American FinTech firm Block Inc. — formerly known as Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) — has announced that its mobile payments solution Cash App now makes it cheaper and faster to send Bitcoin to anyone in the world.

On 1 December 2021, Square Inc. issued a press release to announce that while its existing brands will stay as they are, the name of the corporate entity that owns them is being changed to Block Inc. to reflect the fact that the company is not just about the Square brand (which is all there was when the company was co-founded in February 2009 by Kack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey) and to “creates room for further growth” of the company.

Block Co-Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey had this to say back then:

“We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs. Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.“

The press release went on to say that “as a result of the name change, Square Crypto, a separate initiative of the company dedicated to advancing Bitcoin, will change its name to Spiral.”

It also mentioned that “the name has many associated meanings for the company — building blocks, neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome.”

The Cash App allows investing in Bitcoin and stocks, as well as sending and receiving fiat currency or Bitcoin.

In the Twitter thread announcing the integration of the Cash App with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (a layer two solution that allows virtually free “lightning fast” transactions that can be as small as one satoshi), the Cash App answered questions from twitter users about what this new feature means. Here are some of the more interesting answers:

  • “The Lightning Network is a new way to send bitcoin that’s faster and free. While other ways to send bitcoin can take up to 10 min and charge fees, Lightning lets you send btc to any compatible wallet in the world in less time than it takes to tie your shoes — and free.”
  • “With Cash App, you can send bitcoin to a Lightning or on-chain address. We’ve simplified it for you so you can send bitcoin on either network.”
  • “Hey there, the lightning network can be used to generate a Lightning Invoice, allowing another individual to send bitcoin quickly with little to no fee. Cash App can be used to pay Lightning Invoices.”

It should be noted that Block’s Cash App is currently only available in the U.S. and in the U.K. (where it only supports sending and receiving GBP); however, “expanding Cash App internationally” is on their radar. Also, in the U.S., it should be noted that Cash App “can be used to pay Lightning Invoices, but not to generate them.”

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.