The San Francisco-based financial services company and merchant services aggregator, Square, has launched a new pilot feature on the Square Cash app that allows users to buy and sell bitcoin.
Also Read: Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan: “Bitcoin is What Used to be Called Fiat Money”
Payment Giant Square Pilots a Buy, Sell and Hold Bitcoin Feature
The company created by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2009, Square, is a firm that offers quite a bit of financial services including its register platform, its payment reader app and more. The company’s financial app just recently surpassed Venmo on both Android and iOS devices. A while back the company allowed merchants to accept bitcoin through the Square platform and now users will soon have another cryptocurrency feature available. According to the tech columnist, Laura Shin, the Square Cash platform has enabled a buy, sell and hold bitcoin functionality for a limited amount of users testing the new feature.
“We’re always listening to our customers, and we’ve found that they are interested in using the Cash App to buy bitcoin,” explains a Square representative. “We’re exploring how Square can make this experience faster and easier, and have rolled out this feature to a small number of Cash app customers.”
We believe cryptocurrency can greatly impact the ability of individuals to participate in the global financial system and we’re excited to learn more here.
Bitcoin Fan and Square CEO Jack Dorsey: “Whatever Form of Payment Comes Across the Counter, Be It Physical or Digital, We’re Going to Enable Our Users to Accept”
Square’s CEO Jack Dorsey has always been a fan of cryptocurrency and recently detailed in an interview with the Verge that he owns bitcoins. Dorsey didn’t disclose how many bitcoins he held, but explained to the Verge’s broadcast host, Lauren Goode, why his firm decided to accept bitcoin back in 2014. Additionally, more recently Dorsey explained that friends and family have been asking him about purchasing the cryptocurrency.
“I’m from St. Louis, Missouri, and I have a lot of friends and family who are not into technology,” Dorsey details in his interview. “Over the holidays, one of the things I kept getting asked by people I know is, ‘You work in technology, you work in finance, how do I buy bitcoin?’ I asked, ‘Why do you want to buy bitcoin?’ And they said; ‘
Well, I heard it’s a fast easy way to make money… someone said it’s like digital gold.
With the Square adding a feature to purchase, sell and hold bitcoins within their app will likely give the public more cryptocurrency accessibility, as the platform is used by millions of individuals and small businesses around the world. The Square Cash trial seems to be aimed at people like Dorsey’s friends and family who are not very familiar with technology, but still want to invest in bitcoin.
What do you think about Square trialing a buy, sell, and holding feature within the Square Cash app? Let us know in the comments below.
Images Pixabay, Square, Twitter, and the Daily Mirror.
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