Google Explores Blockchain Technology for Possible Integration Plans

A new evidence has surfaced that Google is considering taking the ‎technology that underpins cryptocurrencies more seriously.‎

Sridhar Ramaswamy, the tech giant’s senior VP of advertising and commerce, said ‎Wednesday the company is working on research projects to figure out ‎if it can incorporate blockchain technology into its plans.

However, ‎speaking at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London, the ‎Google executive downplayed any specific speculation, saying “It is super early ‎for us to say whether they are going to become products just yet. ‎We don’t have really any product announcements to make on this ‎front.”‎

‎He added: “This is a research topic, so I don’t have anything super-definitive to ‎say. We have a small team that is looking at it. The core blockchain ‎technology is not something that is super-scalable in terms of the ‎sheer number of transactions it can run.”

Ramaswamy stated the company is indeed pondering how it can make use of the ‎‎”frictionless” nature of the technology, which has applications in ‎money transfer.‎

“The promise of blockchain of course is twofold: one is friction-free value transfer, you can think of it as money transfer working at scale with no friction and that can have an amazing effect on society, because it’s hard to move money. It always costs 2ish percent in most Western countries to move money,” he said.

Google has been recently less cryptocurrency-friendly following similar approach at‎ other major tech firms. Last week, Google said it will block ads promoting ‎cryptocurrencies and ICOs on its own platforms and on third-‎party websites, effective June, following Facebook’s move in January.‎

In a different vein, Alphabet Inc.’s Google has been the second most active corporate ‎blockchain investor since 2012, with involvement in six companies focused on ‎the blockchain technology, according to a report by tech researcher CB ‎Insights.‎