Google Cloud takes cryptocurrency seriously and is focused on developing blockchain-based applications to expand its business into new areas.
The tech giant has announced the creation of a dedicated digital assets team within its cloud division. This aims to “support the needs of customers to create, transact, store value and deploy new products on blockchain-based platforms”.
Google says it seeks to help enterprises build secure and sustainable infrastructure at scale.
“Blockchain is a source of innovation and value creation”
“As an infrastructure provider, Google Cloud views the evolution of blockchain technology and decentralized networks today as analogous to the rise of open source and the internet 10 to 15 years ago,” writes Yolande Piazza, vice president of financial services at Google Cloud, on the company’s blog.
“Just as open source developments were integral to the early days of the internet, blockchain is a source of innovation and value creation for consumers and businesses. As the technology becomes more mainstream, businesses will need a scalable and secure infrastructure on which to grow their business and support their networks. »
The new team will focus on several topics related to building a stable blockchain infrastructure. These include allowing users to deploy blockchain validators on Google Cloud with a single click and helping developers and users host their nodes on the cloud.
Additionally, Google plans to host several public datasets on Marketplace, including transaction history for popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, and Dogecoin. Google is also considering allowing cloud customers to make and receive payments using cryptocurrencies.
A booming market
While this is Google Cloud’s first step towards blockchain, Google itself has been positioning itself on blockchain-related topics for quite some time now. For example, the web giant entered into separate partnerships with Coinbase and Bakkt last year to allow its customers to use cryptocurrencies through Google Pay.
More tech companies are looking to expand their blockchain offerings as the market grows and becomes more popular. As a result, experts predict that 90% of the world’s population will adopt cryptocurrencies within the next ten years.
Over the past year, the cryptocurrency market has grown from $1.44 billion in 2020 to $1.63 billion in 2021.
Source: ZDNet.com