Have you ever wanted to wave a magic wand at something and make it yours? Well, now you can, so long as you have enough money in your debit account to pay for it.
Cash App, the digital payments service operated by Block, has offered its users the ability to use free physical cards since 2017. Now, anyone with a Cash App card can pay $25 to turn that card into a pearlescent, sparkly magic wand. Anywhere you can use tap-to-pay with your phone or card, you’ll be able to buy something with a tap of the wand instead.
The wand is a whimsical way to introduce Cash App Tags, the company’s new hardware product. Tags are NFC-enabled physical devices that will eventually come in an array of shapes and sizes. They don’t have to connect via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. To link one to a Cash App account, you can just hold the device to the back of a phone, and it will link the wand to the account. (You’ll need to register a Cash App card first.) Then, the wand works like a debit card. Albeit a much more fanciful one that can be clipped to a keychain like a charm bracelet.
Courtesy of Cash App
Making a statement about your payments seems to be the point here. Thomas Templeton, Block’s hardware lead, says that while digital payments have made buying things quicker and simpler, they’ve also made the purchasing process quieter, almost invisible. He thinks buying something should be fun—a conversation starter. Even Cash App’s cards, which he says people just keep in their pockets 90 percent of the time, aren’t flashy enough. The goal of the wand is to keep the payment tool “top of wallet.”
“At Cash App, we think payment should be just the opposite,” Templeton says. “It should be visible. It should be fun. And social and expressive.”
What a Wanderful World
I got a chance to wave the wand around to buy stuff for a couple of days. The product definitely works and grabs people’s attention. “Do whatever makes you happy,” the cashier at a coffee shop told me when I asked to pay with the wand.
My wand was declined trying to buy a bag of gummy bears at a smoke shop, but that’s only because my card hadn’t been properly set up yet. Once I got things going, I was able to tap the wand to pay for coffee, some Taco Bell, and a beer after work. (OK fine, during work. You got me.) I’ve paid my fare on San Francisco’s Muni trains, tapping the wand and watching the entry gates part before me. For just $2.85, I felt like Gandalf.
“It’s just fun,” Templeton says. “Less from a Cash App business perspective, and more from a user perspective, it’s just delightful and fun and whimsical, and people like that.”