Tag: square

Still waiting for a Square chip and pin

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Silicon Valley’s darling of the credit card payment industry, Square, has released another hardware iteration of their magstripe reader. European watchers will note the system still doesn’t support ‘Chip and Pin’. While it’s not a deal-breaker for me, I continue to be amazed at the lack of security for the customer in the US credit card industry. At least in the UK retailers will check the signatures match – the majority of US transactions I’ve had swipe the card, hand it back, and then ask for a signature. I await Square’s launch in territories with stronger fraud protection systems with

I never saw Jack Dorsey as a Bond villian

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If Willy Wonka built a financial institution, instead of a chocolate factory, it would look something like Square. During an interview at the company’s San Francisco offices with Mr. Dorsey, we sat at a square table, in a square glass conference room — all of which are named after a famous town squares from around the world. Mr. Dorsey was eating nuts out of a square bowl. (Don’t worry, the nuts were still round, I checked.) Employees are even referred to as Squares. NYT Bits.

Square racks up the credit bill to take on the credit cards

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There’s something delightfully old school and twisted about Square grabbing as much VC capital as possible – another $100 million today, valuing them at over $1 billion -  knowing that the cash is effectively a loan which will have to be paid back (via IPO or a sale) in the future with a lot of return. That’s a huge APR to take on board just to challenge the credit card companies in their own backyard.

How can Square disrupt payments while Visa supports it?

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Square aims for a $2 billion valuation: Momentum aside, Square is trying to do something that’s incredibly hard and expensive. Everyone agrees that payments need to be disrupted again (except maybe eBay and the credit card companies), and given the general antipathy towards to financial sector, the time is right. And Square seems to have the best shot of anyone out there. Hold on a minute, Square is going to disrupt the payment system? With Visa as an investor and one of their own advisors on the board? Sitting next to someone from JP Morgan? Friends close, enemies closer.

Thoughts from The Dread Pirate Roberts on the launch of Square

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Jack Dorsey brought Square into the public view this week (and he’s hitting the stage with it at Le Web, lucky chap) and like everyone else I’ve looked at what’s he and the company are attempting and…. I have questions. But you know what? These will be the same questions asked by the investors and the people in the company It’s highly unlikely that these questions haven’t already been asked of Dorsey by someone else. Look at this from another angle – a few months ago I found myself reading The Princess Bride to my kids (I say reading, it