Google Cloud has unveiled a fresh Web3 portal designed specifically for blockchain developers. The portal offers a wide range of resources, including datasets and tutorials on creating non-fungible tokens (NFT). However, the response from the cryptocurrency industry has been mixed.
Some critics have expressed disappointment with the portal’s lack of support for native Bitcoin and lightning. Phil Geiger, the vice president of product marketing at Unchained, highlighted this oversight in a post on X. Similarly, a pseudonymous crypto trader named MartyParty voiced their dissatisfaction to their 80,700 X followers.
On the other hand, there are those who have welcomed the launch. Ivaibi Festo, the founder of Mitroplus labs, described the Web3 portal as a “comprehensive resource” in a post on X.
The Web3 portal offers developers access to various products and the opportunity to receive testnet tokens for deploying and testing decentralized applications (DApps) on Ethereum testnets Sepolia and Holesky. Additionally, it provides a learn program that includes tutorials on developing NFTs, implementing Web3 loyalty programs, and securing digital assets with multi-party computation (MPC).
This release follows Google’s recent advancements in the Web3 industry. They expanded their features to allow users to search wallet balances across multiple blockchains, including Bitcoin, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, Polygon, and Fantom. Furthermore, they updated their policies at the beginning of 2024 to permit the advertisement of certain crypto products on major search engines, including Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF).
In preparation for the portal launch, Google had been focusing on establishing partnerships. In October 2023, they integrated their BigQuery data warehouse with MultiversX to provide Web3 projects and users with valuable insights from data analytics and artificial intelligence tools within the Google Cloud ecosystem. Additionally, in September 2023, Google’s BigQuery added 11 blockchain networks to its data warehouse, including Avalanche, Arbitrum, Cronos, Ethereum’s Görli testnet, Fantom, Near, Optimism, Polkadot, Polygon’s mainnet, Polygon’s Mumbai testnet, and Tron.
In summary, Google Cloud’s new Web3 portal offers blockchain developers a range of resources, but it has received mixed feedback from the cryptocurrency industry. Despite this, it represents another step forward for Google in the Web3 space, as they continue to expand their features and establish partnerships.