Google Selects Coinbase Commerce to Process Crypto Payments for Cloud Services
The Internet giant Alphabet, parent company of Google, selected Coinbase Commerce to integrate cryptocurrency payments for Google Cloud. This payment option will be available to Web3 customers as early as next year.
Coinbase Commerce enables merchants to accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, DAI, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Shiba Inu, Tether, USD Coin, and Apecoin as payment. Merchants can also quickly swap between the cryptocurrencies that they accept as payments.
Google announced its intention to use Coinbase Prime, a solution that offers custody services and access to trading tools across the digital asset ecosystem rather than simply relying on Coinbase’s primary exchange.
Google also plans to use Coinbase Node to help provide services for Web3 developers. Coinbase Node offers developer tools for access to blockchains. Web3 developers will be able to integrate Coinbase’s BigQuery crypto datasets from within Google Cloud.
Coinbase will move some of its data-related applications from Amazon Web Services to Google Cloud as part of the deal between Google and Coinbase.
Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong shared some of the details about the new strategic partnership at Google Cloud Next.
Google Cloud’s products includes solutions for computing, storage, networking, AI and Machine Learning, database and data analytics, and developer tools. It boasts about serving customers in more than 200 countries and territories.
What are people saying about this deal?
Of course, it would be tempting to ask: Why not just go straight to the source instead of going through a third party like Coinbase Node? Popular blockchains for building decentralized apps, like Ethereum, Solana, and BNB chain already have their own tools for dApp developers, don’t they? And how decentralized is an app that uses Google Cloud anyway?
Investment firm Oppenheimer’s senior analyst, Owen Lau, called the deal “validation” for the digital asset industry.
“Many crypto-native companies will go after these white-labeling paths, which is to provide the back-end crypto technology surfaces to traditional players so that they can expand their TAM,” he said in an appearance on Coindesk TV. Lau described Coinbase as “more [of] a digital assets enabler rather than a pure-play crypto exchange.”
Oppenheimer currently has a “buy” rating for Coinbase stock (NASDAQ:COIN), which surged on the news of the deal with Google. It is currently trading at around $70.
Calaxy CEO Solo Ceesay called it “just a matter of time” before other big tech companies jump on board, though he didn’t miss a chance to plug the Hedera Governing Council.
While Google isn’t the first big online company to flirt with crypto payments, Alphabet is one of the biggest companies to get its feet wet. It made the Fortune 500’s Top 10 list for the first time in 2020.
(P.S. Somebody at Blockworks found out that you can now easily find the current balance of crypto addresses by searching for an address you’re curious about on Google.)
