Block Joins the Kotlin Foundation

Block is proud to announce that we’re joining the Kotlin Foundation as a member. This membership formalizes our long-standing commitment to the Kotlin programming language and the vibrant community around it.

Why Kotlin Matters to Block

Kotlin has been central to Block’s mobile development strategy for years. Across Square, Cash App, and our other products, Kotlin powers the Android experiences that millions of people use every day.

We chose Kotlin because it delivers on the promise of modern, expressive, and safe programming:

• Concise and readable code that’s easier to write and maintain
• Null safety that eliminates entire classes of bugs
• Coroutines that make asynchronous programming intuitive
• Multiplatform capabilities that let us share code across platforms
• Excellent tooling with first-class IDE support

But beyond the technical benefits, we value Kotlin’s commitment to open source and community-driven development.

Our History with Kotlin

Block’s relationship with Kotlin goes back years:

• We were early adopters of Kotlin for Android development
• Our engineers have contributed to Kotlin libraries and tools
• We’ve shared our experiences and best practices through blog posts and conference talks
• We’ve built open source libraries that extend Kotlin’s capabilities

Projects like OkHttp, Retrofit, and Moshi are all designed to work seamlessly with Kotlin’s features.

What the Foundation Membership Means

By joining the Kotlin Foundation, we’re committing to:

Supporting Kotlin’s Development

We’ll contribute resources to help guide Kotlin’s evolution, ensuring it continues to meet the needs of modern application development.

Fostering the Community

We’ll support Kotlin community initiatives, events, and educational programs that help developers learn and grow.

Contributing to the Ecosystem

We’ll continue building and maintaining open source libraries that make Kotlin development more productive and enjoyable.

Promoting Kotlin Adoption

We’ll share our experiences and advocate for Kotlin as a powerful choice for mobile and backend development.

The Broader Open Source Context

This announcement is part of Block’s comprehensive approach to open source:

• Our Open Source Program Office coordinates our open source strategy
• We’ve joined the Open Source Initiative as a sponsor
• We’re founding members of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA)
• We maintain dozens of open source projects used by millions of developers

The Kotlin Foundation membership strengthens our commitment to the languages and tools that power modern software development.

What’s Next

As a Kotlin Foundation member, we’re excited to:

• Participate in technical discussions about Kotlin’s future
• Support the development of Kotlin Multiplatform
• Contribute to Kotlin’s tooling and infrastructure
• Help grow the Kotlin community globally

Join the Kotlin Community

If you’re interested in Kotlin, there are many ways to get involved:

• Check out the official Kotlin website
• Join the Kotlin Slack community
• Contribute to Kotlin on GitHub
• Explore Block’s open source Kotlin projects

We’re proud to support Kotlin and look forward to contributing to its continued success.

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Want to work with Kotlin at Block? Check out our open positions.