Google Partners with Blockchain Startup Digital Asset

Tech giant Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is continuing its bet on blockchain with its partnership with Digital Asset, a provider of distributed ledger solutions, the companies announced on Monday (July 23).

The press release states that the two will work together in bringing Digital Asset’s blockchain solution to Google Cloud.

Under the collaboration terms, Digital Asset will provide software developers with the necessary tools to build, test and deploy distributed ledger applications instantly without having to develop the technology from scratch.

“We’re partnering with Google Cloud to provide developers with a full stack solution so they can unleash the potential for web-paced innovation in blockchain,” Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset said in the release. “This will reduce the technical barriers to DLT application development by delivering our advanced distributed ledger platform and modelling language to Google Cloud.”

Google Cloud participated in the private beta of Digital Asset’s developer program which allowed Google Cloud developers to directly access the Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Digital Asset Modeling Language (DAML).

“DAML is a powerful, intuitive smart contract language designed specifically for use in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) applications that align business processes across organizations,” the statement reads.

According to the press release, DAML makes the writing of smart contracts easier by treating agreements and the associated parties as “native constructs and hiding ledger details from the developer.” It also provides guardrails in order to protect against contracts that may potentially have unpredictable results.

Digital Asset will also grow its DAML platform-as-a-service (Paas) on Google Cloud through the collaboration. Developers can use DAML to test and deploy DLT applications over Google Cloud’s Orbitera application.

The blockchain startup unveiled the developer program for DAML in April to a wider audience. Fortune reported that DAML was initially revealed in March as a “simplified way for companies to build blockchain applications, including smart contracts, for a variety of purposes.”

Leonard Law, head of financial services platform at Google Cloud, said in the joint press release that Google is looking forward to working with Digital Asset in the distributed ledger space.

“DLT has great potential to benefit customers not just in the financial services industry, but across many industries, and we’re excited to bring these developer tools to Google Cloud,” he said.

Indeed, Google is no stranger to the blockchain space: earlier this year Bloomberg reported the tech mammoth will be developing its own DLT that third parties can use to post and verify transactions.

The company also announced in June that it had invested US$550 million into JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) as part of a strategic partnership with an aim of exploring the “creation of next generation retail infrastructure solutions.”

Of course, the list of Google’s blockchain intentions doesn’t stop there. In fact, according to CB Insights Google has invested more than US$1.2 billion in the blockchain industry since 2012, making it one of the biggest supporters of blockchain over the last six years.

Shares of Google were up 1.10 percent on Monday to close the trading session at US$1,211. After hours trading, however, bumped its share price up 3.61 percent to US$1,254.70 as of 7:07 p.m. EST on Monday.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.