Square is considering making a hardware wallet for #bitcoin . If we do it, we would build it entirely in the open, from software to hardware design, and in collaboration with the community. We want to kick off this thinking the right way: by sharing some of our guiding principles.

1/Bitcoin is for everyone. It’s important to us to build an inclusive product that brings a non-custodial solution to the global market. Much respect to everyone who has gotten us this far. What are the biggest blockers to get a non-custodial solution to the next 100M people?

2/“No keys, no cheese.” The exchange you used to buy your bitcoin probably attends to your security with good intent, but circumstances may reveal “custody” actually means “IOU.” Deciding to take custody, and security, of your bitcoin is complicated. What’s the #1 problem here?

3/Custody doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. We can probably simplify custody through “assisted self-custody.” Assisted requires great product design: minimal setup time, relying on existing devices, and end-to-end reliability. How should we be thinking about assisted solutions?

4/Most people access the internet on mobile. Any solution we build must provide an excellent experience when using mobile, despite its shortcomings and liabilities. An uncompromising focus on mobile interaction is likely to include the most people. What are the dangers here?

4/Most people access the internet on mobile. Any solution we build must provide an excellent experience when using mobile, despite its shortcomings and liabilities. An uncompromising focus on mobile interaction is likely to include the most people. What are the dangers here?

6/Blend availability and security. Make it easy for customers to keep the funds they want quick access to at their fingertips, spendable with phone-only permissions, while keeping the remainder under tighter, less available but more secure controls. What’s the right balance?

7/Safety is complicated. For any wallet product, we consider safety failures to stem from one of three types of events: availability failures (“sunken gold”), security failures (“pirated gold”), and discretionary actions (“confiscated gold”). What threats are we missing?

8/Today’s recovery mechanisms burn money. Customers have to protect recovery information from damage, loss, and theft and store secret(s). In practice, this is not yet mainstream-ready. We don’t want more passwords on post-its. What best of class solutions should we consider?

9/Are small displays necessary? Expecting mainstream customers to validate details on a small display is *unlikely* to increase security and *likely* to reduce device reliability, increase device cost, and decrease accessibility. Is the product better if a display isn't required?

10/Trust can’t be required. Today, customers depend heavily on the continued function of infrastructure provided by 3rd parties. We want mainstream customers to be able to lean on us when they want to, but we won’t exclude those who don’t. How should we think about this flow?

11/Layer 2 is essential for growth. The orders-of-magnitude growth we imagine requires a mix of custodial, off-chain, and second layer solutions that allow people to ‘get off of 0.’ What tech investments can enable seamless, scalable, L2 native support for a hardware wallet?

12/Cash App integration is obvious for us but only part of the solution. A smooth experience likely depends on a custom-built app but it doesn’t need to be owned by Square. We can imagine apps that work without Square and maybe also without permission from Apple and Google. You?

With that, @jessedorogusker, I, and team will listen and continue the conversation. And we’ll set up a dedicated Twitter and github account if we decide to build. We’ll update this thread with that information when we’re ready. Thanks!