By Devanshi Saxena
The topmost tech giants across the world are taking a keen interest in blockchain technology, all the more as it evolves into a more commercial product. Google is no different and has been venturing in the direction of building its own blockchain network.
Competition for Google
A string of startups have made the foray into the mainstream as an attempt to challenge Googles online dominance by using digital blockchain ledgers. Competing with Googles Chrome is Brave, a web browser which, instead of running targeted ads, uses blockchain technology to pay websites when people spend time on them. Another project, Presearch, is also using blockchain technology to compete with Googles search engine.
Among the tech giants, IBM and Microsoft have so far led the charge in offering blockchain-related tools and letting other companies tinker with digital ledgers using their cloud services. If the results of the WinterGreen Research are considered, the market for blockchain products and services may grow from $706 million last year to more than $60 billion in 2024. Clouds 800-pound gorilla, Amazon.com Inc., helps companies build blockchain applications, and Facebook chief, Mark Zuckerberg is looking at cryptocurrencies, encryption and other decentralised computing options.
Googles plan to use Blockchain
According to reports, Google is working to develop two Blockchain projectsa ‘tamper-proof’ auditing system and a cloud operations platform. Googles Alphabet Inc. conglomerate is focused on creating a transparent audit review platform based on blockchain technology. Originally, Google had banned all blockchain related advertisements on Google AdWords, an approach which was followed by Facebook and Twitter. However, when asked to comment on the recent developments, Google chose to maintain a diplomatic stance without giving out many details about any change to the policy. A Google spokesman was reported as saying, Like many new technologies, we have individuals in various teams exploring potential uses of blockchain but its way too early for us to speculate about any possible uses or plans.
On being asked about the Googles recent venture into the world of blockchain technology, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior vice president of ads and commerce, said that the company was researching the technology but had no official product announcements to make. “This is a research topic, so I don’t have anything super-definitive to say. We have a small team that is looking at it. The core blockchain technology is not something that is super-scalable in terms of the sheer number of transactions it can run,” he said.
The frictionless nature of blockchain technology makes it ideal for money transfer applications. If Google begins to experiment with the technology the reward for the company would be substantial.