# Google Cloud in Web3. 

By [Van Assen](https://paragraph.com/@vanassen) · 2022-11-17

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Taking a few minutes to document as much as I can about what Google Cloud has done in the blockchain/web3.0 space. About half of the developments have happened this year- giving people the bullish impression that Google is finally saying yes to crypto. However, Google Cloud made their first step into the space almost 6 years ago…

**2018: At the beginning of 2018, Google Cloud announces it’s entry into support for DLT, HyperLedger Tech, and Ethereum in it’s Next ‘18 Newsletter.**

Google Cloud forms partnerships corporate entities with BlockApps and Digital Asset to provide infrastructure to clients looking for crypto payment/ blockchain solutions. I am not sure where these partnerships ended up; however, both entities are still solvent and look like they provide unique solutions for onboarding new customers to the space. See links below.

(March 2018, Google announced it would block all cryptocurrency related by June 2018; in July 2018, Sergey Brin announced at the Blockchain Summit in Morocco that he was an Ethereum miner. Interesting.)

**2/2020- Google Cloud joins Hedera Hashgraph Governance Council and begins operating a node.**

GCP joins the likes of Boeing (and later Telekom and Ubisoft) to become one of what will eventually be 39 members on the HH Council. Hedera had been using GCP services from the starting line.

“The Google Cloud Platform was the perfect foundation to help us achieve our goals to bring enterprise-ready DLT adoption at scale.” - Atul Mahamuni, SVP of Products for Hedera.

**5/2020- Google Cloud joins Theta Labs Enterprise Validator Program.**

Google joins Binance, Blockchain Ventures, and Gumi in Theta’s Validator Program. For those who didn’t know, Theta runs a blockchain for video streaming. Obviously, an entity like Theta could benefit from GCP’s addition to decentralized bandwidth; however, Google also sees potential in ThetaLabs.

“Distributed ledger technology enables new business models that potentially transform the global digital economy, including the media & entertainment industry,” said Allen Day, Developer Advocate for Google Cloud. “We’re impressed by Theta’s achievements in blockchain video and data delivery.”

Let’s not forget that Google owns Youtube, the most popular centralized streaming platform in the world, by far. So what’s the drive to get into decentralized video streaming?

**1/22- Google launches dedicated digital asset team.**

In response to the growing demand for crypto payment support, Google Cloud launches it’s first dedicated “Digital Asset Team,” designed to be a chain/ network agnostic team ready to -

“support our customers’ needs in building, transacting, storing value, and deploying new products on blockchain-based platforms. This new team will enable our customers to accelerate their efforts in this emerging space and help underpin the blockchain ecosystems of tomorrow,” as well as providing the following services, and supporting the listed blockchain networks-

![See source below. ](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4bdecf6266ebf6a1a717ae3653ced96a0822acfae75571c1953b824aa8ddbe53.png)

See source below.

**5/22- Google Cloud forms “web3 development team.”**

In both tandem and juxtapose to the “digital asset team,” the web3 development team inside Google Cloud will focus on helping and providing support to web3 d’app developers that have a broader scope than just “digital assets/payments.” The team will be led by James Troman, and, according to Amit Zavery, VP, of Google Cloud, the mission of the team is to **“Providing technologies for companies to use and take advantage of the distributed nature of Web3 in their current businesses and enterprises.”**

**9/22 Binance Chain and Google Cloud form partnership.**

![Source Below (BNBchain.com)](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/52b1e603e10c982750576e1821b71fff2484bcc6206445f3131edde61262cfa3.png)

Source Below (BNBchain.com)

James Troman, previously mentioned leader of the GC’s web3 development team, said this about the partership. “We look forward to collaborating with BNB Chain to provide Web3 builders with the cleanest cloud infrastructure on which to develop and scale their applications. This builds on our [existing work](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/financial-services/google-cloud-launches-dedicated-digital-asset-team) to support our customers’ needs in developing, transacting, storing value, and deploying new products on blockchain-based platforms.”

![Source below (BNB) ](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/77e05357b9093fa2e5814abf4254048343740c74607a469765eceacecfe71ced.png)

Source below (BNB)

**10/22- Google forms partnership with Near Protocol’s parent grant company Pagoda.**

GC will essentially began providing cloud support between Pagoda, Near’s web3 development startup, and Near Protocol’s RPC. This relationship will support NEAR developers with grants and infrastructure necessary build out web3 infrastructure.

CEO of NEAR, Marieke Flament said this: “_We are thrilled to partner with those who pioneered the Internet as we know it. This partnership marks a new chapter for our company as we continue to offer the best support possible for the next generation of visionaries who will choose to build on the NEAR protocol.”_

**10/22- Google Cloud partners with Coinbase to allow crypto payments for select customers.**

Google cloud will begin accepting payments from select customers, through Coinbase infrastructure, in **BTC, ETH,** and **DOGE.**

Although the fact that another retail or service vendor will accept one of the big 3 cryptos is not huge news, there is the nuanced fact that the biggest web service provider accepting these digital assets for their service, not only show a legitimacy to the currencies, but also show that Google Cloud is hunting for crypto native companies o to provide service for; as crypto natives would be the likely client to pay for web services with cryptocurrency.

