I was beginning to think that Square was suffering from Killer Bees Syndrome. That is, always about to arrive and have a huge impact, but never quite, you know, arriving. Well, maybe it’s arrived. The payment system lets you buy things or donate money through a little device attached to a mobile phone. You just swipe your card through it. It’s perfect for, say, street merchants selling scarves or something like that. But now both the Mitt Romney campaign and the Obama reelection campaign say they will equip volunteers with Square gear to go out and collect donations for their causes. The Federal Elections Commission says that’s cool as long as all the regular information about a contributor is collected.
It’s pretty good news for Square too considering that the company collects 2.75% commission on all transactions.