Google Cloud partners with the Tezos Foundation

Google Cloud announced its splash to Web3 and blockchain in the first half of 2022. Ramsey Cardy—Sports File for Web Summit/Getty Images

Google Cloud has once again added to its growing list of Web3 partnerships.

The tech giant’s cloud computing arm announced Wednesday that it will partner with the Tezos Foundation, the nonprofit that promotes the use and development of the Tezos blockchain, which is used by major organizations such as video game developer Ubisoft, consulting firm Deloitte, and even the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

The pairing will see Google Cloud become a Tezos validator – one of the entities that help maintain the blockchain – and will see the company help enterprise customers develop Web3 applications on Tezos. Like other validators (“bakers” in Tezos parlance), Google Cloud is eligible to receive transaction fees, but a spokesperson for the cloud service provider said the company will waive the fees.

Mason Edwards, chief commercial officer at the Tezos Foundation and a former Google employee himself, added that startups developing Tezos applications will be eligible to receive free Google Cloud server space and mentorship from the tech titan.

“It’s a very strong signal to both institutional and independent developers that we’re a supported chain, we’re going to be here for a while,” he said Fortune.

Google Cloud’s support for Tezos comes as rival Amazon Web Services has pursued its own partnerships with other blockchain foundations and labs. Google’s push into Web3 can also be seen as an attempt to stay on the technological frontier at a time when critics have suggested it has been flat-footed in response to the challenge from OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“Google Cloud sees the development of blockchain technology and decentralized networks today as analogous to the rise of open source technology that led to the Internet 10 to 15 years ago,” said James Tromans, director of Web3 engineering at Google Cloud. Fortune in a statement. “Just as open source development was integral to the early days of the internet, blockchain enables innovation and value creation for consumers and businesses.”

Google Cloud’s public commitment to Web3 is relatively recent. In the first half of 2022, just as the crypto bear market was in full swing, it announced the formation of its own digital assets and Web3 team. Later in the year, it unveiled its “Blockchain Node Engine,” a streamlined method for developers to access and use blockchains on Google’s servers.

Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine currently only supports the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, but the cloud computing provider has also announced partnerships with Aptos, another blockchain, and BNB Chain, which was created by Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Google’s cloud computing arm also said it has partnered with Coinbase, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, to allow a subset of its customers to pay for cloud services with cryptocurrency.

In reference to Google, said Edwards, chief commercial officer at Tezos Fortune: “They’re making sure that, in the next kind of infrastructure play that happens, they have the strongest players on their side to make sure they don’t miss anything.”