This is a big deal! One that comes with major upsides...and downsides.

Righto, let's start here:

If you want to make money by validating transactions on a blockchain network, you can....but the set up costs vary, depending on what blockchain you choose to validate on.

Solana is particularly expensive - because they took the approach of using the craziest tech possible to push the limits of what blockchain can do.

The thinking being: sure, the costs to join the network as a validator will scare a lot of folks off, but the cost of technology decreases over time, so eventually it will become widely affordable.

Here's where Google comes into it:

They figured - hey, why wait for the set up costs to be lowered?

We'll just let folks rent the crazy expensive tech from us, via our cloud service. So all they need to start validating transactions is an internet connection and a credit card.

(Think of it like the difference between buying a blu-ray & blu-ray player, in order to watch a movie vs. signing up for Netflix).

Here's what's great about it:

1. The more validators there are on the Solana network → the more redundancy it has → the more reliable it becomes.

2. This isn't limited to just validators. This will also help developers building on the Solana network, that need a little extra compute power.

3. The easier a network is to build on, the faster it will grow. This partnership will give Solana a big leg up!

Here's what's not-so-great about it:

Sure, having more individual validators and developers joining the network is a great thing! But if they're all running through Google Cloud Service - that centralizes a lot of the network.

(Giving Google control of large swaths of the network by proxy).

For example: let's say Google doesn't want transactions to be made with a certain entity...

They could update their terms and say that any validator using Google Cloud will be booted from the service if they run those transactions.

So what's the solution?

Keeping a strong mix of validators (both on Google Cloud and off).

So if Google starts trying to steer the network, there's a healthy mix of independent validators that can run uncensored transactions.