Square Publishing

Really interesting bit of insight from Jack Dorsey regarding the future of Square over at Technology Review. Apparently he envisions receipts as having far more potential than most would give them:

Typically we get a receipt and throw it away already [but] you can treat receipts as a publishing channel between the merchant and the payer.

Square, to us, is about that communication channel. It's about that exchange of value. Payment is what we have to do to get to that interesting communication channel between merchant and payer.

While that may sound fairly vague on the surface it's pretty easy to imagine a customized slip at any checkout that gives you some statistical information on your purchases there. You could extrapolate even further and imagine something like the merging of your typical receipt and a simplified Feltron report, or a crossover with Twitter based on geolocation, content and other meals you may enjoy at the same vendor. Lots of potential there and I'm consistently impressed by Dorsey's ability to imagine where these things might go.