Google Moves Into Blockchain and Crypto

Google is unveiling a new division focused on blockchain and related technologies under Engineering Vice President Shivakumar Venkataraman, who had been working on search advertising for more than a decade, according to a Bloomberg report Thursday (Jan. 20).

Venkataraman is now running a unit focused on “blockchain and other next-gen distributed computing and data storage technologies,” according to an email seen by the news outlet. He will become a “founding leader” of Labs, a business division that encompasses Google’s various virtual and augmented reality efforts, the report says. A Google spokesperson declined to comment to Bloomberg.

New Google Payments and Commerce President Arnold Goldberg, who joined the company after a lengthy stint at PayPal, recently said the company pays “a lot of attention to crypto.”

Last fall, Google put the groups that were working on its virtual reality-related hardware and software in Labs, saying their work was focused on “long-term technology projects that are in direct support of our core products and businesses.”

Google’s blockchain unit is relatively small compared with its other product areas, a person familiar with the company told Bloomberg.

Earlier in his Google career, Venkataraman published research on the company’s techniques for distributed computing — tying large numbers of machines together in networks, the report says.

Related: Google Taps PayPal’s Arnold Goldberg to Run Payments Division

On Wednesday (Jan. 19), Bloomberg reported Goldberg’s hiring at Google to oversee its payments division, a move that’s seen as part of the Alphabet Inc. firm’s push to be involved with more financial services, including a more active role in cryptocurrency.

Google has had success with Google Pay and its mobile wallet, but the company hasn’t been too heavily involved with cryptocurrency in the past. In October, Google scrapped its plan to launch a digital checking and savings service called Plex, focusing instead of the consumer finance industry as a whole rather than targeting specific partner.

Google Pay has gained some traction in India, but struggled elsewhere. Google also doesn’t have its own credit card or financial products. Google charges no fees on transactions with its mobile wallet.