Square announces its plan to make a hardware wallet to make bitcoin custody ‘more mainstream’- Technology News, Firstpost

tech2 News StaffJul 09, 2021 13:40:51 IST

Square, a San-Francisco-based financial services and digital payments company, has announced that it is planning to make a hardware wallet for bitcoin. The announcement was made by Square’s hardware lead, Jesse Dorogusker on Twitter. As per his tweet, “We have decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream. We’ll continue to ask and answer questions in the open. This community’s response to our thread about this project has been awesome – encouraging, generous, collaborative, & inspiring.”

We have decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream. We’ll continue to ask and answer questions in the open. This community’s response to our thread about this project has been awesome – encouraging, generous, collaborative, & inspiring. https://t.co/CHf9hAmKnn

— Jesse Dorogusker (@JesseDorogusker) July 8, 2021

This announcement comes after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced last month that Twitter is considering making a hardware wallet for bitcoin.

Jack responded to Square’s big announcement by saying “We are doing it #Bitcoin”.

We’re doing it #Bitcoin https://t.co/IwbKuBoXGv

— jack (@jack) July 8, 2021

The company has not mentioned any specific timeline as to when it will launch the wallet as of now.

The bitcoin wallet can be stored offline or online and can be used to make cryptocurrency exchanges, venues where bitcoin can be sold or purchased for traditional currencies or other cryptocurrencies.

Our next step is to build a small, cross-functional team, which will be led by @max_guise (welcome back!!). We will incubate this full-stack of tech, design, product, manufacturing, and supply chain with @templetonthomas & Square’s hardware team to start with a strong foundation.

— Jesse Dorogusker (@JesseDorogusker) July 8, 2021

In custodial wallets, mostly web-based, other party controls the user’s private key. However, in non-custodial wallets, these controls are in the users’ hands and they can themselves control their transaction and prove that the funds are theirs.

 To recall, Square also has a Cash app that allows users to sell and purchase bitcoin.