Jack Dorsey says Square open to making bitcoin investments

Square CEO Jack Dorsey caused quite a stir on Twitter Wednesday evening, declaring that "Square is hiring 3-4 crypto engineers and 1 designer to work full-time on open source contributions to the bitcoin/crypto ecosystem."

Dorsey has recently become a hero to many Bitcoin fans due to his participation in the Lightning Network Torch passing and statement that Square will integrate its Cash App with the Lightning Network. Dorsey is an investor in Lightning Labs, a firm that is developing Lightning.

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In the Twitter Q&A session that followed Dorsey's announcement, he responded to a commenter who asked: "Would you consider investing in projects/companies that support bitcoin core /ux development too?" with a simple "Yes."

This development will surely have the bitcoin community in a tizzy, as it signifies an even deeper potential commitment from Square, valued at $31.6 billion, to support bitcoin. And since Square's core business is merchant and consumer payments, this provides momentum for the cryptocurrency to move from a speculative asset and potential store of value towards the payments use case likely to have broader appeal.

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Mike Dudas is one of the founders of The Block and was the CEO until April 2020 and a board member until April 2021. Prior to starting The Block, Mike was co-founder and CRO of Button, the leading global, mobile performance marketing platform. Mike is a builder of mobile commerce businesses, having worked at Google, Braintree/Venmo and PayPal. Early in his career, Mike worked in corporate M&A and strategy for Disney. Mike earned a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg.