Polygon adds Google Cloud to its validator set
Polygon Labs announced on Sept. 29 that it has added Google Cloud to the decentralized group of validators powering its proof-of-stake Network.
Polygon said in its statement that Google Cloud is now among more than 100 validators who secure the Polygon PoS Network, a network that originally operated under the name Matic Network and which acts as a side-chain to the Ethereum blockchain.
Polygon noted that the infrastructure that powers YouTube and Gmail now powers Polygon PoS in part. It also called Google Cloud a “high-quality, trusted, [and] security-minded” validator and said that this adds additional security to the network.
The project also linked to an dashboard page indicating that Google Cloud has staked as much as 10,451 MATIC ($5,484) and earned 29.42 MATIC ($15) to date. Though Google Cloud is more recognizable than any of Polygon’s other validators, it is nevertheless one of the validators with the lowest amount of MATIC staked.
The partnership appears to have had little if any effect on the value of Polygon’s MATIC token. MATIC is up 1.2% over 24 hours while the entire crypto market is up 0.6%.
Polygon and Google Cloud are close partners
Polygon and Google Cloud initially began their partnership in April. At that time, both companies said the multi-year partnership would involve numerous goals.
The partnership terms indicated that Google Cloud would contribute cloud services to Polygon’s zkEVM scaling solution, provide a managed Polygon node hosting service to Google Cloud users, and support Polygon’s dedicated app-chain. The deal also included $200,000 of funding in Google Cloud credits for Polygon-backed startups.
Beyond that partnership, Google Cloud has also added support for Polygon network data to its BigQuery datasets. The platform made that addition on Sept. 21 and introduced support for a total of eleven different sets of blockchain data at that time.
The partnership between Polygon and Google Cloud is extensive but not unique. Google Cloud has formed similar validator partnerships with other blockchain networks including but not limited to Solana, Voltage, Ronin Network, Tezos, and Celo.
