Google Cloud Launches Its Own Node-Hosting Service: Here’s What It Means for Web3 Developers

A news that should interest all Web3 developers is coming from Google’s corner. The company has just announced the launch of the Google Cloud’s blockchain node engine that will allow hosting and deploying of fully managed blockchain nodes in Google cloud.

With its node hosting services in the cloud, Web3 developers will now find the entire process a lot faster, easier and most importantly, secure. The company made the revelation in a blog post with all the details of the launch and services.

“Blockchain is changing the way the world stores and moves its information. Building on our commitment to help Web3 developers build and deploy new products on blockchain-based platforms, today we’re thrilled to announce Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine,” the company said in the blog post.

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The first blockchain supported by Blockchain Node Engine will be Ethereum. The blockchain node engine will enable developers to secure blockchain access with the provision to fully manage Ethereum nodes.

Google tried to explain in the blog post how the whole system of blockchain works. Blockchain permanently stores and encrypts transaction data while working as a decentralised database for the information.

The blockchain is governed by a node, something like a computer, laptop, or server type of device that validates and stores copies of the transaction history. These nodes constantly exchange the new blockchain data and create a dense network in the process only to ensure all nodes are in sync.

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The blog further mentions, “While self-managed nodes are often difficult to deploy and require constant management, Blockchain Node Engine is a fully managed node-hosting service that can minimize the need for node operations.

Web3 companies who require dedicated nodes can relay transactions, deploy smart contracts, and read or write blockchain data with the reliability, performance, and security they expect from Google Cloud compute and network infrastructure.”

James Tromans, the lead of Google Cloud Platform’s Web3 product, while speaking to select media outlets reportedly said, “The two “main challenges” the Blockchain Node Engine will address are “the time it takes to launch a node, and the pain of keeping it up and running.” He further added, “Blockchain Node Engine reduces these pain points, and furthermore affords developers complete control over where their nodes are deployed.”

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Tromans also said that such types of services have always existed, however, they offered very few benefits. “You can use a JSON-RPC service, but then you’re sharing nodes with many other customers and you do not retain configurability, such as the region within which the node is deployed or who can access your node,” he added.

In its blog, Google also listed out the benefits of the blockchain node engine for Web3 developers. As per Google, it will streamline provisioning which is a rather time intensive process. It says, “Today, manually deploying a node is a time-intensive process that involves provisioning a compute instance, installing an Ethereum client (e.g. geth), and waiting for the node to sync with the network.

Syncing a full node from the first block (i.e., “genesis”) can take several days.” The blockchain node engine will transform the whole work outline for developers making their job must faster and easier. It also mentions how the current system has limited infrastructure security options, a fact that will change with Cloud’s blockchain node engine. It also offers fully managed operations that ensure the “blockchain infrastructure is ready and available.”

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