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Quick grab:
- Google Cloud has become one of the most committed companies in web3 partnerships.
- Alphabet’s cloud services unit has partnered with several blockchain companies as part of its web3 strategy.
- He has also launched a web3 accelerator and a node hosting service to promote his campaign.
Google Cloud is becoming one of the most active companies in the web3 space. The Alphabet subsidiary on Wednesday added another blockchain venture to its growing list of partners after the EVM-based one. Brillo has integrated its Blockchain API and data portal with the Google Cloud Marketplace.
But that’s not the whole story. In this article, we take a closer look at Google Cloud’s recent web3 initiatives, despite what some see as a bear market.
Google’s web3 story began to gather steam in early 2022 when reports surfaced that Google Cloud was creating a new team dedicated to blockchain initiatives.
In February, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed those reports, saying that the Google Cloud team was looking into launching new products on blockchain-based platforms. In the initial report published by CNBC, Alphabet Inc.’s cloud services unit focused on five key areas, including retail, healthcare, financial services, media, entertainment and manufacturing.
Since then, Google Cloud has partnered with multiple blockchain companies for different reasons, launched a web3 accelerator program, and launched a node operator network, among other initiatives.
Web3 initiatives announced in the last six months
Starting in September, the company partnered with Fortress Blockchain Technologies to create The Fortress Vault, an NFT database storage solution powered by Google Cloud.
At the time, Carlos Arena, Google Cloud’s director of digital assets, said the partnership was part of his company’s “broader mission to help enable the Web3 ecosystem with scalable technology and solutions that help establish trust in the community”.
October has been one of the busiest months for Google Cloud since it reasserted its position in the web3 race. Earlier this month, the cloud service provider partnered with tier 1 blockchain company NEAR to launch a web3 accelerator program. Google Cloud has taken on the task of providing technical support to NEAR grant recipients in the association.
Just a week later, the company announced a partnership with a major cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, to bring crypto payments to cloud services. The initial release only allowed a few customers to pay for cloud services using cryptocurrency, but plans for a public release were underway.
“Over time, Google will allow more customers to make cryptocurrency payments,” Amit Zavery, vice president and general manager and director of Google Cloud Platform, told CNBC last October.
Later that month, Google Cloud took a major step into the web3 space after launching a blockchain node hosting service for web3 developers. Dubbed the Blockchain Node Engine, the first blockchain to be implemented on the service was Ethereum, closely followed by Solana, and Polygon was the latest to join, as announced last month.
Google Cloud Blockchain Node Engine is a fully managed node hosting service that can minimize the need for node operators.
In November, Google Cloud partnered with the Aptos Foundation, the organization behind the Aptos Network Layer 1 blockchain, to launch a wen3 accelerator program. The cloud service provider has also agreed to power some of the Aptos Network validation nodes.
So far in 2023
In February 2023, the company joined the Tezos blockchain validation network, enabling its enterprise clients to develop web3 applications on the Tezos blockchain.
Its multifaceted partnership with Polygon, announced last week, is perhaps the biggest yet, given Polygon’s ecosystem and the multiple projects the two companies plan to collaborate on.
Its multi-year deal with Polygon also revealed 11 web3 startups had joined its accelerator program, including Celo, Alchemy, and blockchain analytics firm Nansen, among others.
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