Why Can Google Cloud's New Alliance With Polygon Labs Be a Game-changer for Web3 Development?

Polygon Protocol Developers Get a Boost 

Google Cloud and Polygon Labs announced a multiyear strategic alliance at Consensus 2023 to accelerate the adoption of Polygon PoS, Supernets, and zkEVM protocols with Google Cloud infrastructure and developer tools. 

According to Polygon, they are collaborating on engineering and go-to-market initiatives that will make it easier for developers to create Web3 products and decentralized applications (dApps) using Polygon protocols.

Under the agreement, Google will make its node hosting and management service, Blockchain Node Engine, available to Polygon PoS Chain node operators. 

“Developers using Blockchain Node Engine will no longer have to worry about configuring or running their Polygon PoS nodes; they can instead focus on growth,” Google said in a recent statement.

Moreover, Polygon's partnership with the tech powerhouse will enable the protocol to advance its zero-knowledge innovation strategy, which could reduce transaction costs. Worth noting it was last month, Polygon released its beta version of the zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM).

Additionally, eligible early-stage startups backed by Polygon Ventures can now take advantage of the Web3-specific benefits through the Google for Startups Cloud Program to give them more resources for scaling their innovative Web3 products and dApps. 

They will receive up to $200k in Google Cloud and Firebase credits for two years, early access to Google Cloud Web3 products and roadmaps, access to a Discord channel dedicated to the Web3 product and engineering teams, and access to free hands-on learning labs focused on Web3 and Google Cloud technology.

The Google Cloud Marketplace already offers developers one-click deployment of Polygon PoS nodes to power their dApps. In 2021, the Polygon blockchain dataset was added to the Google Cloud Marketplace as part of the Google Cloud Public Dataset Program.

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Google Advancing the Web3 Ecosystem

As a Web2 powerhouse, Google has been actively pushing into the Web3 world by making more of its technical expertise available to developers. Despite the recent bear market, Google Cloud launched a dedicated web3 team in May 2022 and has since signed deals with top firms in the sector, including Coinbase, Tezos, and Polygon. It recently launched a "Google for Startups Cloud Program" to help startups and emerging projects in the Web3 industry scale their projects faster and more securely. 

The Polygon PoS Chain ranks as the fifth-largest smart contract chain with $1.57 billion of total value locked, while its zkEVM software secures $5.57 million, according to L2Beat. Polygon ($MATIC) is trading at $0.998, down 0.84% in 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

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What is Polygon:

Polygon is a “sidechain” scaling solution that runs alongside the Ethereum blockchain — allowing for speedy transactions and low fees. MATIC is the network’s native cryptocurrency, which is used for fees, staking, and more. The effectiveness of Polygon as an alternative to Ethereum has seen existing projects such as Aave and Curve adopting its chain.

For more about Polygon:

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