Square Is Renamed Block, Perhaps Signaling Jack Dorsey’s Crypto Ambitions

The funds firm Sq. mentioned on Wednesday that it was altering its title to Block, a nod to one of many fundamental focuses of the corporate’s chief govt, Jack Dorsey, an fanatic for cryptocurrency and the blockchain expertise it runs on.

Mr. Dorsey mentioned Monday he was stepping down from the helm of his different firm, Twitter, a transfer that many believed was in order that he may dedicate extra of his consideration to cryptocurrency and to Sq..

Block will develop into the title of the “company entity,” with Sq. persevering with to be the phase of the corporate that helps folks and companies course of funds, the corporate mentioned in a information launch. The mum or dad firm additionally owns Tidal, a music streaming service, Money App, a cost service, and a developer platform targeted on Bitcoin known as TBD54566975. Sq. mentioned there can be no organizational adjustments made to the corporate apart from the title change.

“The title has many related meanings for the corporate — constructing blocks, neighborhood blocks and their native companies, communities coming collectively at block events filled with music, a blockchain, a piece of code, and obstacles to beat,” the corporate mentioned in its launch. It expects the title change to be official on Dec. 10.

Mr. Dorsey has lately grown extra fascinated by cryptocurrencies and the promise of decentralization that blockchain expertise may permit for. In 2019, he mentioned Twitter would assist create a decentralized kind of social media through which customers may make their very own algorithms and reasonable their very own communities. The one factor in his Twitter bio is “#bitcoin.”

A foray deeper into cryptocurrencies and blockchain might be alluring for Mr. Dorsey, who in his previous few years as a social media chief govt spent growing quantities of time defending Twitter’s position in disseminating misinformation, testifying in entrance of politicians and receiving frequent criticism from former President Donald J. Trump, who was barred from Twitter shortly after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

Mr. Dorsey didn’t reference cryptocurrencies or the blockchain in a quick quote within the information launch about his firm’s title change, saying solely that regardless of the brand new title, “our objective of financial empowerment stays the identical. Regardless of how we develop or change, we are going to proceed to construct instruments to assist improve entry to the financial system.”