Yes, Square has finally gotten NFC religion.

Jack Dorsey, Square’s founder, disclosed in an interview with The New York Times a few days ago that, indeed, Square will unveil NFC functionality, although he offered no release date. Dorsey said only that, “We have committed to making sure our sellers are empowered to make every sale. As we see more attention on NFC in this country, that will be more and more the case.”

Well, as they said, that’ll cost ya. Reconfiguring Square for NFC has its costs, and reports have Square already bleeding cash. The last report on Square’s burn rate, last spring, reported that Square apparently lost $100 million in 2013 on $300 million of revenue, and that over “the past three years, the startup has consumed more than half of the roughly $340 million it has raised from at least four rounds of equity financing since 2009.” The company has now raised just over $590 million, according to Crunchbase.

And now Dorsey has raised the NFC flag. This comes just as ShopKeep, a Square competitor, announced that it will give away — yes, you read that right — NFC equipment. What is interesting about the announcement is that ShopKeep already charges its customers $259 per NFC kit, so even taking into account a markup of, say, 30%, the equipment most likely costs around $180 each.

Now that Square wants to facilitate NFC transactions, will the company pay the $180 per client or will it force its clients to shoulder the cost? The last count for Square merchant customers was 2 million, and that was in 2012, when it processed around $6 billion of transactions. Presumably, Square has more merchant clients today, since it is expected to process around $30 billion this year. Even if but a share of Square merchants want NFC capabilities, say 1 million of them, the equipment costs might be around $180 million. That’s money.

Interestingly, Square has been resisting NFC since 2011. I came across a 2011 Square presentation and the No. 1 potential “concerns and responses” (see Slide 17) to the Square business plan was “NFC will take over credit card use.” To this, Square’s presentation counters that “Credit cards [are] too ingrained in daily life to become outdated in the near future.” “Outdated”? Perhaps not, but the day has come when investment in NFC is required (predicated by Apple Pay, of course). The question is, by Square or its customers? Or both?