cryptocurrency
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Square changes its name to Block after Dorsey leaves Twitter

Square Crypto is now "Spiral."

An animated logo of Block, the payment company formerly known as Square.

Jack Dorsey said Square might develop crypto wallet hardware. Now the company's plans are confirmed.

Block

Payments company Square has changed its corporate name to Block in an indication of its potential to go all-in on cryptocurrencies.

The move, complete with a redesign of the company's website, comes just days after CEO Jack Dorsey announced he was leaving his position as CEO of Twitter.

Square said in a tweet that it made the move to give the Square name to its Seller merchant services unit. But it also said that "Block" represents many things: "Not to get all meta on you… but we’re going to! Block references the neighborhood blocks where we find our sellers, a blockchain, block parties full of music, obstacles to overcome, a section of code, building blocks, and of course, tungsten cubes."

Square Crypto has also rebranded as Spiral, according to the company's website. Dorsey has been saying for some time that his biggest interest now is bitcoin and his leaving Twitter while it has many reasons could be attributed at least in part to his fixation with bitcoin.

The company is still legally known as Square Inc., but will formally change its name around Dec. 10, according to a note on its new corporate website. While the company says that its purpose, vision and structure are not changing, the company has been changing for some time. It now has semi-autonomous units: Square (previously Seller), Tidal, Spiral (previously Square Crypto), Cash App and TBD.

The question is whether the name Block describes more of a company of separate building blocks all fitting together somehow, or whether it just means block as in the atomic unit of blockchains and the singular focus that that would imply. With TBD, Square has been pushing further into industry-wide crypto technologies that would seek to make it a leader in the crypto industry. And of course, there's the .xyz in the Block's new URL which gives strong crypto street cred.

Square's rebranding as Block follows Google's renaming as Alphabet in 2015 and Facebook's rebranding as Meta in October. Like Square, those companies sought to indicate the breadth of their business portfolios with a new name. However, Dorsey, who has often sparred online with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, mocked Facebook's new corporate name.

 Tomio Geron

Tomio Geron ( @tomiogeron) is a San Francisco-based reporter covering fintech. He was previously a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, covering venture capital and startups. He was also as a staff writer at Forbes covering social media and venture capital, and edited the Midas List of top tech investors. He can be reached at tgeron@protocol.com or tgeron@protonmail.com.

jack dorsey cryptocurrency square block bitcoin
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