Google has sparked a lot of interest in the crypto world with its new move. Google now provides instant conversation rates for Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC).
Previously, just the conversion rates of Bitcoin and Ethereum were available on Google but now, a simple search for BCH to USD and the user would get access to the conversion rates instantly.
A Long Time Coming.
Google had announced that it would be listing Bitcoin as part of its currency conversion “mini app” way back in 2014. The search giant revealed that three Altcoins, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash has been included in the “mini app”.
Although, the crypto community is quite surprised considering the fact that the company had banned cryptocurrency-related adverts on its platform sometime this year. The claim was that most of the cryptocurrency related ads were malicious and high-risk in nature.
Why the Change of Heart?
The ban which was placed on cryptocurrency ads by Google, Facebook and several other tech titans seem to be coming to an end. Facebook had placed a ban on cryptocurrency ad back in January claiming it wanted to protect its consumers from scams. However, sometime in June, It rolled back the outright ad ban.
Currently cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase runs an ad on Facebook. Also, Instagram which is also owned by Facebook runs ads for Coinbase. Google had joined the ban placement league in March, the world’s largest online-advertising seller, however, is reportedly running Coinbase ads. Google also continues to run text ads for ICOs. We just wonder what must have caused the change of heart from ban placement to Advert placement. Maybe, Google lifted the policy or the search giant is just accepting certain types of cryptocurrency ads on their platform for now.
What Exactly is Google’s Stance?
Google recently updated their Play Store policies and it resulted in the ban of apps which mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, XRP, and Ethereum. A few weeks ago, Apple made some changes to its policies to the App Store Review Guidelines. A new section was added and it restricts the use of cryptocurrency mining apps.
Google is following suit and has updated the play store policies. The search giant had received reports on multiple apps on the Play Store that were quietly using the smartphones processing power to mine cryptocurrencies. Scammers were inserting mining software into other apps and ‘Cyrptojacking’ the device of unaware users.
With over two billion monthly users just in the first half of 2018, the Google’s Play Store got over 35 billion app downloads. Google claims to have a review not just on crypto mining apps but also on apps that have offensive material in them. Google is now restricting apps which promote, discrimination, hate speech, self-harm and violence.
Is Google creating its own Cryptocurrency?
A new project called “Google X.” was revealed on 10 July 2018 Google revealed that they are looking into the use of blockchain technologies. Although no specific details were revealed on how the blockchain will be used or for what purpose. It seems however that the company is beginning to open up to the technology.
Conclusion
Although, we are not sure what Google plans to do with “Google X”, it is exciting to see the tech giant reduce its rigid stance on cryptocurrency by including three more altcoins to the Google’s In-search currency conversion App.
