Payments company Square has announced the appointment of Steve Lee, an ex-director at Google, as the first member of its new crypto team.
The US-based company, however, did not specify Lee’s role, neither did it mention his position at the company. Square only teased the new appointment via a tweet on June 13.
Hey guys. Management again. Unfortunately, things didn't work out with Gary. However, we think we've found somebody who can live up to his commitment to decentralization. Please welcome Steve Lee, aka @moneyball, to the Square Crypto team.
— Square Crypto (@sqcrypto) June 12, 2019
Lee left Google in 2015 after serving it for more than eight years. At the search engine giant, he worked on projects involving mobile applications to its research and development arm.
Bitcoin Core contributor
According to his Linkedin profile, Lee is currently working as a volunteer Bitcoin project manager and is helping the community to “increase the velocity of development, improve the user experience, improve the storytelling, [and] ensure decentralization.”
He is also a Silicon Valley angel investor and is holding stakes of startups including Highlighter, StyleSeat, Anchor Labs, Bytegain, Alto Financial, and Halo Neuroscience. His successful exits include Lyft, Pinterest, Yardbarker, Lil Green Patch, and Foodspotting.
Launched as a mobile-based payment platform, Square extended its support towards cryptocurrency trading in November 2017 by the launch of its peer-to-peer Cash app. The platform had more than 15 million active customers in December 2018, doubling its userbase from a year earlier. The company is headed by Twitter’s founder and CEO Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey last March announced that the payments company is going to focus more on its Cash App and will hire a dedicated team for crypto.
Square has taken a lot from the open source community to get us here. We haven’t given enough back. This is a small way to give back, and one that’s aligned with our broader interests: a more accessible global financial system for the internet.
— jack (@jack) March 20, 2019
Earlier this year, FortuneZ reported that Square recorded $65 million in Bitcoin revenue in Q1 2019, however, the profits from the trades were capped at only $832,000.
(Photo: Square)
