Today Theta Labs declared that Google Cloud had entered its Enterprise Validator Program along with Binance, Blockchain Ventures, and gumi. Google will now confirm transactions on the public blockchain network and also becomes the preferred cloud associate. Theta operates a blockchain network for video streaming, compensating users with tokens to allow others to utilize their excess bandwidth to relay video streams.

As streaming video becomes higher quality, it utilizes more and more bandwidth. Getting that video publicly distributed is expensive. Content delivery networks improve significantly, although some users still encounter buffering. When content delivery networks have difficulties, they’re centralized and impact a lot of people. The business solutions that Theta aims to offer are enhancing quality, decreasing costs, and improving resiliency.

Users who share their bandwidth gain tokens that can be utilized to compensate their popular streamers, unlock premium content, and buy and gift virtual items. The company is supported by the Sony Innovation Fund, Samsung, and various others. Additionally, its media advisers incorporate co-founders from both Youtube and Twitch. It raised $20 million in a private token sale in early 2018 and today also views the launch of its Mainnet 2.0.

“Distributed ledger technology enables new business models that potentially transform the global digital economy, including the media & entertainment industry,” said Allen Day, Developer Advocate for Google Cloud in a statement. “We’re impressed by Theta’s achievements in blockchain video and data delivery.”

 So what’s in it for Google? There are two possible areas at play here. Firstly, Google owns Youtube, one of its crown jewels. For now, Theta could be an exciting solution for bandwidth. However, in the future, it may become a competitor. Both way, Google is waiting close and can have tabs on the venture. Although the main play right now is that Google Cloud is the preferred cloud associate. So for others who want to run nodes, they’re the one that’s suggested.

Google was late to the party in phases of allowing blockchain solutions. Microsoft’s Azure was the first mover and has profited significantly, and Amazon’s AWS has caught up to some degree. But Google Cloud appears to have adopted a diversified strategy of acting as a validator for public blockchain networks. Earlier this year, Google Cloud entered the governing council of public permissioned network Hedera Hashgraph.

They’re not the only one who is eyeing this as a strategy. In the run-up to the Google declarations for both Hashgraph and Theta, the token prices bounced significantly. If token driven companies don’t manage to control the data releases professionally, they may be forced to do so.