Square, the payment services arm of Block, has launched its Bitcoin payment feature for small businesses, allowing them to accept BTC payments and manage their digital assets alongside traditional finances through its point-of-sale platform.
The integration allows merchants to accept the premier cryptocurrency at checkout with near-real-time settlement through Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, with no processing fees for the first year. Sellers can automatically convert up to 50% of their daily sales into BTC.
“Square Bitcoin is the first fully integrated Bitcoin payments and wallet solution for businesses that will enable sellers to accept Bitcoin payments and automatically convert sales into Bitcoin,” Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Square and outspoken Bitcoin advocate, wrote in his company’s third-quarter shareholder letter.
Square teased its Square Bitcoin platform in October and shortly afterward successfully illustrated merchant acceptance at Compass Coffee, a Washington D.C.-based coffee chain.
By folding Bitcoin into its existing payments and banking ecosystem, Block aims to provide merchants with financial optionality and flexibility, the company indicated.
“We’re making Bitcoin payments as seamless as card payments while giving small businesses access to financial management tools that, until now, have been exclusive to the largest corporations,” said Block’s Head of Bitcoin Product Miles Suter, in an October release announcing the product.
The move marks a continuation of Block’s long-running focus on Bitcoin, which spans retail tools like Cash App — a Venmo or PayPal rival — and hardware initiatives like its self-custody hardware wallet, BitKey, and Proto mining products.
Bitcoin fell 1.7% to $104,470 in Tuesday’s session, according to data from CoinGecko.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/jack-dorseys-block-enables-bitcoin-payments-for-millions-of-square-merchants/
