Square Crypto has hired former devs from Google, Facebook’s Libra and Lightning Labs onto its inaugural developer team.
Square Crypto, the crypto-focused branch of payment company Square, has hired Valentine Wallace, Jeffrey Czyz and Arik Sosman to its inaugural developer team.
Square Crypto announced the appointment in a series of tweets on Sept. 19, revealing that Wallace joined the company from Lightning Labs, Czyz came from Google and Sosman from Facebook’s Libra stablecoin project. With the latest hires, Square Crypto said it has completed its inaugural developer team.
The next step requiring the public opinion
The next step the company is planning to take is determining their first project, and thus urges the public to participate in the decision-making process. “There’s no project we won’t consider, as long as it improves or proliferates bitcoin,” Square Crypto wrote.
Square Crypto recently made an array of new appointments, with Blockstream co-founder and Bitcoin (BTC) developer Matt Corallo and former Google product director Steve Lee as a project manager. Lee subsequently made a number of remarks that solidify the company’s emphasis on Bitcoin.
Making Bitcoin stronger
Lee described Square Crypto as “an open-source initiative designed to strengthen the bitcoin ecosystem,” further adding:
“Our goal is Bitcoin for all. We are focusing on improving the Bitcoin experience for mainstream users. The user journey will always be central to our thinking.”
Earlier in September, Square Crypto announced a grant to BTCPay Foundation, which the company named the first of what will be many to support open-source Bitcoin projects. The startup provided BTCPay Foundation with $100,000 to support BTCPay Server, an open-source cryptocurrency payment processor.
Square Crypto went on to explain why they are giving a “bunch of money” to BTCPay Server, saying: “This isn’t an investment in a competitor, it’s an investment in the future of money — something that Square obviously has a stake in.”