Is Huobi okay? The day after EOS announced a collaboration with Google Cloud, Google Cloud's PR stated: "We currently have no plans to become a node."

The public blockchain project EOS.io announced on October 6th a partnership with Google Cloud. Google Cloud will join the EOS ecosystem and become one of its candidate Block Producers (BP). The price of EOS coin surged on the news. However, Google Cloud's PR team clarified the next day that the company has no intention of becoming a Block Producer.

Marketing or Genuine Collaboration?

According to the official announcement from Block.one, the developer of EOS.io, Block.one specifically stated that Google Cloud will become a backup node for EOS and will gradually become one of the 21 super nodes of EOS in the future. Allen Day also mentioned in the press release:

We are in the process of becoming a backup node for block producers, and as Google Cloud incorporates distributed ledger technology into its infrastructure, we will ensure that information on the public chain can be securely stored, confidently used, and accessed in a meaningful way.

However, the next day, Allen Day told CoinDesk that the collaboration with EOS is merely due to an interest in open-source code protocols and distributed ledger technology. He added:

Google Cloud does not have this token economic model of open-source protocols. Many protocols offer incentives to encourage nodes to protect the network, but we currently do not intend to get involved in these incentives. As the relevant technology becomes more popular, we can better learn how to provide services to users who want to become EOS nodes.

Allen Day also mentioned that Google Cloud provided cloud infrastructure to Block.One, helping them lead the development work, and this has brought revenue to Google Cloud. However, when CoinDesk asked Block.one if they spent money to show interest in running for node elections with Google Cloud, Block.one did not respond.

February Collaboration with Hedera

Allen Day also pointed out a collaboration with the enterprise-grade distributed ledger project Hedera Hashgraph in February this year. At that time, Google Cloud announced joining the Hedera Council, claiming to run Hedera nodes and be responsible for strategic planning of the Hedera network. This move led to a nearly 140% increase in the price of its token, HBAR.

Allen Day believes that the current collaboration with Block.One is fundamentally similar to Hedera Hashgraph.

According to the blockchain browser EOS Authority, there is indeed a backup node named googlecloudp, created on the day after the collaboration announcement on October 7. The node is ranked only 342nd, with an account holding 572 EOS tokens (CPU: 381 | NET: 190).

After the news was released, this brought about nearly a 20% increase in EOS, but with speculation surrounding the collaboration, the price increase was reduced to about 6% by October 10.

Not only EOS, many projects in the market claim to be "decentralized" but seek collaboration with tech giants close to monopolies to gain project attention and boost token prices, which is regrettable.