Squareis a company best known for itsdisruptive card payment technology.
Founded in 2009 byTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the company sells affordable mobile-based point-of-sale systems.
In the months that followed, Squares kept quiet about its progress.
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My first question:Why?
Its a fair question, after all.
Squares bread-and-butter is products that service traditional fiat currencies.
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The Internet for a long time has wanted a native currency.
Why is this important?
An Internet company can launch something and its available around the world.
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.
The Internet having a native currency will enable us to be more like an Internet company.
The one word that sums up everything weve been trying to do at Square is access.
Thats a bit of an understatement.
The inherently decentralized nature of crypto has allowed countless bad actors to profit at the expense of others.
Rather he wants Square to play an active role in the development of the ecosystem.
Creating a dedicated development team is a significant step towards realizing this goal.
So, lets get to specifics.
Initially, the company said it wanted to hire between three and four full-time developers, plus one designer.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out with Gary.
However, we think we’ve found somebody who can live up to his commitment to decentralization.
just welcome Steve Lee, aka@moneyball, to the Square Crypto team.
He is also a volunteer PM helping to drive bitcoin adoption through open-source development, UX, and storytelling.
It took time for Square to settle on Lee.
Weve interviewed tens of candidates, Dorsey said.
Bitcoin is interesting because a lot of the innovation isnt being driven in the US.
We wanted to ensure that we had a global mindset.
We also had to create a structure.
When Dorsey talks about structure, hes not just talking about day-to-day operations.
Hes concerned about ensuring the motivations of his team arent colored by the commercial interests of Square.
Its for that reason that employees on the team wont be incentivized by Square stock.
So, weve had to figure out how to do this in a scalable way.
Theres been a lot of mechanics that weve needed to figure out, he said.
Alternatively, they will be able to choose traditional fiat currency.
Cold, hard cash.
We dont want any jerks
Lees got a heavy burden on his shoulders.
Were probably going to get five engineers and one designer.
I asked Dorsey what step changes he had in mind.
Currency efficiency, he said.
Security is a big one.
Theres still a number of big flaws within the Bitcoin community right now.
Those are the most obvious ones, but there are a number of them.
He described this as grungy, but meaningful.
Its work that engineers typically dont want to do.
This actually slows down development.
It would boost the velocity of the development.
But where does the designer fit in to this ambition?
We see a significant opportunity in making [cryptocurrencies] more accessible, hence the designer.
This designer will be tasked with doing educational tasks, Dorsey said.
There is a desire for more design within the cryptocurrency community.
It just hasnt been top-of-mind for anyone right now.
If we want to make it mainstream, we need to focus on this, he added.
The cryptocurrency ecosystem has tens of thousands of skilled engineers.
Squares looking for just a handful to staff its team.
Thats a hugely challenging task.
I asked Dorsey what he looked for in a candidate.
We dont want any jerks, he laughed.
Thats what makes this magical.
Theres also a lot of folks who can be a bit too much.
Obviously, technical abilities are hugely important.
If Square will make any meaningful impact, itll need to find some talented coders.
We want to see significant open-source contributions to various projects.
Bitcoin Core is a great example of that, but theres others, too.
Open source transparency
Speaking to Dorsey, it becomes apparent that this project is his baby.
Hes unambiguously (and, dare I say, unabashedly) passionate about the disruptive potential of cryptocurrencies.
The reason I want to do that is because I want to learn.
This is important, and this is not a sub-team of some sub-team.
This is at the top of the company, he stressed.
Hopefully we can create some venue for everyone to talk.
But everything will be public, and open to the public, Dorsey added.
Open source projects are inherently transparent, he said.
Thats why I dont want the company to have any impact on the work.
To do this correctly, we need to ensure that this is done in an open source way.
