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Qtum Lets Users Deploy a Full Blockchain Node on Google's Cloud Platform
Qtum releases a new instant virtual machine service on Google's Cloud Platform.
By John Biggs
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 9:08 a.m. Published May 2, 2019, 6:40 p.m.
Qtum, a project that began as a bitcoin-blockchain hybrid, is expanding its reach by adding Google's Cloud Platform to its list of software partners.
The offering is simple: a $15 per month virtual machine that users can spin up and run instantly on the Cloud Platform. The software, available here, allows users to "develop and deploy [their] own smart contracts from [the] ready-to-use GCP VM featuring Qtum core, soldity, solar (smart contract deployment tool) and Qmix web IDE."
The key, according of CIO Miguel Palencia, is simplicity.
"Where launching a node was once an intensive and complex process, Qtum's new developer suite introduces helpful shortcuts and tools to make it faster and easier," he said. "With a more accessible technology, we hope to open up and expand the Qtum community to include people with a broader range of experience — from experts to the everyday user."
The code available on Google Cloud is a copy of the Qtum compute engine and offers a developer environment and full node on the Qtum blockchain. Users can also use it as a testbed for code forks, dapps, or staking.
This announcement in no way makes Qtum an official Google partner as anyone - from purveyors of the CMS Wordpress to creators Ethereum dev kits - can launch a product on the Cloud Platform. It simply makes it easier to spin up a Qtum virtual machine for a few dollars per month.
The Qtum token has a market cap of $232,216,410 and is currently trading. The company raised $1 million in 2017 and has kept building in the intervening three years.
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