Square Working on BTC Hardware Wallet

Payments firm Square is continuing its plans to build a Bitcoin hardware wallet, with the firm’s CEO Jack Dorsey and hardware lead Jesse Dorogusker confirming the news on Twitter on 9 July.

The idea for a Square hardware wallet was first pitched by Dorsey back in June, when he went on Twitter to open up the conversation with the community. A month later, Dorogusker announced on Twitter that Square has started assembling a team to work on the project —indicating the wallet is in its drawing-board stage — thanks to the “awesome – encouraging, generous, collaborative, & inspiring” response from the community. Dorsey later confirmed the news by tweeting:

The Square wallet team will be led by Square’s hardware security lead Max Guise, and will also see assistance from Thomas Templeton, Square’s general manager of hardware. According to Dorsey’s thread from June, we can expect the Square wallet to be able to integrate with smartphones, as “uncompromising focus on mobile interaction is likely to include the most people”.

Support for multi-signature transactions — which required two or more keys to sign a transaction — will likely be also supported, as it will enable Square to provide “assisted-self-custody”, meant to simplify the experience of managing a hardware wallet. Dorsey explained:

“Custody doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. We can probably simplify custody through “assisted self-custody.” Assisted requires great product design: minimal setup time, relying on existing devices, and end-to-end reliability.”

Square’s hardware wallet will not be the firm’s first crypto-focused product. The company’s Cash App, which allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, was able to generate around $3.5 billion in BTC revenue in Q1 2021, and about $75 million in BTC gross profits.