Google Cloud will soon accept payment in cryptocurrency
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Some Google Cloud customers will soon be able to pay for services using cryptocurrency, thanks to a new partnership between Coinbase Commerce and the cloud hosting giant.
The feature will only be available to select blockchain-focused companies initially, but will be rolled out to more companies at a later date.
The link supports payments in a wide variety of cryptocurrencies, including popular staples such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
The service is expected to be available in early 2023.
Coinbase Partnership
Coinbase will facilitate the payments in exchange for a small discount on the transaction, similar to how a company like PayPal would.
The partnership also ensures that Coinbase selects Google Cloud as a strategic cloud provider to build its exchange and data services.
Coinbase said it will use Google Cloud’s compute platform to process blockchain data at scale and extend the global reach of its crypto services using Google’s premium fiber network.
Big Tech companies accepting payments via cryptocurrency is nothing new in itself. Microsoft launched a scheme that allowed users to top up their Microsoft Store account with Bitcoin as early as 2014, through a partnership with BitPay.
It’s also not Google’s first partnership in the world of blockchain; the company recently teamed up with SkyMavis, creator of the popular NFT game Axie Infinity, to improve the security of its Ronin network after a high-profile attack.
The news appears to be considered a big win for Coinbase as shares of the crypto exchange jumped 8.4% in trading immediately after the news.
It is also possible that we will see more crypto integrations from Google in the future. In January 2022, Google Cloud took over PayPal CEO Arnold Goldberg to lead the payments division, who then said: Bloomberg (opens in new tab) “crypto is something we pay a lot of attention to”.
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