Google LLC is forming a digital assets team to help customers of its cloud platform build blockchain-based applications, the company announced on Thursday.

Richard Widmann, head of strategy for digital assets at Google Cloud, told CNBC that the company plans to hire a “slew of people with blockchain expertise” as part of the effort. The executive also stated that the search giant is exploring the possibility of allowing customers to purchase cloud services using cryptocurrency.

One focus of Google’s new digital assets team will be to help customers host blockchain nodes on Google Cloud. Nodes are servers that play a central role in processing blockchain transactions. Google will also enable organizations to host validators, which are components responsible for ensuring the accuracy of blockchain transactions.

Google’s goals include “providing dedicated node hosting/remote procedure call (RPC) nodes for developers, allowing users to deploy blockchain validators on Google Cloud via a single click (‘click to deploy’),” detailed Yolande Piazza, vice president of financial services at Google Cloud.

To realize its plans of enabling developers to set up blockchain validators on its platform with a single click, the search giant may launch new features or services. Google Cloud currently offers only a limited set of capabilities built specifically to ease the deployment of blockchains. 

Google also envisions the digital assets team helping customers with on-chain governance, or the task of implementing upgrades to a blockchain network. The company’s plans include “supporting on-chain governance via participation from Google Cloud executives and senior engineers,” Piazza wrote. 

On the business side, Google will collaborate with ecosystem partners to help enterprises adopt blockchain technologies. The company’s work with partners is expected to include product co-development and integration projects. Google will explore joint go-to-market initiatives as well. 

“As an infrastructure provider, Google Cloud views the evolution of blockchain technology and decentralized networks today as analogous to the rise of open source and the internet 10-15 years ago,” Piazza wrote. “As the technology becomes more mainstream, companies will need scalable, secure infrastructure on which to grow their businesses and support their networks.”

To win more customers in the blockchain ecosystem, Google may develop specialized cloud services for developing blockchain applications on its cloud platform. Rival Amazon Web Services Inc. has already taken that route. AWS offers a service called Amazon Managed Blockchain that makes it easier for developers to deploy blockchain networks on its public cloud.

Google could also face competition from other companies. Cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase Global Inc. provides the Coinbase Cloud, a suite of blockchain-based developer services. A number of startups are active in this segment as well. One of them, Alchemy Insights Inc., raised a $250 million funding round at a $3.5 billion valuation in October. 

Convenience could be a major selling point of any blockchain-focused cloud service that Google may launch in the future. For an enterprise that already runs its systems on Google Cloud, using a built-in blockchain service might be more convenient than deploying products from an external provider. This is especially true given that the search giant and other major cloud providers offer integrations between their various services to simplify the user experience.

It’s also possible that Google’s blockchain plans may involve offering professional services to customers. Google Cloud already provides professional services in other areas, such as cybersecurity. 

Image: Google