Cardano have recently uploaded a full report which discusses a conversation between Charles Hoskinson and a number of Google officials at their office in London. This, came about as a result of an invitation from Google to Hoskinson to come to the Google UK HQ to talk about how Cardano and Google could potentially work together to mutually benefit each others operations.

You can see a full transcript and Q&A report of the meeting here-

https://iohk.io/blog/iohk-make-a-visit-to-googles-london-offices/

We aren’t going to break down what Hoskinson has told Google, as all of the information can be found on the IOHK website, however we do want to explore what this could all mean going forward for both Google and Cardano.

As a tech giant, it is very likely that Google are going to tap into blockchain technology. Naturally, the blockchain will only better Google’s progression, the blockchain is something they cannot avoid. With projects such as Android and Google Pay becoming ever popular, Google also have a responsibility to explore cryptocurrency as a payment option. Indeed, Cardano is something that we could very well see integrated into Google’s systems one day.

I will note though, with regards to Google Pay, an exchange type system is more likely than Google just sticking with one type of cryptocurrency. Perhaps they will create their own in the future, but ultimately, just listing Cardano as a payment option within Google Pay will limit their customers, so therefore, this is unlikely.

A stand out point in this meeting came when Google asked Hoskinson about future plans to implement tighter privacy into Cardano, referring to both Monero and Zcash as more privacy focused examples. According to IOHK, Hoskinson responded to this by saying:

“You have to understand that privacy is a spectrum, and also, it is one that carries considerable regulatory discussion. For example, Japan just announced that they’re probably going to de-list all the privacy coins. So if we wish to be in the Japanese markets and we were to embrace Monero-style privacy, there’s a very low probability that Japanese exchanges will list Ada, which is a high priority for us.”

Moreover:

“On the other hand, privacy is a moral right. If you don’t have privacy in your system, you’re basically creating a system that your entire financial history is publicly known back to the beginning of time, since the system’s inception, which is dystopian to the max. So the best way of resolving this is to develop out some really good privacy options and implement them as improvement proposals, and then take advantage of the governance part of the system.”

This is a very interesting response. Cardano clearly see privacy as important but at the same time, it should be something that users have a choice in as in many conditions (crime related) privacy can be a little bit problematic. Overall, with Hoskinsons words in mind, we can see that this is something Cardano are very much going to focus on.

Please do have a read through the full transcript for a full insight into what has been said here.

In terms of adoption, it is great to see a giant like Google recognise Cardano and publically express some sort of interest in the project. Okay, Google probably won’t jump onto Cardano’s technology tomorrow and ADA isn’t going to appear in our Google wallets any time soon, but, with Google clearly exploring this area, we can only expect other rivals teams to do the same thing. Likewise, other rival cryptocurrencies will be fighting for the attention of Google, so, in terms of cryptocurrency adoption, this is fantastic news indeed.