Tech giant Google continues to take steps towards integrating more blockchain capabilities
Google's cloud computing division, Google Cloud, is now participating in the block production validation of the Solana blockchain, the company recently announced, thus becoming one of the network's validators.
https://twitter.com/googlecloud/status/1588912775291609093
Google Cloud and Solana
In addition to becoming a validator for Solana, the link between the two will allow Google Cloud to integrate its node hosting services, the Blockchain Node Engine, into the network. Currently, the service for Google Cloud blockchain nodes is available for the Ethereum network, and from 2023, Solana will be integrated.
With such integration to its node service, Google Cloud will seek to make it easy for anyone to run a Solana node stored in the cloud. Finally, the firm is also adding data from the Solana network to its serverless data warehouse platform, BigQuery, with the intention of allowing developers to access historical data.
https://twitter.com/googlecloud/status/1588927896911069184
After Google Cloud announced that it would offer a product called "Blockchain Node Engine" and further noted that Ethereum would be the first supported blockchain, the company revealed that it was running a Solana validator on November 5, 2022. Google said that the The cloud division is currently working with Solana to bring the company's Blockchain Node Engine to the Solana chain.
Google is operating a Solana validator that produces blocks, the company's cloud division aims to add Solana to Blockchain Node Engine supported blockchains in 2023
Google is moving towards other blockchains after revealing the Blockchain Node Engine in late October. According to a tweet from the official Google Cloud Twitter account, the company is already running a Solana validator. “Google Cloud is running a block-producing [Solana] validator to participate and validate the network,” the company tweeted.
In addition to bringing Blockchain Node Engine support to Solana, Google Cloud will index the Solana blockchain and bring the data into "Big Query" next year. The goal is "to make it easier for the Solana developer ecosystem to access historical data." Solana's native token solana (SOL) rose in value with the announcement and SOL is up 7.8% against the US dollar this week.
However, not everyone was enthusiastic about Google's mission to host Solana nodes in the cloud. "This is not good. More and more centralization. This is like the opposite of crypto," criticized one person in the Google Cloud announcement thread on Twitter. Another individual agreed with the person's criticism, responding: “Crypto was completely phased out in 2017. People now celebrate centralized and escrow services because it makes the number go up.”