Google’s parent firm Alphabet breaks quiet on Web 3.0, plans to bring value to the technology

• Alphabet, an umbrella company for several tech firms, is watching the blockchain space and ways in which it could add value to Web 3.0.
• Critics still have it that the technology is still very young and all it has to offer at the moment is financial speculation.

Google, whose parent company is Alphabet, is now looking into blockchain, and how it can bring value to the technology of Web 3.0. This is according to a Tuesday statement from Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the company’s earnings call. Alphabet, which is an umbrella firm for several tech firms, posted a collective profit of over $20 billion during Q4, 2021.

“Any time there is innovation, I find it exciting,” he said, adding that Web 3.0 would be something Alphabet would want to back in the best way possible.

Of note, these are the first comments and tentative plans that Alphabet has made regarding the new decentralized version of the Web. Other firms, including prominent blockchain players Silicon Valley’s tech giants, are quite ahead of Alphabet in terms of embracing Web 3.0. Meta, Twitter, and Block have plans for Web 3.0 covering payments, coins, and services that utilize cryptocurrencies. Late last year, Polygon teamed up with Reddit’s co-founder for a $200 million Web 3.0 gaming initiative. Google, however, has stayed on the sidelines regarding this topic, until now.

Alphabet CEO weighs in on Web 3.0, blockchain, and AR

“We are looking at blockchain… it’s such an interesting and powerful technology with broad applications,” Pichai noted.

Additionally, he spoke of a recent announcement made by Google’s cloud division. The latter intends to win more contracts with firms invested in digital assets. Google has already come up with a team specialized in blockchain tech. On top of that, the company has made certain investments in augmented reality where it intends to bring value through services like YouTube and Maps. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki also recently spoke of plans to get in on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse.

Nonetheless, Pichai declined from making any statements regarding cryptocurrencies. Twitter is incorporating these digital currencies in its creators’ tipping service. Meta had similar hopes for the Diem stablecoin project, though this was massively crushed to the point of selling off the project en masse. Google, on the other hand, hired a  former PayPal exec last month to advance cryptocurrency efforts under its payment division.

Still too young?

Web 3.0 evangelists tout the technology as the panacea to issues brought by centralized service providers such as Google. Other onlookers, however, have criticized the space and cautioned investments in the same. ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Tesla CEO Elon Musk brushed-off Web 3.0 as a marketing buzzword. Wharton’s blockchain professor, Kevin Werbach, said there is little to no activity in Web 3.0 at present:

Most of the activity is still financial speculation, most of these platforms are still really immature.