Block envisions bitcoin for all

Block executive Miles Suter envisions a day when bitcoin is functional, everyday digital money used as easily as cards and cash for routine transactions. 

To get there, Suter – the head of bitcoin and stablecoin at Block – has set out to make payments between millions of American consumers and Square merchants happen in bitcoins.

"We're in a unique position as a large company with huge segments on both sides of the counter," Suter said Wednesday, alluding to U.S. consumers and merchants in Square's point of sale ecosystem. "I believe that there's no company in the world doing more for bitcoin than Block."

Suter joined Block nine years ago. The company's first bitcoin service, bitcoin sales on Cash App, launched in January 2018, with about 24 million active users purchasing the digital currency since then.

But Block has much larger aspirations for bitcoin than merely selling it. Those ambitions are driven by the company's top executive and long-time bitcoin booster Jack Dorsey.

Enabling bitcoin payments is key, Suter said in an interview. "Jack really believes in the mission of bitcoin as everyday money, and so those are the things I'm always thinking about as we roll out new products and how they can eventually lead to that endpoint."