Jack Dorsey: New Square register will accept both Apple Pay and Bitcoin
Apple Pay won't be active until sometime next month, but companies in the payment space are already reacting to the newest kid on the block. Some, like PayPal, have resorted to fear-mongering. Others, like Square, are making adjustments to welcome Apple's new mobile payments platform with open arms.
Originally reported by Andrea Bellemare of CBCNews and subsequently relayed by Wired, Square CEO Jack Dorsey has said that Square is planning on building a register capable of handling Apple Pay payments. And in an effort to make sure all the boxes are checked, Square's new register will also accept BitCoin payments.
"We're building a register so that sellers can accept a credit card, so they can accept cash, so they can accept a cheque, so they can accept Bitcoin and so they can accept any form of payment that comes across the counter including future ones and burgeoning ones like Apple Pay," Dorsey told the CBC this week, speaking at the opening of Square's new Canadian offices in Kitchener, Ontario.
This certainly seems like a smart approach. Assuming that Apple Pay is bound to become a common method of payment, it's a good move for Square to be prepared ahead of time.
About two weeks ago, Dorsey said that Apple Pay doesn't pose a threat to Square's business as the two platforms provide different services.
It's not a threat because ... we don't build a credit card, we don't build a payment device at all.
They're building something that allows a credit card to be used in another place, but they're not building a terminal. We are a terminal, we a register and we accept payments, so there's no threat, there's no competition there at all.
