Square Crypto Reaffirms Focus on Bitcoin and Payments

Square Crypto seems to have found its foothold in the crypto market. Recently, Steve Lee, a Product Manager at the firm spoke on developments at the firm.

Hey guys. Management again. Unfortunately, things didn't work out with Gary. However, we think we've found somebody who can live up to his commitment to decentralization. Please welcome Steve Lee, aka @moneyball, to the Square Crypto team.

— Spiral (@spiralbtc) June 12, 2019

Lee, a former worker at Google, engaged with fans and customers in an “ask me anything” (AMA) session on Twitter earlier this week. In the course of the session, he made remarks indicating that Square Crypto is looking to provide more inclusion for Bitcoin in the general payments system.

Early in the AMA, Lee described Square Crypto as an initiative that is looking to strengthen the Bitcoin ecosystem. He added, “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.”

He even went on to speak on the name of the Square cryptocurrency arm, answering a fan who asked why they don’t just name themselves “Square Bitcoin.” In his response, he said, “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.”

Essentially, while they will be looking to help enhance the use cases for cryptocurrencies in general (especially as regards payments), their focus is the world’s premier digital asset itself.

Lee’s comments were quite similar to those made by his boss. In an interview with the Next Web last month, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of social media giant Twitter and Square itself, laid out his vision for Square Crypto and how the company will develop cryptocurrencies in a way that cryptocurrency exchanges and other traditional firms within the space might not be able to.

In the interview, Dorsey made it clear that Square Crypto will add to the larger operations of Square by developing a seamless Internet payment infrastructure. He highlighted that a lot of partnerships and regulations are stymieing Square itself, and he hopes that with a more frictionless infrastructure, Square Crypto will be able to jump over those hoops easily.

“Just from a business perspective, we don’t look like an Internet company today. An Internet company can launch something and it’s available around the world,” he said. “Whereas with payments, you have to go to each market and pay attention to regulators. You need a partnership with a local bank. This is a very slow process in any new market.”

Dorsey added that the team will be looking to tackle major issues like currency efficiency and security, while also keeping an eye on minor ones like code reviews. He also spoke on the importance of designers in the firm, saying that they could help make crypto assets more accessible to the layman who wants to buy cryptocurrency.

He said, “This designer will be tasked with doing educational tasks. These will include making it easier for ordinary people to conceptualize using digital currencies like Bitcoin as an everyday tool for payment.”