Twitter founder sets sights on Square sales

Los Angeles: Twitter was just the beginning for Jack Dorsey. After dreaming up the innovative communication medium, he is looking to revolutionise another core aspect of society: money.

Dorsey has announced that his new start-up, Square, has developed a way for anyone with a cell phone or iPod to become a merchant and accept credit card payments.

Square is a small plastic device that plugs into a gadget's headphone jack. Buyers swipe their credit cards through the device, which then transmits the payment data to an application running on a connected iPhone or iPod Touch. (Android and BlackBerry apps are in development, and computer software will be available later.)

Hardware production

A select few cafes and small vendors are among Square's first beta testers.

"I think we're going to give the Squares away for free because they're pretty cheap for us to make," Dorsey said in a telephone interview from San Francisco last week.

But in an e-mail later, Dorsey said Square "may charge $1 (Dh3.67) for the app".

Once the company begins ramping up hardware production, users will be able to sign up for an account, enter a shipping address on the site and receive a device in the mail. Like PayPal, profiles are tied to a bank account.

The payment system is secure, Dorsey said. Transaction data are safely encrypted, and the credit card information is never stored on the device, only passed along, he said. Signatures are drawn with a finger on the touch screen.

Safety

Buyers with a Square profile can set their photos to display on the vendor's screen to thwart identity thieves or children with a penchant for "borrowing" plastic.

Even the e-mail address and phone number a customer is asked to put in during the sale is invisible to the seller. It's only used to transmit the digital receipt, which can include a logo and links to the retailer's Web site or Twitter page.

What's the catch? Dorsey has a hidden agenda, albeit one shared by many: He's sick of cash.

"I, for one, hate getting change," Dorsey said. "I just can't stand it."

The current credit card system isn't without its faults, either.

"I get so annoyed when people give me a paper receipt for something that was like $5," he said. "There's nothing that I would do with that receipt."