Google Cloud has joined Flare, the blockchain for data, as an infrastructure provider. Google Cloud will serve as a network validator and contribute to the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO) on the Flare network as announced today. By serving as a network validator, Google Cloud will help the Flare blockchain’s proof of stake consensus process by proposing and validating new blocks.
One hundred companies, including Google Cloud, will embrace the new dual role of contributor and validator for the FTSO on Flare. As validators, these 100 Flare infrastructure providers will help keep the Flare network secure, and they will also provide publicly accessible pricing data to the FTSO, Flare’s highly decentralized price oracle.
The function of the infrastructure provider is essential to Flare’s goal of giving decentralized apps on Flare and other chains superior access to decentralized data, including Web2 API data, pricing and time series data, and blockchain event and state data.
Flare attempts to provide developers and consumers with trustless access to the widest variety of data, with scalability, low latency, and at the lowest possible cost by combining low-cost EVM smart contracts with decentralized data. This is accomplished by using the network’s validators to provide apps with decentralized data as a component of a decentralized native Oracle system.
By giving developers access to the amount and diversity of decentralized data they need to create use cases that encourage widespread blockchain adoption, Flare broadens the potential applications of blockchain technology. The sibling firm Flare Labs is developing trust-minimizing bridging technology for smart contract and non-smart contract assets. This technology may subsequently offer access to external tokens for decentralized apps built on Flare. This adds value to Flare as a vertically integrated data blockchain and attracts new users.
Hugo Philion, Co-Founder and CEO of Flare, stated on how Google Cloud’s addition
aligns with Flare’s vision:
“As the blockchain for data, we are excited that Google Cloud is joining our existing decentralized network of infrastructure providers who contribute to Flare. Our work together will help deliver a more robust decentralized smart contract platform that places decentralized data at its core.”
Philion said about the difficulties of the decentralization of data access:
“Although much of the existing utility in the blockchain space comes from the nexus of decentralized computation with external data, existing oracle systems suffer from meaningful drawbacks they are hard to decentralize, expensive to use, difficult to scale, and have high latency.”
The co-founder and CEO further explained how Flare’s dual-role approach addresses the issue:
“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.”
James Tromans, Head of Web3, Google Cloud stated:
“Data access at scale is important to increase relevant blockchain use cases and greater global adoption of the technology. Google Cloud becoming a validator on the Flare network will help support that mission.”
In addition, Flare has joined the Google for Startups Cloud Program, which aims to boost Web3 businesses’ expansion and provides Flare developers with access to partners and Google Cloud’s financial and technical assistance.