Square as a Trojan Horse

This is worth a read if you’re interested in the recent, rapid innovation in credit card purchasing.

@chexton » Blog Archive » Why Square could be one of the greatest Trojan Horses in recent tech history

My short-sighted question about the seemingly competing innovations of Square and NFC are succinctly addressed thusly:

Firstly, although Square currently relies on the sexy device it uses to enable merchants to accept payments there is no reason that in the future they can’t accept NFC devices, particularly if iPhones and iPads come with NFC chips pre-installed.  So, if we ignore the means and focus on the fact that Square now lets you pay using your name, we can accept that your name can be tied to any payment method or source and that this alone should guarantee Square some longevity.

Make a lot of sense, wondering why I didn’t account for that.

When you remove that hurdle, the value of Square as a location-aware platform that tracks and targets you with offers that really appeal to you, based on your spending habits, seems much more obvious.

And creepy too, but hey, saving money on stuff you really want and rewarding your patronage could go a long way toward alleviating the creepy factor. Right?

Find the comments.

AboutJake

a.k.a.:jkuramot

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