Google Cloud has confirmed that it has plans to form a team dedicated to building tools developers can use to create Web3 projects.

Amit Zavery, VP/GM and head of platform at Google Cloud, told employees on Friday that Google Cloud wants to be the first choice for developers when building new products that use Web3 technologies, according to CNBC.

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Zavery also told the outlet that onlookers shouldn’t confuse the move as Google Cloud attempting to be part of cryptocurrency’s surge in popularity, but more to help businesses take advantage of burgeoning opportunities in Web3.

“While the world is still early in its embrace of Web3, it is a market that is already demonstrating tremendous potential with many customers asking us to increase our support for Web3 and Crypto-related technologies,” said Zavery in an email to staff on Friday.

Google Cloud has previously indicated its intentions to pursue and support Web3 opportunities with the announcement of its Digital Assets Team in January this year.

The team is dedicated to supporting Google Cloud customers who want to deploy new products in the blockchain and digital assets ecosystem, citing decentralised technology and companies such as Hadera, Theta Labs, and NFT firm Dapper labs as examples of those who chose Google Cloud for their infrastructure.

Google said that it was still building out the team, at the time of the January announcement, but would look to enable customers to make and receive cryptocurrency payments in the future.

The popularity of and interest in Web3 among developers appears to be inconsistent across reported data, though. Google Cloud believes developers are eager to build for Web3 but recent reports from developer learning and discussion platform Stack Overflow revealed the opposite. 

Most developers expressed little interest in Web3, according to its April 2022 survey. A total of 61% either thought Web3 was a scam, ‘overhyped’, or did not know what it was, and 85% had not ever developed using blockchain.

Only a third of those who had developed using blockchain had used it for professional means with the majority saying they used it only in a personal side project.

Web3 is the term used to describe what is thought as the third generation of the internet and is characterised by a collection of decentralised technologies, such as but not limited to blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and the metaverse.

Web2 – the current experience of the internet – is built upon a select few big tech companies whereas Web3, in theory, would be built on blockchain. Proponents say it will increase user privacy and overall control by becoming less reliant on major tech companies, while those who are less enthusiastic say the movement simply attempts to add value to things that inherently do not have any, like NFTs.

Others adopt more positive views on the technology and think Web3 will be a boon to cloud service providers like Google Cloud. Matt Shearer, CPO at Data Language told IT Pro “if you take a step back, what is happening right now is the early part of the Web3 explosion – there are enormous success stories, but the real impact is just beginning.

“Ignoring the press hype areas like NFT and glitzy [initial coin offering] promises where the value can often seem nebulous, Web3 gives us fundamentally new value models built on blockchain that add a whole new dimension to the innovation and market disruption.

“As these new capabilities and characteristics: trust, transparency, distributed integrity – and the resulting resilience – become more obvious to a broader audience, Web3 approaches are going to be adopted with increasing pace, and this will drive the upstream uptake of cloud services.”