2 years ago
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They had been hinting about this for the past month or so with their hardware lead Jesse Dorogusker starting a thread on Twitter about the idea with many, including Jack, pitching in with their thoughts. This discussion finally came down to a conclusion on July 9 with Jesse saying that the company should start building a hardware wallet pretty soon and would be assembling a team for the same quite shortly.
Jack also endorsed the idea and they say that the company believes that the wallet would help bitcoin to go mainstream. Square has always been one of the most enthusiastic proponents of crypto and they were one of the first among the big companies to integrate crypto into their platform and it always helps when your founder and owner is a big Bitcoin enthusiast.
A hardware wallet is generally a device that is well protected employing passwords and signatures and this is generally used to store large quantities of crypto. Most of the wallets that the retail crypto industry uses are software wallets that are stored on the servers and if a hack happens on the servers, the keys are lost and the hackers can take control of all such wallets. Hardware wallets give a very high level of protection as the wallet owner holds the physical device and without that device falling into the wrong hands, it is almost impossible to steal funds from it and this makes such wallets the preferred option for storing high-value cryptos.
The hardware wallet also gives a sense of ownership to the wallet user as he has something to hold on to and something that he can see, just like a normal wallet, and this increases the association between the wallet and its owner. This is likely to help the crypto wallets to go mainstream as the users begin to have something that they can relate to and this is what Square is aiming for in the long term.
The custody of such a wallet and the cryptos within it is likely to give the user the option to make use of the wallet for real-world purchases and payments as well. Just like a normal wallet, users would be able to spend for shopping and other activities using the cryptos stored in the wallet while the rest of the cryptos would continue to remain safe in the wallet. This way, hardware wallets would no longer remain the domain of high-value investors and hodlers but can be used by all people even for minor payments and transactions.
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