Google has partnered with Coinbase to offer customers the opportunity to pay for its cloud services using certain cryptocurrencies (via CNBC). Crypto-based payments will be available to customers in the Web3 space beginning early next year, according to Coinbase and Google.
It is believed that Google will succeed in attracting cutting-edge companies to its Cloud Next conference in a fierce, fast-growing market where Google’s top competitors do not currently allow clients to pay with cryptocurrencies, as they do on Google’s website. Google parent Alphabet is diversifying away from advertising through the cloud business, and it now accounts for 9% of revenue, an increase of over 6% from three years ago, as it is rapidly expanding.
According to Jim Migdal, Coinbase’s vice president of business development, Coinbase will move its data-related applications from Amazon Web Services to Google after generating a significant amount of its revenue from retail transactions.
Amit Zavery, vice president and general manager and head of platform at Google Cloud, explained in an interview with CNBC that a handful of customers in the Web3 world who wish to make cryptocurrency payments will be able to use the Google Cloud Platform infrastructure service. Thanks to an integration with Coinbase Commerce, the service will be available to customers who wish to make cryptocurrency payments.
In the end, it was not a certainty that Coinbase would be chosen by Google for the financial part of the deal. Businesses can accept payments using digital currencies through PayPal, for example. “We did look at other companies for the cryptocurrency side of it,” Zavery said. Ultimately, he said, Coinbase had the greatest capability.
It is expected that over time, Google will be able to accept many more cryptocurrency payments from its customers, according to Zavery. Currently, Coinbase Commerce supports ten currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
It was previously reported by Google that it was exploring the possibility of adding support for payments using digital currencies to its search engine in May. According to Migdal, Coinbase has been in discussions with Google for months, with discussions taking place about supporting commerce transactions, cloud usage, and the Prime service all going on in parallel at the same time. “We decided to bring them together,” he said.
