Inside Square’s Stealth Approach to Bitcoin Integration
04 April, 2014
San Francisco-based mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) giant Square sent a jolt of excitement through the bitcoin ecosystem when it announced that it would allow users to pay for goods and services with the digital currency via its online marketplace, Square Market.
With a valuation of $5bn, Square is already a giant in the payments space despite its relative newcomer status. Founded in 2009, it’s backed by millions in venture capital investment and a star executive, Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey, who even tweeted the news that the company would accept bitcoin personally.
However, there were still some unanswered questions about how Square would integrate bitcoin payments into Square Market, what merchants could expect from the service and what Square’s long-term vision for integrating digital currency would be.