Google is gaining momentum in cryptocurrencies. Already the world’s leading investor in the sector, with 1.5 billion dollars injected into several companies (Dapper Labs, Voltage, Fireblocks, etc.) between September 2021 and June 2022 according to the firm Blockdata, the American giant announced this Tuesday, October 11 a partnership with Coinbase at Google Cloud’s Next ’22 annual conference.
This alliance will allow Google to rely on Coinbase to accept payments with certain cryptocurrencies in order to access its cloud services via the Coinbase Commerce service. Initially, a handful of customers, starting with those in the Web3 ecosystem, will have this possibility at the beginning of 2023. They will be able to pay with bitcoin, ethereum or even litecoin, which are among the ten crypto currencies supported by Coinbase Commerce. Google is also considering using Coinbase Prime, a cryptocurrency storage and exchange service for businesses.
Google Cloud struggles with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure
At the same time, Coinbase will rely on Google’s cloud infrastructure to develop its data platform. Consequently, applications hosted on Amazon Web Services, a Coinbase partner for several years, will have to be moved to Google Cloud.
In the second quarter of 2022, the cloud subsidiary of the Mountain View firm achieved a turnover of 6.3 billion dollars, up 36% over one year. But to compete with industry leaders Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, Google’s cloud arm has widened its losses in a year, with $858 million dropped over three years, compared to $591 million in the same period in 2021.