NKB Group: Google Tacitly Works on Blockchain Technology Projects

Google has not been an obvious investor in blockchain technology. However, that perception is about to change.NKB Group, a blockchain investment bank, has picked up on an investment watch report by CB Insights that summarizes an appreciable quantity of investments in the blockchain space, showing Google to be the second-largest investor in blockchain technology.

Information from NKB Group sent to Cryptovest via email shows that despite denials from Alphabet—Google’s parent company—that the search giant announced any acquisition of a blockchain company, it had invested in companies like Gyft, Ripple, Blockchain, Buttercoin and Veem.

“Many believe that Google plans to use blockchain in its cloud hosting business. A recent announcement of their partnership with BlockApps, a deployment platform, may also indicate this is the case,” NKB Group wrote.

Indeed, less than a month ago, we saw Google collaborating with Digital Asset to work on a platform for developers that makes it easier for them to deploy and test their blockchain applications.

“We’re partnering with Google Cloud to provide developers with a full stack solution so they can unleash the potential for web-paced innovation in blockchain. This will reduce the technical barriers to DLT application development by delivering our advanced distributed ledger platform and modeling language to Google Cloud,” Digital Asset’s CEO Blythe Masters said in a statement.

NKB Group’s Miroslav Pikus—its senior IT advisor—suggests that Google’s ultimate goal with blockchain technology may be to combat ad fraud.

“Ad fraud is a multi billion-dollar issue that is of major concern among advertisers. The online ad ecosystems have become complex and grey. Blockchain brings the promise of making it more transparent and credible,” he wrote.

Whatever Google’s intentions are, it’s clear that the company is moving in a more blockchain-friendly direction and may incorporate distributed ledgers into its applications as the technology matures. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if Google engineers are currently contributing to projects around the world to expedite the process.