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Google\u2019s new Layer1 platform faces heavy criticism from the crypto community. Dubbed GCUL, the platform is meant to facilitate cross-border payments and asset settlements through a distributed ledger.<\/p>\n
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In its main blogpost, Google Cloud\u2019s<\/a> blockchain is described as a \u201cprivate and permissioned system\u201d which leverages Google\u2019s technology. These are principles that go against the decentralized and permissionless values the crypto community is built upon.<\/p>\n \u201cGCUL offers significant benefits to both clients and financial institutions. Clients experience near-instant transactions, especially for cross-border payments, along with low fees, 24\/7 availability, and payment automation,\u201d wrote the company.<\/p>\n Even though the announcement<\/a> claims it plans to make the blockchain more open overtime, traders on X criticized the company for launching a blockchain that seems to oppose the core principles of crypto.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a permissioned chain, ran by an American corporation with close ties to the government. I don\u2019t think these people understand what \u201ccredibly neutral\u201d means in the context of blockchains,\u201d said one trader.<\/p>\n \u201cFully centralized? Then they shouldn\u2019t even call it blockchain,\u201d said another X user.<\/p>\n The polarizing project invited comments from the CEO of StarkWare Industries Eli Ben-Sasson as well as co-founder of crypto investment firm DBA, Jon Charbonneau who had first heard of the project.<\/p>\n \u201cI think corporations doing L1s is ngmi [not gonna make it]. Including base. I know this is a contentious opinion. But reminding you I said the same about Diem,\u201d said<\/a> Ben-Sasson.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a recent LinkedIn post<\/a>, Head of Web3 strategy at Cloud, Rich Widmann, dropped details about the project that is still in its private testing phase. According to Widmann, the Layer1 blockchain is designed to enable Python-based smart contracts<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a product leader in crypto, you know that if you\u2019re building a Layer 1 it has to be differentiated,\u201d said Widmann in his post, which compared the ledger to the likes of Stripe and Circle.<\/p>\n In addition, the platform claims to be \u201ccredibly neutral\u201d as to enable any financial institution to make use of it to build on-chain infrastructure.<\/p>\n At the moment, the L1 blockchain is still in its testing phase. However, its announcement implies that it will be opened to the full Google user base and \u201c100s of institutional partners.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the blogpost, GCUL will be aimed at simplifying the management of commercial bank accounts and facilitating cross-border transactions through a distributed ledger. It plans to integrate multiple currencies and assets, eliminating the need to build additional infrastructure.<\/p>\n Another highlighted feature it claimed to have was transaction fees that remain stable and are invoiced to the user on a monthly basis. All the while, it criticized other crypto protocols for having \u201cvolatile upfront crypto gas fees.\u201d<\/p>\n At the moment, the company has yet to reveal a set date for when the project goes public.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Google\u2019s new Layer1 platform faces heavy criticism from the crypto community. Dubbed GCUL, the platform is meant to facilitate cross-border payments and asset settlements through a distributed ledger. Summary Users…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8966,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965\/revisions\/8966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Details surrounding Google Cloud\u2019s upcoming L1<\/h2>\n