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Have you taken advantage of the new currency? Of course PayPal has been around for some time, but how soon before we can conduct transactions on our iPhone? The day has arrived.

Now, thanks to Square (co-founded by Jim McKlevey and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey), we can process credit card payments with iPhones and computer scanners.

“In February 2009, Jim McKelvey wasn’t able to sell a piece of his glass art because he couldn’t accept a credit card as payment. Even though a majority of payments have moved to plastic cards, accepting payments from cards is still difficult, requiring long applications, expensive hardware, and an overly complex experience. Square was born a few days later right next to the old San Francisco US Mint.” Source: CrunchBase

Freelancers and small business owners are no longer hobbled by bureaucracy and expense. The iPhone’s portability and touchscreen seems ideal for transactions where immediacy is a key sales component. Smaller-ticket items are immediately handled, tracked and policed by credit card companies and software within seconds. And the customer walks away immediately satsified.

Despite the initial security concerns, democratizing technologies like Square are leveling the playing field for modern marketers.

Check out CrunchBase for a various video demonstrations.

A Guest Post by Michael Mitchell:

As an senior consumer trends analyst and consultant, Mike Mitchell has profiled and reported on emerging consumer trends throughout the globe. From people raising urban chickens for eggs to bolster the local food movement to the emergence of colored beers like electric green and fluorescent blue, he has continually unlocked some of the deepest and most fascinating forms of modern consumer behavior.  His interests lie primarily in crowd behavior and crowd intelligence, as well as consumer sentiment, sector blending,  the irrationality of buying and Gen Y trends.