The Square Cash app owned by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will go to great lengths to smooth the onboarding process for its Bitcoin users.
When a Cash app user sent 12 different transactions worth $1 each, the app covered the $6 fees required to get his transaction included in the next block – each time.
That means the owners and operators of the Cash App paid $72 to move their user’s $12 worth of Bitcoin.
Square Cash App Subsidizes Bitcoin Use?
As revealed by crypto-podcaster Collin Enstad on Twitter, Cash App users appear to have their withdrawal fees covered for them by Square. Enstad wrote on Twitter:
“So today I found out CashApp pays for your BTC withdraw fee. So I sent 12 different transactions of $1 each. They seemed to batch withdraws, with about 10 other people. Each transaction had a next block fee of about $6.”
The 12 one-dollar transactions sent by Enstad incurred fees ranging between $7.80 and $4.30 each time. But the user only paid a cost of around eight cents to have their transaction included in the next block, as seen on Bitcoin.com’s blockchain explorer below.
Enstad pointed out the strange occurrence, adding: “In other words, I withdrew $12 and Cash App paid about $6 for this over 12 different transactions… The price Jack [Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO] pays for a solid user experience on BTC!”
Bitcoin Fees Falling – But Still High
Average Bitcoin fees rose by over 2,000% in 2020 alone, climbing to a recent peak of $6.64 on May 20.
However, in the week since then, the average cost of transacting on the Bitcoin network fell by 63% – down to $2.41 at the time of writing, as per data from Bitinfocharts. Despite this, the cost of getting a transaction included in the very next block remains substantially higher, as witnessed above.
Square CEO Jack Dorsey has a recent history of charitable acts behind him. Could Square’s willingness to cover its users’ Bitcoin costs be yet another example of such charity? How long can Square’s goodwill – or wallets – hold out?
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