Google Cloud Says Blockchain Offers ‘Credibly Neutral’ Platform for Financial Institutions

Google’s Layer 1 blockchain will provide a neutral infrastructure layer for use by financial institutions, Google Cloud Head of Strategy, Web3 Rich Widmann said Tuesday (Aug. 26).

Writing in a post on LinkedIn, Widmann said the blockchain, Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), “brings together years of R&D at Google to provide financial institutions with a novel Layer 1 that is performant, credibly neutral and enables Python-based smart contracts.”

Linking to a March 25 report by PYMNTS, Widmann noted that CME Group chose GCUL to explore tokenization and payments on its commodities exchange.

“Besides bringing to bear Google’s distribution, GCUL is a neutral infrastructure layer,” Widmann wrote in his post. “Tether won’t use Circle’s blockchain — and Adyen probably won’t use Stripe’s blockchain. But any financial institution can build with GCUL.”

Widmann said Google Cloud will release more technical details about GCUL within months.

When announcing in March that they are piloting solutions for wholesale payments and tokenization of assets, CME Group and Google Cloud said CME had successfully completed the first phase of integration and testing of GCUL, would begin direct testing with market participants and plans to launch new services in 2026.

“Google Cloud Universal Ledger has the potential to deliver significant efficiencies for collateral, margin, settlement and fee payments as the world moves toward 24/7 trading,” CME Group Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy said at the time in a press release.

Rohit Bhat, general manager, financial services at Google Cloud, said at the time that the partnership with CME Group to develop this solution demonstrates how “Google Cloud helps partners transform their businesses through strategic collaborations and modern infrastructure, unlocking significant opportunities for the global financial market.”

In an article introducing GCUL, Google Cloud wrote that the platform provides the simplicity of being accessible through a single application programming interface (API); the flexibility of being scalable, programmable and capable of integrating with any wallet; and the safety of being designed with compliance in mind and operating as a private and permissioned system.

“Built on a partnership model, it complements existing business models rather than competing with them,” the Google Cloud article said. “This design empowers our partners in financial services and capital markets to deliver value and drive innovation for their clients.”