The search engine behemoth is the latest corporation to lend its support to blockchain research in the developing fields of NFTs and gaming.
Google has partnered with Canadian blockchain studio Dapper Labs to facilitate the creation of new Web 3 products and services, including the highly popular nonfungible token, or NFT, marketplace.
As part of the deal, Google Cloud will serve as a network operator for Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain, the scalable infrastructure that powers an entire ecosystem of NFTs, games and apps, according to Forbes. Janet Kennedy, the vice president of Google Cloud North America, said the multi-year partnership will help Dapper expand its operations through “scalable, secure infrastructure” provided by Google.
Google has also made it easier for Flow developers to integrate with its software, which gives them an added incentive to choose Google Cloud over competitors such as Amazon Web Services.
Dapper Labs’ CEO Roham Gharegozlou confirmed the partnership early Tuesday by welcoming Google to the Flow blockchain.
Amped to welcome Google to @flow_blockchain 🌊
In <1 year since #onFlow mainnet:
– 2.2M unique wallets, less than half from @nbatopshot
– 248 mainnet contracts (cf @flowverse_)
– 18.5M blocks and 49.7M txNow with 3000+ new devs building, Google jumps onboard to help scale 💪 https://t.co/0QmEdvogXh
— roham (@roham) September 14, 2021
Dapper’s Flow blockchain supports some of the most popular NFT collections on the market, including NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties. NBA Top Shot had sold $230 million by February of current year. According to Forbes, this sum has nearly tripled to $680 million.
Recognizing the long-term potential of NFTs, NBA luminaries Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant joined other investors in financing Dapper’s $305 million investment round earlier this year. At the time, the corporation was valued at $2.6 billion.
NFTs have risen from a small and obscure area of the crypto business to a multibillion-dollar market in less than a year. According to industry figures, August was a record-breaking month for the NFT market, with 30-day sales exceeding $2 billion.
This year has seen the completion of large investment rounds for several NFT-focused firms. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, NFT firm Recur recently secured a $50 million Series A led by billionaire Steve Cohen’s family office, boosting its overall worth to $333 million.