technology into new businesses and projects. The kit comes with several tools including demo apps and language bindings for Bitcoin developers.
And Jack Dorsey, the company’s CEO, has been especially complimentary of Bitcoin over the last couple years. In early 2018, he went so far as to tell CNBC that Bitcoin could become the world’s “single” currency.
