Google Web3 Lead Says Google Cloud is a “Layer Zero” for Crypto

Google has set its sights on becoming the backbone of Web3.

Although it may come as a surprise Web3 native, Richard Widmann – Google’s head of strategy, Web3 and cloud – sees the Web2 giant as ideologically aligned with many of crypto’s core values, including open source development and decentralization.

Before jumping headfirst into Google’s crypto initiatives, Widmann worked as legal counsel for the trillion-dollar technology company and also has a background in securities law.

At the Mainnet conference in New York City, he told Decrypt in an interview that he is working to “build a giant bridge” between Web3 companies and blockchain by offering node services via Google Cloud. Nodesthat run code for crypto networks can be thought of as basic building blocks for Web3.

“The Sky provision — we’re a team zero,” Widmann said.

The lawyer-turned-strategist stressed that Google’s nodes must be decentralized and global enough to be resilient to things like internet outages and political unrest because each node is a single point of failure.

And if one or two big tech companies like Amazon or Google end up controlling the overwhelming majority of blockchain nodes, that defeats the purpose of decentralized technology.

“If everything running on Google, I’d be the first to say it’s a problem, frankly,” Widmann said of Web3’s future.

But decentralization is not a black or white issue. While Widmann sees decentralization as essential to Google’s Web3 strategy, not everything can or should be as decentralized as possible.

“If you tried to build a data center with a group of DAO participants — I’m sure you can raise the capital, but I don’t really know if you can coordinate the kind of resources to build it,” he said.

If decentralization is possible, should everything eventually be on the blockchain? Widmann doesn’t think so.

“There are some things where a censorship-resistant, distributed source of truth makes sense,” Widmann said, but added that “it’s [also] many things that do not require immutable ledgers.”

Google Cloud is chain-agnostic and wants to let layer one protocols build on top of Cloud and compete against each other or fulfill different niches, he said.

Widmann differentiated Google’s vision from that Avalanche Networkas he said a team is one blockchain and not one layer zero for crypto as some might think. However, he acknowledged that the label is a “rhetorical question.”

“Every layer one protocol runs data processing containers, usually on a cloud of some kind,” Widmann said. “Avalanche does not have a cloud business. They run on data centers, just like any other tier one.”

“They’re trying to position themselves as the foundational layer, but at the end of the day, everything runs on top of a data container that’s hosted somewhere, and that’s where the cloud providers come in.”