Square Funds Designer Working Towards Easy-To-Use Crypto Wallets

Square Crypto, the crypto arm of the Square payments company, has given out a tweet on Friday. This tweet stated that it had awarded a grant to one Maggie Valentine, a designer dedicated to creating Bitcoin wallets that are usable by any level of technical proficiency, but is still safe for use.

Giving trick-or-treaters Open Dimes and Square Crypto grants this year. Speaking of which, this one goes to Maggie Valentine (@magglevalentine), a designer working to simplify wallet onboarding flows by reducing technical jargon and increasing user education.

— Square Crypto (@sqcrypto) October 30, 2020

Aiming To Streamline Crypto Wallets

Valentine, the grant recipient, put forward a simple question in her proposal: “How can we provide an intuitive experience for non-crypto users while preserving the security of a user’s funds?”

In her proposal, she highlighted the crypto industry’s unique potential to shape the global financial infrastructure in all-new ways, highlighting the potential of borderless, secure, and inclusive financial transactions. She highlighted the substantial entry barriers within the crypto industry currently, as so-called “Technical jargon” saturate wallet onboarding flows. As such, valentine highlighted that those not equipped with a technical background are often discouraged from making use of cryptocurrencies, as they can’t properly understand the technology.

Square Moving Into Crypto

In the announcement, Square Crypto detailed how Valentine is convinced that Bitcoin should be capable of being used by anyone, irrespective of their various levels of technical proficiencies. Now, with the grant given, she will be capable of investigating this issue, and is set to publish various recommendations that will allow for more user-friendly onboarding.

The grant itself comes just a month after Square, which is led by Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, made it clear that it had purchased 4,709 Bitcoin (BTC) for around $50 million. This stands as an impressive 1% of the firm’s assets at large.

A Time Of Innovation

The grant itself seems to run in tandem with Amrita Ahua, the CFO of the company, stating that Square is convinced that BTC could potentially be a more ubiquitous currency in the future. Ahua had made this comment just as Square made its massive investment in BTC. Ahua further stated that Square is making a step towards a more inclusive future through this investment, with the company itself dedicated to building products in said future.

This “more inclusive future” seems to hold Bitcoin within it, and the decision from Square to push into the asset class seems to profit it greatly. As it stands now, the Square Cash App has been a major driver of revenue for the publicly-listed fintech firm.

Time will tell how successful Valentine will be, but the fact of the matter is that convenience-focused upgrades to the crypto industry are critical to its mainstream acceptance. As such, it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when it will be developed.