By Jeff Benson
2 min read
Square CEO Jack Dorsey today confirmed via Twitter (the other company at which he is CEO) that the payments company plans to build a Bitcoin hardware wallet.
Square's head of product development Jesse Dorogusker first tweeted that the company has "decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream." Dorsey retweeted it and added, "We're doing it."
Dorsey had said last month that the firm was merely "considering" building a Bitcoin wallet "entirely in the open, from software to hardware design."
Bitcoin hardware wallets, also known as "cold" wallets (because they're not connected to the Web, i.e. "hot"), work like a flash drive exclusively for cryptocurrencies. They maintain security by allowing people to store their private keys offline. Ledger and Trezor are two of the top hardware wallet makers, so Square already has serious competition.
But the product would not necessarily be a departure for the company. Although it's known for its payment processing software for small businesses, Square has also produced its own sleekly designed terminals and chip readers for point-of-sale payments. Moreover, its person-to-person Venmo competitor, Cash App, already allows Bitcoin purchases and sales.
Dorsey, and by extension Square, have several times stated their commitment to Bitcoin. The CEO appeared at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, for example, and the company has purchased over 8,000 BTC ($262 million) for its balance sheet.
In its Q4 2020 earnings statement in February, it said the company "believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own financial future."
Dorsey clearly hopes Square customers will help secure that future by using Square's hardware wallet.
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