It looks like the Thanksgiving gift before Thanksgiving.
Alphabet (GOOGL), through its subsidiary Google, has just offered the crypto industry a dream support for the young industry which has redoubled its efforts in recent months to push for its adoption by the masses.
Google now accepts cryptocurrency payments for its cloud computing services.
Google Cloud will allow companies, developers of web3 projects to pay with a basket of digital currencies offered by Coinbase (COIN) via its Coinbase Commerce service. Indeed, this decision is part of a partnership with the crypto platform which is the only public platform offering to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase Commerce is part of the diversification of the firm. It allows businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments and bill their customers in ten of the most popular cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ether, Tether USD, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, USD coin, Litecoin, DAI and Apecoin.
Google Cloud will initially allow a small core of companies in the crypto sphere to pay in cryptocurrencies via Coinbase Commerce. In a second step, the Internet giant will offer this option to a greater number of firms.
The service will be effective from 2023.
Good Deal for Coinbase
"As part of the partnership, Coogle Cloud is positioned to enable select customers, starting with those in the Web3 ecosystem, to pay for its cloud services via select cryptocurrencies," the companies said in a joint press release."Powered by Coinbase Commerce-which enables merchants globally to accept cryptocurrency payments in a decentralized way-the new payments experience will benefit Google Cloud's customers and partners by increasing the optionality of payments for Google Cloud services."
The web3 is the somewhat fuzzy term for the latest iteration of the internet which will replace the current internet or web2. It is seen as a decentralized internet, in which consumers and users will regain control of their data. The big tech made up of Google and Meta will no longer be the central authorities of the internet.
The partnership with Google is a good news for Coinbase, because it could attract a large number of firms to the platform wishing to take advantage of the Google ecosystem.
Coinbase should also collect a commission on transactions.
Google and Coinbase did not disclose the financial terms of the partnership.
"We are excited Google Cloud has selected Coinbase to help bring Web3 to a new set of users and provide powerful solutions to developers," said Brian Armstrong, Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase. "With more than 100 million verified users and 14,500 institutional clients, Coinbase has spent more than a decade building industry-leading products on top of blockchain technology."
In addition, the new partners have hinted that they will be able to extend their partnership. Google plans to use the Coinbase Prime service, that securely stores organizations’ cryptocurrencies and allows them to trade.
"Google will use Coinbase Prime, for institutional crypto services, like secure custody and reporting, the companies said.
For Google, this partnership is an opportunity to catch up with its two main competitors in the cloud - Amazon via Amazon Web services (AWS) and Microsoft with Azure - that dominate the cloud industry.
Risky Bet
Coinbase will transfer its data-related applications from AWS to Google. Neither AWS nor Azure currently offer the option to pay in cryptocurrency. Google Services, which is Alphabet's play to reduce its dependence on advertising revenue, is growing. While its market share is only 9%, it is increasing.
By embracing the crypto industry, the Mountain View giant is betting that the sector that wants to replace traditional financial services and reinvent the codes of the internet will allow it to catch up. And above all, Google will appear to be the place to go for developers of apps and projects in the crypto galaxy, which includes cryptocurrencies, web3 and the metaverse.
"We're proud Coinbase has chosen Google Cloud as its strategic cloud partner, and we're ready to serve the thriving global Web3 customer and partner ecosystem," said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. "Our focus is making it frictionless for all customers to take advantage of our scalability, reliability, security, and data services, so they can focus on innovation in the Web3 space."
Adventure in the crypto sphere comes with risks, however. Prices are very volatile. The cryptocurrency market has lost more than $2 trillion since its all-time high of $3 trillion reached last November, according to CoinGecko.
