LeWeb: Twitter founder designs a brand new P2P payment system

shot by jeanxtof

This is disruptive! Jack Dorsey (Twitter founder) has got a new venture: the (asleep) financial world! His new company, Square (code name was... Squirrel) is a service that allows anyone with an iPhone to become a merchant. Just like the wireless credit card swipers you see at certain shops and restaurants, you can carry around your iPhone and take payments. It will allow any individual to take credit card payments on a mobile device, kind of like what PayPal does for the web.

This new service might be OK for the US (where consumers usually swipe their credit card to purchase a good or a service) but for Europe ? Credit cards are chip credit cards in Europe, this is an issue for Square... (see what Hannes think about that).

I asked Jack about his European plans: "I'm waiting for new hardware" (i.e for chip purpose?) he answered me.

Jack is the perfect guy to understand what peer-to-peer is (See Twitter huge success) and what P2P payments should be. He knows what's cool. Bankers don't know, do they ?

Update (as of January, 13th 2010) : According to the French newspaper "La Tribune" Xavier Niel (French Telecom mogul) funded Jack Dorsey's new venture Square for a (small) amount of 25.000 USD.

#leweb #leweb09

Comments

[Rédigé par : Jean-Christophe]

@Giyom: Thanks for your comment Guillaume! I really appreciate ;)

[Rédigé par : Giyom]

I think p2p makes sense considering the current hardware isn't sturdy enough for heavy merchant use, and does not include a battery extender. It also makes sense since a lot of people either don't have paypal account, don't have money on it, or have forgotten their password. I think the fact that there is no contract and that the hardware is free is nice advantage over competing iPhone POS.