Square will reportedly enable its register service for businesses to accept more payment types including Bitcoin and Apple Pay.
The company made its plans known in Canada this week. Wired reports:
He [CEO Jack Dorsey] says that Square is building a register that will allow companies to accept Bitcoin as well as Apple’s new contactless payment system, Apple Pay.
“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 comes as PayPal also revealed new (yet limited) support of Bitcoin, enabling merchants to accept payments processed through a handful of Bitcoin processors.
Square also recently revealed plans to release a new Square Reader for chip cards to help small businesses prepare for the EMV migration and “industry shift” to chip-enabled credit cards.
Square’s planned support for Bitcoin and Apple Pay is big news for both payment methods. For Bitcoin, it means a big step toward mainstream adoption, as many businesses are already set up for Square. It would also mean that many more locations accepting Apple Pay (which is part of the latest iPhones) in addition to the 220,000 Apple already has on board.
Image via Square, Twitter