Google Cloud Joins Flare Network as a Validator, FLR Surges 37%

Google Cloud will serve as a validator for the Flare blockchain and contributor to the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO), the “blockchain for data” organization announced Monday.

Google Cloud to serve a dual role

“Data access at scale is important to increase relevant blockchain use cases and greater global adoption of the technology,” said James Tromans, Head of Web3 for Google Cloud. “Google Cloud becoming a validator on the Flare network will help support that mission.”

Google Cloud joins 100 additional entities in the dual role, where it “will support both the security of the Flare network as a validator and contributor to Flare’s highly-decentralized price oracle, the FTSO with publicly available pricing data,” read a press release from Flare.

“As the blockchain for data, we are excited that Google Cloud is joining our existing decentralized network of infrastructure providers who contribute to Flare,” said Hugo Philion, Co-Founder and CEO of Flare. “Our work together will help deliver a more robust decentralized smart contract platform that places decentralized data at its core.”

A “blockchain for data”

Founded alongside Naïri Usher and Sean Rowan in 2019, Flare touts itself as a “blockchain with the first consensus protocol for external data” and aims to be a “vertically integrated blockchain for data.”

Philion went on to recognize that while traditional oracle systems “are hard to decentralize, expensive to use, difficult to scale and have high latency,” Flare’s dual-role approach seeks to address these challenges while aiming “to give developers and users trustless access to the broadest range of data, with scalability, low latency, and at minimum cost.”

“Because Flare’s oracles are built into the structure of the network, we are the only smart contract platform optimized for decentralized data acquisition and are able to give developers all the data they need to build new, more relevant use cases beyond financial speculation,” Philion said.

A landmark partnership

Shortly after the news was announced, the network’s token FLR surged over 37%.

Users took to social media Monday morning to discuss the landmark partnership, including cloud architect and advisor, Dan Rocky.

“There are few entities that offer access to such a volume of data as Google Cloud, making it a banner partnership for Flare and a reminder of the blockchain adoption ongoing at tech giants like Google,” Rocky stated.

In addition to support from Google Cloud as a validator and contributor, Flare will also become a part of the Google for Startups Cloud Program, where it will receive financial and technical support from the computing services organization.