Financial technology (fintech) company Square (NYSE:SQ) has announced that it is building a Bitcoin hardware wallet.
Square Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said the company is building the wallet to "make Bitcoin custody more mainstream."
Square says it is now building a dedicated team to develop the cryptocurrency hardware wallet, hiring key roles in hardware, software, security and business.
A hardware wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that stores a user's private keys (critical pieces of information used to authorize outgoing transactions on the blockchain network) in a secure hardware device.
Dorsey also confirmed that Square plans to integrate the hardware wallet with smartphones and the code for the wallet is going to be open source. Dorsey has also noted that Square is looking into a feature that would allow users to auto-invest in Bitcoin.
The two biggest players in the hardware wallet industry are currently companies Ledger and Trezor.
The hardware wallet will not be Square’s first cryptocurrency-focused product. Customers can already buy and sell Bitcoin using Square’s ‘Cash App.’
Tech Insider
