Google LLC’s cloud division is forming a new team that will focus on the Web3 ecosystem.

The team will reportedly be led by James Tromans, a technical director at Google Cloud who joined the division in 2019. Tromans previously worked at Citigroup Inc. in various executive roles. The Web3 team is set to include Google employees who have been “peripherally involved in Web3 internally and on their own,” CNBC reported today.

Web3 is the term for an effort to build a new version of the internet based on blockchain technology. “While the world is still early in its embrace of Web3, it is a market that is already demonstrating tremendous potential with many customers asking us to increase our support for Web3 and Crypto related technologies,” Amit Zavery, the vice president, general manager and head of platform at Google Cloud, wrote in an email to Google employees.

The new Web3 team will build back-end services focused on helping companies develop Web3 software. The upcoming services could reportedly include a system that would enable companies to make “blockchain data easy for people to explore.” Additionally, Google Cloud’s Web3 team may build a solution for running blockchain nodes, systems that are deployed as part of blockchains and play an important role in processing transactions.

The planned Web3 services are set to expand the already extensive array of software development services in Google Cloud. For mobile developers, Google provides Firebase, a suite of tools designed to ease the creation and maintenance of apps. The search giant also offers services that simplify various code management tasks, such as turning code files into software and rolling out application updates.

Today’s report didn’t specify when the new Web3 services are set to launch. It’s also unclear whether the offerings will be available only on Google Cloud, or if the company might also bring them to other environments such as on-premises data centers. The search giant already enables organizations to deploy a number of Google Cloud services on their on-premises infrastructure. 

The news that Google is forming a Web3 team comes a few months after it announced plans to establish a digital assets group. Richard Widmann, head of strategy for digital assets at Google Cloud, stated at the time that the company plans to recruit a “slew of people with blockchain expertise.” 

The digital assets group’s work will span several areas. Google intends to collaborate with ecosystem partners to help enterprise customers adopt blockchain technologies. Additionally, the search giant has raised the possibility of eventually enabling customers to purchase cloud services using cryptocurrency. 

Image: Google