Tech giant Google announced on Tuesday (11) that it intends to accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment for some services. According to the company, the integration will take place through a partnership with the Coinbase exchange. According to the announcement, Coinbase will provide infrastructure so that Google customers can pay for the services with cryptocurrencies. Starting in 2023, the service will be open to some Google Cloud users. In exchange for exclusivity, Coinbase will migrate its servers to Google Cloud. The agreement involving cryptocurrency payments could be a significant step in cryptocurrency adoption. In fact, it represents a large membership, as Google has a presence in all technologies and has a huge user base.
Cryptocurrency payments through Coinbase
The announcement of the partnership took place at the Cloud Next conference, held annually by Google. The conference serves for the company to announce news in its cloud services. Therefore, it is the ideal stage for the confirmation of a bombastic partnership. According to the announcement, Google intends to select a few people from the Google Cloud customer base. Then, those selected will receive the option of payment with cryptocurrencies in their accounts. Google has not revealed which cryptocurrencies it intends to make available as payment. But it is almost certain that the two biggest on the market – Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) – will be the first to be on the list Amit Zavery, a Google executive, said that this is the first step, as a test for the function. After the company makes the necessary adjustments, Google plans to expand the feature to all Google Cloud users. “The Google Cloud Platform infrastructure service will initially accept cryptocurrency payments from a handful of customers in the Web3 world who want to pay with cryptocurrency,” Zavery said. Finally, the executive added that Google tried out cryptocurrency payment products from several other companies before choosing Coinbase.
Coinbase Operations Now on Google Cloud
On the other hand, this could be a great opportunity for Coinbase to further expand its user base to institutions. The Google deal comes at a time when the cryptocurrency exchange is actively engaged in expanding operations beyond the US. Also on Tuesday, Coinbase obtained a license to carry out digital payment token services from the central bank of Singapore. This development in the South Asian country adds to its active operations in several European countries. Thanks to this deal, Coinbase said it will now transfer its cloud operations from Google to Amazon. However, Coinbase executive Jim Migdal said the company will move data-related apps to Google as part of the deal. Interestingly, Google has an ambiguous stance towards cryptocurrencies. Accepting them as a means of payment is a milestone, but the company often bans ads related to this market. For example, the company often cuts the reach of YouTube videos that talk about cryptocurrencies. Additionally, Google banned cryptocurrency ads in 2018, amidst the ICO boom. That is, the company seems to be changing its stance and accepting the revolution brought about by BTC.
