After growing in retail, healthcare and other industries, Google's cloud division has formed a new team to build a business based on blockchain applications.
Analysts say the move, if successful, will help Google diversify its advertising business. It will also further strengthen Google's position in the growing market for computing and storage services.
Blockchain proponents often talk about building “decentralized” applications that cut out large intermediaries. Let's take DeFi (decentralized finance) as an example. The latter aims to eliminate intermediaries such as banks from traditional financial transactions.
DeFi is helping so-called “smart contracts” replace banks and lawyers. This contract is written on a public blockchain. Therefore, when certain conditions are met, the system is executed, eliminating the need for an intermediary.
This idea of "decentralized" applications has become more popular among many technologists. They present Web 3 as a decentralized version of the Internet separate from Web 2.0.
At present, Amazon, Google and other cloud computing providers use extensive facilities to provide computing services to millions of customers, which is a kind of centralization. But that hasn't stopped Google from trying to capitalize on the opportunity.
Richard Widmann, head of digital asset strategy at Google's cloud division, said today that the division plans to hire a group of employees with blockchain expertise. “We think that if we do our job right, it will promote decentralization,” he said.
Google Cloud knows how to run a business
The Google Cloud Marketplace already offers tools that developers can use to build blockchain networks. In addition, Google has several blockchain clients, including Dapper Labs, Hedera, Theta Labs, and some digital exchanges. In addition, Google provides data sets that people can view using the BigQuery service to view transaction history for bitcoin and other currencies.
Now, according to Widman, Google is considering providing certain types of services directly to developers in the blockchain space. “There are things we can do to reduce the friction some customers have about paying for a centralized cloud using cryptocurrencies,” he said. He also added that “funds and other organizations involved in the development of digital assets are mainly capitalized in cryptocurrencies.”
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Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian identified retail, healthcare and three other industries as target areas. Since customers in these areas prefer to use blockchain technology, Google can help.
However, we should note that other cloud service providers are also focusing too much on the crypto business. Although none of them, except Google, has announced the creation of a blockchain business group.
