Key features include Python smart contracts, a single API, and stable, monthly-invoiced gas fees
Google Cloud has announced its entry into the Layer 1 blockchain space with a new infrastructure called the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL). The GCUL platform is an innovative payments network designed to offer users a competitive advantage through cheap, near-instant, and seamless transactions.
The GCUL platform will focus on re-imagining payment services and financial market products. As such, it presents a direct challenge to existing blockchain and fintech payment giants like Stripe, Circle, and Ripple Labs.
“GCUL brings together years of R&D at Google to provide financial institutions with a novel Layer 1 that is performant, credibly neutral, and enables Python-based smart contracts. GCUL is a neutral infrastructure layer.
Tether won’t use Circle’s blockchain – and Adyen probably won’t use Stripe’s blockchain. But any financial institution can build with GCUL,” Rich Widmann, the Head of Strategy at Google Cloud, noted.
Google Cloud provides the GCUL platform to developers through a single API to simplify integration. This approach allows users to scale their operations without the need to build and maintain their own complex infrastructure.
The platform leverages Google Cloud’s proven infrastructure to scale to any use case, from payment automation to digital asset management.
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In a departure from legacy blockchains like Ethereum, Google’s L1 offers stable and transparent transaction fees that are invoiced monthly, rather than paid upfront.
For regulatory compliance, the GCUL platform operates as a private and permissioned system under existing laws, though Google Cloud plans to make the platform more open as regulations evolve.
The GCUL platform also intends to revitalize global capital markets. Its ability to scale significantly beyond existing financial rails allows institutions to manage the entire lifecycle of digital assets seamlessly.
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“We are exploring how to move value with secure exchange mediums backed by bankruptcy-protected assets, such as central bank deposits or money market funds, offered by regulated institutions. These initiatives facilitate true 24/7 capital movement and drive the next wave of financial innovation,” Google Cloud noted.