Coinbase also makes Google Cloud their web service provider, terminating their previous relationship with Amazon Web Services.

**10/22 Google Parent company concludes antitrust lawsuit from Department of Justice by agreeing to upgrade and add stricter compliance policies when faced with subpoenas and search warrants from DOJ.**

The case of BTC-e deserves it’s own paper. Quick summary, and I encourage you to read more articles, or my future work on this subject.

Essentially, the results from this on going legal case, was that Google was ordered to to maintain stricter and more effecient compliance policies regarding DOH subpoenas and warrants. Google has so far spent about $90 million on infrastructure and staffing to meet this requirement.

The requirement comes after Google admitting to losing vital information regarding a “serious criminal investigation” into BTC-e activities. This admission came after an attempt by Google to withhold this information from the DOJ based on the fact it concerned overseas activities. Google faced no additional penalties.

**10/22 Google opens Blockchain Node Engine Service.**

In Google’s latest move, they begin fully managing Ethereum nodes as part of their web3 development service.

![Source below (Google.)](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/83d2350139b56283bf11c1923cc89c9e3161ea549fdb279f2992200ab80edca0.png)

Source below (Google.)

Essentially, Google Cloud with host and manage full Ethereum nodes for web 3 developers; taking out the tedious task of teams managing the nodes by hand, while giving them the benefit of full node access to run relays and deploy smart contracts cheap, convenient, and locally.

Blockchain Node Engine will began with running Ethereum nodes only.

![Source below (Google).](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/bbf4ebbd16a53bc5bc58a60e368f3eb5af6ceeff9e9261977ef224ae1913fb40.png)

Source below (Google).

Google joins web3? Sounds to me like Google **_is_** web3. We obviously owe a lot of recent development to Google Cloud’s platform; however, where does this leave decentralization???

Source Materials:

[https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/near-partners-with-google-cloud-to-accelerate-web3-startups-2905673](https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/near-partners-with-google-cloud-to-accelerate-web3-startups-2905673)

[https://blockapps.net/](https://blockapps.net/)

[https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/23/17602762/google-cloud-blockchain-digital-asset-blockapps](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/23/17602762/google-cloud-blockchain-digital-asset-blockapps)

[https://www.ledgerinsights.com/google-cloud-enterprise-nodes-blockchain-video-network-theta/](https://www.ledgerinsights.com/google-cloud-enterprise-nodes-blockchain-video-network-theta/)

[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-cloud-joins-hedera-hashgraph-150052071.html](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-cloud-joins-hedera-hashgraph-150052071.html)

[https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/financial-services/google-cloud-launches-dedicated-digital-asset-team](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/financial-services/google-cloud-launches-dedicated-digital-asset-team)

[https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/06/googles-cloud-group-forms-web3-product-and-engineering-team.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/06/googles-cloud-group-forms-web3-product-and-engineering-team.html)

[https://www.bnbchain.org/en/blog/bnb-chain-and-google-cloud-collaborate-to-accelerate-the-growth-of-web3/](https://www.bnbchain.org/en/blog/bnb-chain-and-google-cloud-collaborate-to-accelerate-the-growth-of-web3/)

[https://www.tronweekly.com/google-cloud-and-near-protocol-collaborate/#:~:text=Google%20Cloud%20to%20power%20Near%20developers%20NEAR%20has,between%20300%2C000%20and%20400%2C000%20transactions%20happen%20every%20day.](https://www.tronweekly.com/google-cloud-and-near-protocol-collaborate/#:~:text=Google%20Cloud%20to%20power%20Near%20developers%20NEAR%20has,between%20300%2C000%20and%20400%2C000%20transactions%20happen%20every%20day.)

[https://www.investopedia.com/google-partners-coinbase-6749264](https://www.investopedia.com/google-partners-coinbase-6749264)

[https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/doj-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/doj-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google.html)

[https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure-modernization/introducing-blockchain-node-engine](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure-modernization/introducing-blockchain-node-engine)

[https://digital-asset.ltd/](https://digital-asset.ltd/)

[https://hedera.com/learning/hedera-hashgraph](https://hedera.com/learning/hedera-hashgraph)

[https://www.trustnodes.com/2022/10/27/doj-leaves-google-off-the-hook-for-deleting-btc-e-data](https://www.trustnodes.com/2022/10/27/doj-leaves-google-off-the-hook-for-deleting-btc-e-data)

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*Originally published on [Van Assen](https://paragraph.com/@vanassen/google-cloud-in-web3)*