I've gotten to a point where I believe the vast majority of the "digital space" is conversant with the term "crypto" and possibly blockchain technology, thus the need for "exposure" from partnerships is something I'm not largely moved by anymore, unless you're integration crypto payments into your business otherwise it's mostly not worth the sweat.
I was going to ignore the partnership news of LayerZero and Google Cloud due to the lack of adequate information on what this partnership means at large for the protocol and its users, but the first glance impression of what is being promoted got me writing.
Apparently, Google Could just became LayerZero's default message verifying. Think about the handing over of all nodes' roles to one company, lmao, What does this remind me of? MEVBOTS on Ethereum, something that has been leveraged to influence Ethereum consensus processes.
Google has a goal - To monetize data
I don't know why but I weirdly see Google to be bigger than Apple, despite the whole market cap thingy.
But personal views aside, Google is a company heavily focused on data, heck It's now an AI developer so what more can it be seeking other than access to more data?
I know, I know, blockchain data is already public anyway but we are not just talking about the availability of data but the control of it!
If I'm not mistaken because I believe I've talked about each of them in the past, Google Cloud partnered with Solana, Avalanche and LayerZero, if my memory serves me right. All partnerships yielded no positives on the crypto side of things, but to Google, it has probably been a fun one being exposed to unique data from emerging technologies spaces.
That said, the partnership with LayerZero is quite different from the rest. Usually, it's some lame news about Google becoming a node operator and being a cloud service for developers to deploy whatever the fuck they love putting on clouds but with LayerZero, Google Cloud isn't just some new validated added to the family or a cloud service provider but something bigger and quite scary.
Google Cloud becomes LayerZero's default message validator Oracle
Fair warning, I know very little about LayerZero infrastructures, but at the very basic, it is a messaging protocol that aims to facilitate cross-chain messaging, a pioneer for blockchain interoperability you could say.
That said, its recent partnership with Google Cloud leaves so many questions, like why should blockchains leverage centralized LayerZero for cross-chain messaging thereby undermining their consensus protocols and potentially putting network assets at risk.
After more than a year of combined effort we’re incredibly excited for the Google Cloud oracle to roll out on LayerZero. The Google Cloud oracle is a purpose built verifier that is available today to all LayerZero applications and will be configured as the default as of Sep 19th.
What this means is that by default every message within LayerZero will leverage the secure infrastructure run by one of the most security minded organizations in the entire world. Put another way, Google Cloud will verify the validity of every message within LayerZero by default.
The Google Cloud oracle is meant to serve as the https of cross-chain messaging. Just like they verify all certificates to attest to the validity of the website, The Google Cloud oracle is now additionally verifying all LayerZero messages by default. - LayerZero medium announcement
It is important to understand that user applications can opt out of this Google Cloud default verifier protocol for messages but this doesn't change the fact that it really is a part of this system.
The clear interpretation of the announcement is that Google Cloud will now determine what message is valid and what isn't "by default" on the LayerZero protocol, centralization?
Some call it exposure, expansion, advancement, but it is actually just the employment of a centralized company to handle a core role within a network that should facilitate decentralized cross-chain messages for trade settlements and other transaction and operation varieties.
How long before Google Cloud has its feet in most crypto networks?