Square and the Death of Cash

Physical currency is filthy. It’s fragile. It gets lost. It gets stuck in the dried, sticky coffee crust in the bottom of your car’s cupholder.

Square, as well as being amazingly convenient-sounding and brilliantly obvious, looks like it might also be the herald of the eventual, necessary, death of cash. I can’t wait to try it out.

Basically, you plug a card reader into your audio jack (on any device), and swipe away – your camera phone identifies you to prevent fraud. Not sure how it can tell the difference between me and a picture of me someone holds up in front of the camera… but I’m sure they’ll get that worked out. All in all, it looks “like the future” as Dustin Curtis put it earlier today.

Oh, and what really impressed me was this nice little addition:

“Square will donate a penny of every transaction you take to a cause of your choice. Working together to better the world, one small step at a time.”

‘Cause we all have a cause.