In a recent announcement, Flare, the layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible platform, has revealed its integration with Google Cloud Marketplace. The integration onboards several notable blockchain APIs, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, to the ecosystem, ultimately expanding the Marketplace to support a total of nine distinct blockchain APIs.
The collaboration between Flare and Google Cloud Marketplace aims to provide numerous developers and software users with access to highly-integrated blockchain data from both Flare nodes and connected chain nodes. The set of available blockchain APIs includes Algorand, BNB Smart Chain, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Flare, Litecoin, Songbird, XRP ledger, and any future-supported blockchain APIs. Utilizing these blockchain APIs grants developers the opportunity to offload the responsibility of running their nodes for corresponding blockchains.
Flare highlights the distinct advantages of blockchain APIs when creating cross-chain applications that gather data from different sources, such as popular cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, through its API portal. The integration with Google Cloud Marketplace is poised to unlock the massive potential of these blockchain APIs for developers, as well as users of software products and services within the ecosystem.
Josh Edwards, Flare’s VP of Engineering, elaborates on the benefits of the API integration, stating that greater availability of robust blockchain APIs on platforms like Google Cloud Marketplace lowers obstacles to web3 participation. The partnership facilitates easier experimentation with blockchain technology and various use cases for developers without the burden of hardware costs or ongoing maintenance.
James Tromans, Head of Web3 Engineering at Google Cloud, shares his enthusiasm about the collaboration, expressing excitement over the support and promotion of web3 partners in the ecosystem through Flare’s high-performance APIs in the Marketplace.
As a result of this integration, Flare’s current APIs are now much more accessible to those using Google Cloud, with the added bonus of allowing customers to count their Flare API expenditure through Google Cloud Marketplace towards their committed spend on Google Cloud.
However, some might argue that the integration of blockchain APIs with Google Cloud Marketplace could result in Google having too much control over the blockchain ecosystem, potentially leading to centralization concerns. Despite this, many individuals in the industry remain optimistic, believing that the collaboration will foster increased innovation and growth for developers, users, and the overall blockchain ecosystem.
Source: crypto.news