In an effort to show its commitment to the “future” of the Internet, Google has announced a new Blockchain Node Engine, which the company hopes will help Web3 developers build and deploy new products on blockchain-based platforms.
This follows news earlier in 2022 that the company would introduce a new Digital Assets Team to “support [its] customers’ needs in building, transacting, storing value, and deploying new products on blockchain-based platforms.”
Google Blockchain Node Engine
Because the encrypted transactions are somewhat decentralized, a node is required to validate and store data – typically a programming laptop, computer, or server.
Self-managed nodes can be complex to deploy and require constant monitoring, which Google thinks to be a major drawback to this type of technology. It hopes to resolve some of these issues with its Blockchain Node Engine.
Google plans to support Ethereum from the get-go, and it’s likely that we’ll see more blockchains rolled out as the program expands.
“Web3 companies who require dedicated nodes can relay transactions, deploy smart contracts, and read or write blockchain data with the reliability, performance, and security they expect from Google Cloud compute and network infrastructure,” a Google Cloud blog post (opens in new tab) says.
There are three key benefits that Google hopes will entice users to its Blockchain Node Engine product. Firstly, it is designed to make the process both easier and quicker than current methods. It also promises to be more secure through the use of its own Virtual Private Cloud firewall, Cloud Armor, and more.
Finally, Google is keen to sell the fact that it will be a fully managed operation. This means users can scale down the number of workers needed that would otherwise typically be dedicated to remedying outages and otherwise monitoring the nodes.