[HN Gopher] Square is now called Block
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       Square is now called Block
        
       Author : muhammadusman
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2021-12-01 21:38 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | jonny_eh wrote:
       | WTF is @TBD54566975?
        
         | wmf wrote:
         | It's a crypto incubator.
        
           | jonny_eh wrote:
           | Thanks, it's weird though that their twitter bio doesn't say
           | that.
           | 
           | It's just a picture of a musician and #Bitcoin and a picture
           | of a hat. https://twitter.com/TBD54566975
           | 
           | Is anyone in this space serious?
        
             | wmf wrote:
             | Twitter bios are pretty bad in general. I'll check
             | someone's bio and it just says something like "optimist,
             | player of games" which doesn't help my poor literal-minded
             | brain decide whether to follow them or not.
        
         | randomhodler84 wrote:
         | Their first product is a decentralized peer to peer Bitcoin
         | exchange based on Decentralized Identity. They released their
         | white paper recently.
        
       | a_crowbar wrote:
       | Interesting... thinly veiled play on blockchain? With Jack's
       | recent leave of twitter, I think it's clear this is his new
       | vision for the future.
       | 
       | With Facebook's recent re-org to Meta, is this spurring a new
       | wave of companies re-branding to be seen as relevant by
       | associating with future technologies?
        
         | inerte wrote:
         | Something interesting is happening in other industries, where
         | large conglomerates are spinning off high-growth potential
         | divisions, specially pharmaceuticals
         | https://www.fiercepharma.com/topic/spinoff all for that sweet
         | sweet stock growth
        
       | nikolay wrote:
       | This is stupid! I don't wanna be boosting crypto indirectly so
       | our nonprofit is leaving Square now!
        
         | randomhodler84 wrote:
         | I am sorry to inform you that you may have trouble finding
         | fintech outfits that are not playing with Bitcoin moving
         | forward. Good luck with that fiat.
        
           | nikolay wrote:
           | You're wrong! We have both SumUp and Intuit! Both are cheaper
           | and better than Square anyway!
        
             | rezistik wrote:
             | I'm not super bullish on crypto and frankly it terrifies me
             | a bit, but Intuit charges rent to the US population by
             | lobbying to maintain complicated tax forms and
             | processes...is that what you'd rather support?
        
             | randomhodler84 wrote:
             | Ironically, intuit and SumUp did have BTC payments in 2014
             | but stopped it due to low demand. (Of course... what people
             | don't get is BTC is not for spending. It is for saving.)
             | 
             | Maybe early to the pre party and late to the after party?
        
           | yurishimo wrote:
           | I think that's fine, but why create so much chaos with a
           | rebrand on a product that currently has very little to do
           | with blockchain tech? Why not spin off a separate entity,
           | "Block (powered by Square)" to prove the idea and slowly
           | migrate?
           | 
           | This name change is going to be extremely confusing to end
           | users who are out of the loop given the current dominance of
           | the Square brand.
        
             | randomhodler84 wrote:
             | The key public brand cash app tidal etc is the same. Square
             | was vendor facing mostly so the name isn't that important
             | as b2b names change frequently. I don't think as big a deal
             | as Meta name change, being a consumer brand, and that's not
             | really a problem with consumers so far.
        
             | wmf wrote:
             | The Square product is not being rebranded. Nothing is
             | really changing here.
        
         | nscalf wrote:
         | Have you tried using cryptocurrencies? What made you so
         | polarized on this topic?
        
           | nikolay wrote:
           | I used to mine Bitcoin before it was cool.
        
             | randomhodler84 wrote:
             | And you still have some today?
        
       | flgr wrote:
       | I really adore the demo scene vibes I'm getting from
       | https://block.xyz/.
       | 
       | You can say what you want about megaholding corporate
       | conglomerates, but this has so much more style than abc.xyz.
        
       | piinbinary wrote:
       | A block is a square in 3 dimensions
        
       | htrp wrote:
       | this makes almost no sense unless Dorsey is going full time
       | crypto .....
        
         | wmf wrote:
         | He is.
        
           | randomhodler84 wrote:
           | Not crypto, Bitcoin. Not blockchain, Bitcoin.
        
       | piinbinary wrote:
       | Other threads:
       | 
       | * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29409382
       | 
       | * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29409497
        
       | KoftaBob wrote:
       | I wonder if their stock ticker will change. BLOCK doesn't seem to
       | be taken.
        
         | htrp wrote:
         | Press says no.... still SQ
        
           | KoftaBob wrote:
           | Yeah you're right:
           | https://twitter.com/Square/status/1466158918724472837?s=20
        
         | arthurcolle wrote:
         | 5 letter tickers are frowned upon generally unless its a
         | different share class or if its in some kind of
         | credit/corporate action I thought. Like .E means Ch11 (iirc)
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-01 23:02 UTC)