There's a hardware wallet for bitcoin in the making and here's what we know about it so far

"We have decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream...", Jesse Dorogusker, head of hardware at Square.

Bitcoin wallets can be stored offline or online at cryptocurrency exchanges, venues where bitcoin can be bought and sold for traditional currencies or other virtual coins. (REUTERS)

Square Inc will make a hardware wallet for bitcoin, the payments company confirmed in a tweet on Thursday shortly before US Senator Elizabeth Warren flagged growing risks posed to consumers and financial markets by the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin wallets can be stored offline or online at cryptocurrency exchanges, venues where bitcoin can be bought and sold for traditional currencies or other virtual coins.

With a non-custodial wallet, you have sole control of your private keys, which in turn control your cryptocurrency and prove the funds are yours. With a custodial wallet, another party controls your private keys. Most custodial wallets are web-based exchange wallets. "We have decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream...", Jesse Dorogusker, head of hardware at Square said in a Twitter thread.

We have decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream. We'll continue to ask and answer questions in the open. This community's response to our thread about this project has been awesome - encouraging, generous, collaborative, & inspiring. https://t.co/CHf9hAmKnn

— Jesse Dorogusker (@JesseDorogusker) July 8, 2021

Many companies have emerged to serve a growing need to protect their assets from online theft. Last month, Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey hinted in a tweet that the company was considering creating a non-custodial hardware wallet for bitcoin. Dorsey is also the chief executive of Twitter Inc.

Square is considering making a hardware wallet for #bitcoin. If we do it, we would build it entirely in the open, from software to hardware design, and in collaboration with the community. We want to kick off this thinking the right way: by sharing some of our guiding principles.

— jack (@jack) June 4, 2021

Cryptocurrencies reached a record capitalisation of $2 trillion in April, but US oversight of the market remains patchy. Warren, a former US presidential candidate, on Thursday raised concerns in a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, in an effort that could help lay the groundwork for legislation to regulate the fast-growing cryptocurrency market.