Square, the digital payments company owned by Jack Dorsey, is boosting the number of engineers it hires to work on cryptocurrency efforts.
According to a report in CoinDesk, citing tweets Jack Dorsey made on the platform he co-founded and runs, Dorsey said Square is gearing up to hire three or four engineers and one designer who will work full-time on contributions to the bitcoin and cryptocurrency space. A Square spokeswoman declined to provide more information.
The report noted that all the work the engineers do on the cryptocurrency front will be open-source. The new hires won’t be tasked with working on initiatives that are in Square’s interests, but will instead focus on driving the cryptocurrency ecosystem and community.
Dorsey has been an outspoken advocate of cryptocurrency, recently predicting bitcoin will be the currency to lead the cryptocurrency market. For the fourth quarter, Square said in a Securities and Commission (SEC) filing that bitcoin sales accounted for $166 million of its revenue for 2018. In the late February filing, Square said it made an overall net revenue of $3.3 billion in 2018, 5 percent of which came from bitcoin. In the second half of the year, Square took in $95 million in bitcoin revenue, higher than the roughly $71 million in the first half. Profit in the first half of the year was $643,000, and $1.047 million in the second quarter.
Earlier this month, The Independent reported Dorsey is spending thousands of dollars per week to purchase bitcoin, betting the digital currency’s value will rise again. The report, citing comments Dorsey made during a 30-minute interview on a Tales from the Crypto podcast, said that in recent weeks, he had maxed out the $10,000 spending limit on Square’s Cash App buying bitcoin.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More