The project manager behind payments company Square’s cryptocurrency arm has hinted in a Q&A session on Twitter that bitcoin will be the new company’s main emphasis as it seeks to develop the sector’s ecosystem.
Steve Lee at Square Crypto answered the questions of crypto enthusiasts in a Twitter “ask me anything” (AMA) session and built upon recent comments published on The Next Web from Jack Dorsey, founder of parent company Square and Twitter, to improve the crypto infrastructure in general.
Answers in Lee’s AMA session focused heavily on bitcoin, however, leaving little doubt the cryptoasset heavyweight will feature prominently in its endeavors. “We want to make bitcoin better for all,” he said when asked about bringing the digital asset to the mainstream.
We agree with the self-sovereignty principles of Bitcoin. That said, we see the needs of current and future users overlapping. We want to make Bitcoin better for all. – Steve https://t.co/5IobumTYfN
— Square Crypto (@sqcrypto) July 29, 2019
Bitcoin For All
And when asked about the ultimate aims for Square Crypto, Lee said: “Our goal is bitcoin for all. We are focusing on improving the bitcoin experience for mainstream users.”
Our goal is Bitcoin for all. We are focusing on improving the Bitcoin experience for mainstream users. The user journey will always be central to our thinking. – Steve https://t.co/yxHcOOKYkl
— Square Crypto (@sqcrypto) July 29, 2019
He added:
We are very, very pro-Bitcoin. There is more than enough work for us to do there. That said, we are open to emerging use cases and technologies that complement Bitcoin.
We are very, very pro-Bitcoin. There is more than enough work for us to do there. That said, we are open to emerging use cases and technologies that complement Bitcoin. – Steve https://t.co/THLGHFM9KR
— Square Crypto (@sqcrypto) July 29, 2019
Such appeared the emphasis on bitcoin, one respondent in the AMA session went so far as to suggest the company should be called Square Bitcoin rather than Square Crypto.
#squarecrypto What are you guys up to and why Square “Crypto”? Square Bitcoin sounds much better in my opinion.
— Psychedelic El ₿arto 🌮 (@PsychedelicBart) July 29, 2019
Dorsey said in his recent interview with The Next Web that the internet has needed a native currency for a long time and that he hadn’t seen any prospective candidate until the Bitcoin White Paper was released.
He said they had settled on Lee to project manage Square Crypto because he was helping to “drive bitcoin adoption through open-source development”.
Dorsey added:
Bitcoin is interesting because a lot of the innovation isn’t being driven in the US. We wanted to make sure that we had a global mindset. We also had to create a structure.
Bitcoin Use Cases Grow
The recent rally in the cryptoasset market has seen interest in use cases for bitcoin grow during the first half of 2019 and the digital currency is fast being adopted into payments systems.
Online electronics retailer Newegg announced earlier in July that it was expanding its bitcoin payments scheme to an additional 73 countries, having operated such a service in the US and Canada since 2014.
Newegg is among a growing number of retailers showing interest in bitcoin as a medium of payment. Independent Grocers of Australia announced this month that it was in collaboration with bitcoin retail service provider TravelbyBit to offer customers point-of-sale bitcoin payments at some of its stores.
Indeed, TravelbyBit is one of a growing number of service providers offering to take customer payments in bitcoin and then converting to fiat currency to pay participating retailers.