Alphabet subsidiary Google is getting into the blockchain space to compete with start-ups in the emerging industry, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The Silicon Valley giant is creating its own distributed digital ledger for its cloud business that other groups can use for posting and verifying transactions, the report said, citing a source. Google is also planning to release a version that other companies can run own their own servers, the source said in the report. But timing for any product remains unclear.
Blockchain technology quickly creates a permanent record of transactions, eliminating the need for third-party intermediary such as bank. Cryptocurrency bitcoin is the first application of blockchain, and developers have been working to apply the technology to industries ranging from cloud storage to supply chain management.
“We have a small team that is looking at it,” Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior vice president of ads and commerce, said earlier Wednesday during a question-and-answer session at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London. “The core blockchain technology is not something that is super-scalable in terms of the sheer number of transactions it can run.”
Google did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on the Bloomberg report.
