Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Wednesday that his second company, the payments service Square, was looking to hire three or four blockchain engineers and a designer to work on “open source contributions to the bitcoin/crypto ecosystem.”
Dorsey followed up his job offer with volley of tweets describing the rationale behind his decision. He said he had “taken a lot” from the open source community, and expressed a desire to give back. The move, he added, will be Square’s first open source initiative “independent of our business objectives.”
Square, founded by Dorsey in 2009, aims to make it easier for independent traders to accept card payments, by using readers that connect to smartphones or tablets. Dorsey’s decision to hire staff to work on blockchain comes after its Cash App—a an instant-payments service for mobiles—recently posted record-high bitcoin sales. Despite Dorsey’s well-intentioned plans, having a team working at Square would undoubtedly help to establish the company as a major player in the lead up to mainstream adoption.
Dorsey’s enthusiasm for bitcoin has become apparent in recent months. In February, he appeared on the U.S. tech show, the Joe Rogan Experience, and spoke of the strong principles that govern Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. He has also set up his own Casa Node, a plug-and-play solution for running Bitcoin and Lightning Networks at home.
In his tweet, he added that the new hires will report directly to him and enthused: “I love this technology and community. I’ve found it to be deeply principled, purpose-driven, edgy, and…really weird. Just like the early internet! I’m excited to get to learn more directly.”
Dorsey’s tweets met with an enthusiastic response, suggestions and offers from prospective hires. Predictably, there was a barrage of questions too. Did his description of impacting “the broader crypto ecosystem” include altcoins, people wanted to know. The bitcoin proponent was keeping mum, for the time being. We’re sure it won’t be for long.
