cryptocurrency
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Block will use a fingerprint sensor for its bitcoin wallet

It's looking for a user-friendly solution to securing crypto.

Jack Dorsey at the Bitcoin Miami conference in 2021.

Block says it plans to use a fingerprint sensor for its hardware bitcoin wallet.

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Block said it plans to use a fingerprint sensor for its much-awaited bitcoin hardware wallet.

The company formerly known as Square is developing hardware crypto wallets, one of many efforts it's pursuing to make bitcoin more mainstream. Block plans “to achieve seamless authentication” through fingerprint sensors, the company wrote in a blog post. The company said it plans to build a device without a display, a divergence from the hardware design of some rivals like Ledger, whose Nano wallets feature a small OLED screen.

Block said it considers “PINs, passwords, and seed phrases ... confusing and often not secure given the workarounds normal people have to create given all the friction.”

The company acknowledged that the plan has some limitations. “For example, some customers will want to share access to their money without relying only on their fingerprint,” it wrote.

Block also said it was seeking to hire a lawyer to serve as product counsel for the wallet project.

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

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