Google is secretly working on its own blockchain tech: Report

Internet giant Google’s cloud business unit is working on a new blockchain platform to support its products and counter competition from emerging engineering startups, Bloomberg reported.

The Mountain View-headquartered company may apply its blockchain tech to guarantee data security and integrity to its cloud storage customers.

The report quoted a person saying that Google’s self-owned private ledger (blockchain) can be used by its customers to post and verify transactions. The company is also considering white branding versions of the ledger so that its customers can use it from their own servers.

The person also said that Google had been quietly making acquisitions in the space and will soon make them public.

Bloomberg also quoted research platform CB Insights claiming that Google was still the leading investor in the field ahead of Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Another person told the news agency that the internet giant’s infra group, headed by Diane Greene, has also been dabbling in a few blockchain projects. Other Googlers anonymously said that Google Cloud services was the natural place for fitting in new blockchain technologies or services.

“Like many new technologies, we have individuals in various teams exploring potential uses of blockchain, but it is way too early for us to speculate about any possible uses or plans,” the report quoted a Google spokesperson.

Other IT majors, including IBM and Microsoft, have been very active with solutions and services. They have allowed other companies to research their self-developed blockchain platforms and develop solutions around them using their cloud services.

According to WinterGreen Research, IBM leads the pack in terms of global blockchain sales with 32%, followed by Microsoft and Accenture at 19% and 17%, respectively. The research firm also claims that the product and services market may grow from $706 million in 2016 to $60 billion in 2024.

Google currently faces few challenges from smaller startups such as Brave, BitClave and Presearch. While, Brave, a web browser, is looking to attack the Google Ad model by paying websites with cryptocurrency, based on the time people spend on websites, BitClave, a search engine, rewards users for seeing ads.

Presearch, another search engine, claims to be using blockchain to try to compete with Google’s search engine as per its whitepaper.