Square to Create New Bitcoin Platform for Financial Services

Payments services company Square will open a new business focused on creating an "open developer platform" to make it easier to provide non-custodial, decentralized financial services, CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday in a series of tweets.

The still to-be-named division's "primary focus" would be bitcoin, he added.

The initiative, which will be led by Mike Brock, would feature "open roadmap, open development and open source," Dorsey tweeted. Brock heads the company's strategic development group.

The new division will differ from Square Crypto in that Square will provide direction as well as funding for its work, Dorsey tweeted. Square Crypto is working on the Lightning Development Kit.

Dorsey said the company would be establishing Twitter and GitHub accounts to provide updates on the project.

Last week, Square announced plans to build a hardware wallet for bitcoin to make self-custody of the cryptocurrency “more mainstream.” Dorsey noted that as with the hardware wallet, development for the new financial services platform would be done completely in the open.