Square chief Dorsey mulls pocket wallet for bitcoin

Jack Dorsey on Friday put out word that his financial payments startup Square is thinking about making a real-world wallet for safely pocketing bitcoin.

Hardware wallets can be used to store the digital currency offline, synching with applications for transactions on the internet as needed.

Another option for cryptocurrency owners is to use "virtual" wallets, essentially trusting third parties to keep money safe and using passwords to access funds.

"Square is considering making a hardware wallet for bitcoin," Dorsey said in a string of tweets asking for feedback on the idea.

"If we do it, we would build it entirely in the open, from software to hardware design, and in collaboration with the community."

Dorsey reasoned that bitcoin is a currency for the masses, and that it is important to have ways for people to hold it that don't involve entrusting it to outside parties.

"The exchange you used to buy your bitcoin probably attends to your security with good intent, but circumstances may reveal 'custody' actually means 'IOU,' " tweeted Dorsey, who is also the chief of Twitter.

"Deciding to take custody, and security, of your bitcoin is complicated."

He envisioned a bitcoin wallet that makes it easy for people to use some of it for shopping, say through their smartphones, while protecting the rest of the cryptocurrency.

"We can imagine apps that work without Square and maybe also without permission from Apple and Google," he continued, referring to the makers of the world's big two smartphone operating systems.

Square will set up accounts at Twitter and software developer community website GitHub dedicated to a bitcoin wallet design if it decides to go ahead with the project, said Dorsey.

Related Links
Satellite-based Internet technologies

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Twitter debuts subscription service with added features
San Francisco (AFP) June 3, 2021
Twitter on Thursday introduced its first ever subscription service, which has been dubbed "Blue" and offers added features for prolific tweeters, as it seeks to diversity its revenue streams beyond advertising. The feature - initially only available in Australia and Canada - could enable the social network to rely less on ads or promoted posts that disrupt the real-time flow of tweets that are a huge part of the global, one-to-many messaging platform's appeal. "We've heard from the people that ... read more