Cash App introduces a wand with tap-to-pay capabilities
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What is Cash App’s new “magical” tap‑to‑pay wand and how does it work?
time for our daily tech and business report tap to pay just got a little bit more magical as block inks cash app business has launched a fun and sparkly new design device to pay for more we head to the kcbs ring central news line and talk with bloomberg's lauren tara la capra lauren thanks for the time hey of course
yeah happy to talk
so this is literally a wand right
Yeah, it's I've seen it in person. It's small. It's not the kind of one you imagine Cinderella having. But, you know, you can put it on your key chain or attach it to your belt or something like that or just put it in your purse and then you pull it out and you top it the same way you would like a credit card or your phone or something like that. OK,
so it's not a pink wicked wand or a Harry Potter
wand. It does not have magical powers, unfortunately, but it can pay for things.
So.
That's pretty magical, actually, I think. Obviously geared towards teens and young adults not connected to a credit card.
Yeah, so it's it's connected to a debit card. Essentially, you have to have an app with sorry, you have to have an account with block or cash app in order to have money to fund it.
How is the wand designed for teens and young adults without a credit card?
And I think, you know, they vet the people who have the accounts. And if you're a teenager, your parents are probably providing the money for it and things like that. But There's some virality to it where, you know, they've been these like plastic wands that kids are using at different things. And I think Cash App is taking hold of that to make it make it its own, if that makes sense.
Is the idea to teach kids how to spend their money, how to how to budget? Or I can just see kids going, oh, I wanted to use this thing. Ping. I can pay for this. Oh,
ping. I can pay for that.
Yeah.
Can parents use the wand to give allowances and teach budgeting?
I do think it's more of the latter. I think it's one of those things where, you know, kids have an account and if you're their mom or dad and you have, you know, you're giving them a certain allowance or something in a digital account, rather than them have to use their phone, they can use this little wand if they want to. It costs $25 to buy it, so it's not free. But if they're cool and trendy and they can afford it, then they would have that. It doesn't have any budgeting features to it.
Okay, so you don't have to take out your wallet. You don't have to use your phone. But I wonder, is it easy to steal?
And I mean, yeah, I guess so. If you're going to get mugged, it could be your wallets or your wand, I suppose. And people have have I've heard concerns about, you know, do you walk by something and it automatically taps?
Right.
Is the wand easy to steal or trigger accidentally like a credit card?
But it kind of functions the same way that your credit card or your phone would. Like it doesn't from what they tell me anyway, it doesn't just you can't just walk through things and it's just paying for things willy nilly. You have to do something in order to activate it. I have not used it myself, so I can't verify my own experience with it, but that's kind of the idea behind it. It's the same as if it was a credit card or a phone.
Is the idea that you could then come up with different kinds of tap-to-pay devices, like a bracelet or something a little more adult-oriented?
Yeah, yeah, I did ask them about that. You know, the broader scheme, the broader idea is like, You put a chip into a credit card, your phone has a chip that somehow now allows you to pay for things. Why can't you put a chip in anything, right? It's not really practical to take off your shirt and pay for something necessarily, but people wear health wristband bracelet kind of things or Maybe they have something, maybe a wand doesn't appeal to everyone, right?
Will Cash App expand tap‑to‑pay chips to other accessories like bracelets?
So they think eventually they can maybe put the chip in other things, but this is the first iteration of it.
Does Cash App think this is just a hook to get them to grow the business?
Um, Yeah, kind of. I don't think they would. They probably wouldn't phrase it that way, but I don't disagree with you. I mean, they've been trying to grow the business, reaching into new demographics. And I think a lot of fintech companies are are thinking of the next thing.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is Cash App’s new “magical” tap‑to‑pay wand and how does it work?
0:00–1:10
2
How is the wand designed for teens and young adults without a credit card?
1:10–1:43
3
Can parents use the wand to give allowances and teach budgeting?
1:43–2:34
4
Is the wand easy to steal or trigger accidentally like a credit card?
2:34–3:37
5
Will Cash App expand tap‑to‑pay chips to other accessories like bracelets?
3:37–4:22
6
Is the wand a strategy to grow Cash App’s business with a younger demographic?
4:22–4:42
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from KCBS Bloomberg Tech and Business Report
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