In August 2018, Square released a version of its magstripe reader with a Lightning connector, allowing it to be used on iPhones without a headphone jack. In June 2015, Apple announced Square would release a new Reader capable of also accepting Apple Pay and other contactless payments. In July 2014, ahead of the October 2015 EMV liability shift, the firm announced a card reader that would accept chip cards and contactless cards to supplement the standard Reader's support of traditional magnetic stripe card transactions. The current technology is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ( PCI) compliant and Verisign certified.
Square introduced strong encryption on its devices, and neither card numbers, nor magnetic stripe data, nor security codes are stored on Square client devices. Dorsey called VeriFone's claims "neither fair nor accurate", noting that all card data can also be compromised by visually examining the card and that even if there were a compromise, card issuers offered fraud protection. VeriFone posted a demonstration video and sample skimming app to its web site. In April 2012, rival payment company Verifone claimed that the Square system at the time was insecure and that a reasonably skilled programmer could write a replacement app which could use the Square device to skim a credit card and return its details, because of the lack of encryption. The original version consisted of a simple read head directly wired to a 3.5 mm audio jack, through which unencrypted, analog card information was fed to smartphones for amplification and digitization. It accepts credit card payments by connecting to a mobile device's audio jack. The Square Reader was the firm's first product. In 2010, the Square device communicated with the Square app through the phone's audio jack.
However, on December 16, less than a week into the rebrand, H&R Block, sued the company for trademark infringement, claiming that the name seeks to confuse customers by misappropriating the Block brand name, which H&R owns. On December 10, 2021, the name change took effect, and Square, Inc. The change was announced shortly after Dorsey resigned as CEO of Twitter. Outlets noted that the change occurred soon after Facebook, Inc. On December 1, 2021, Square announced that it would change its company name to Block, Inc. Jay-Z, as well as other artists who currently own stock in Tidal will remain stakeholders. Square will pay $297 million in cash and stock for Tidal, with Jay-Z joining the company's board of directors. On March 2, 2021, Square reached an agreement to acquire majority ownership in Tidal. The company purchased an additional $170 million worth of Bitcoin (approximately 3,318 bitcoins) in February 2021, bringing Square's total holdings to almost $500 million in Bitcoin (total approximately 8,027 bitcoins). In October 2020, Square put approximately 1% of their total assets ($50 million) in Bitcoin (4,709 bitcoins), citing Bitcoin's "potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future" as their main reasoning. The name "Square" derives from the company's square-shaped card readers. Ĭo-founders Dorsey-who also co-founded Twitter-and McKelvey began developing the company out of a small office in St. The original inspiration for Square occurred to Jack Dorsey in 2009 when Jim McKelvey (a friend of Dorsey) was unable to complete a $2,000 sale of his glass faucets and fittings because he could not accept credit cards. The company also runs Cash App, a mobile app that allows monetary transfers both among users and between users and businesses.
Square is a payments platform aimed at small and medium businesses that allows them to accept credit card payments and use tablet computers as payment registers for a point-of-sale system. The main payments product for small businesses is still titled "Square". Square, Inc., the corporate owning entity, retitled itself as Block, Inc.
It has been traded as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange since November 2015 with the ticker symbol SQ. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and launched its first platform in 2010. (formerly Square, Inc.) is an American financial services and digital payments company based in San Francisco, California. Point of sale terminals and auxiliary equipment, debit cardsīlock, Inc.