Digital payment provider Square has been granted a critical patent application that will allow merchants to accept cryptocurrencies as payments. The patent, which was published on August 21st, will make it incredibly easy for merchants to accept, and sell, cryptocurrency used for payments by customers.

The patent was first filed in September of 2017 and is a huge step forward for Square’s cryptocurrency ventures.

The patent reads in part:

“The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for a payment service capable of accepting a greater diversity of currencies…including virtual currencies including cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ether, etc.)…than a traditional payment system in a transaction between a customer and a merchant, and specifically for a payment service to solve or ameliorate problems germane to transactions with such currencies. Specifically, the payment service described herein can facilitate real-time (or substantially real-time) transactions, allowing a customer to pay in any currency of their choice, while the merchant can receive payment in a currency of their choice.”

The new cryptocurrency payment system will also utilize a process that eliminates the long transaction processing times that are associated with cryptocurrency transactions. By using a POS system, Square can process a crypto payment in the same, or less, amount of time as a credit or debit card transaction. The system will maintain a private blockchain that tracks crypto transactions, identifying the transacting wallet balances before the public blockchain sees the changes, which allows for the quick transfer of cryptocurrencies between Square managed crypto wallets.

There, of course, is no guarantee that Square will utilize this patent anytime in the near future, but the company is very warm to the idea of adding cryptocurrencies to their accepted currencies list, and the CEO, Jack Dorsey, is a notable Bitcoin advocate. Dorsey has told Square shareholders that Bitcoin is a “transformational technology” and has publically said that he believes that Bitcoin could become the internet’s native currency, saying:

“The internet deserves a native currency. It will have a native currency. I don’t know if it will be Bitcoin or not. I hope it will be bitcoin.”

Square’s stock (SQ) was trading up nearly 6% at the time of writing, trading at $85.4 per share.