Square has announced the change of its corporate name to Block, tying together its existing services, which include Square, CashApp, Tidal, and TBD. Square, as a brand, will continue to represent Block's Seller business.
But why did Square have to rename itself at all? And why did it choose "Block"?
Square's Evolution from Payments Processing to Blockchain Technology
In 2009, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey founded Square to do one thing: allow sellers to process credit card payments through their mobile phones. Since then, Square has grown tremendously and in the most unexpected ways.
Growing its financial services offering, Square launched Cash App (previously Square Cash) in 2013. Cash App is a mobile payment service and digital wallet, which claims to have had 70 million transacting users in 2020 alone.
In 2021, Square also acquired a majority ownership stake in Jay-Z's music streaming service, Tidal, and announced the launch of TBD, an open platform that creates a decentralized exchange for Bitcoin.
Why Square Is Renaming to Block
In a press release, Jack Dorsey said, "Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy."
According to Square, its new name has many meanings. In some ways, it can be associated with the concept of building blocks, neighborhood blocks, and their local businesses and communities coming together at block parties full of music. On the other hand, Square mentions an association to the term blockchain or sections of code.
With this, it is likely that this name change also foreshadows something to do with cryptocurrency. Blockchain is the foundation of cryptocurrency, of which Dorsey is an avid supporter. Besides the launch of TBD, Dorsey also previously announced that a Bitcoin hard wallet and a possible mining rig are in the works.
Block Is Building a Wider World
Similar to Facebook renaming itself to Meta, Square's name change will unlikely affect its users directly. However, it does mark the group's direction for its future developments and the kind of projects it will work on in the future.
Through the years, Square has evolved to fulfill visions reaching further than those of its initial conception. For this reason, its name change to Block reflects the wider world in which it hopes to make a difference.