LayerZero has partnered with Google Cloud in a joint effort to enhance message security on its network.

LayerZero Forges a New Partnership with Google Cloud for Enhanced Web3 Security

It has entered into a strategic collaboration with Google Cloud, aiming to establish a secure cross-chain environment and expedite the adoption of Web3 technologies by enterprises. Google Cloud is set to become the default oracle for securing messages within the LayerZero network.

Commencing from September 19th, Google Cloud’s dedicated verifier, purpose-built for this purpose, will be integrated as the default option for all LayerZero applications. This means that every message within the LayerZero ecosystem will benefit from the enhanced security infrastructure of Google Cloud, automatically verifying their validity.

James Tromans, Head of Web3 at Google Cloud, expressed his thoughts on this partnership:

At the core of Google Cloud’s Web3 strategy is collaborating with protocols that bring unique capabilities to the community and facilitate developers in building and scaling applications on the network. Partnering with LayerZero as an oracle across 15 chains will not only bolster the security of LayerZero’s cross-chain messaging capabilities but will also further accelerate its dedication to Web3 interoperability and fostering enterprise adoption.

This groundbreaking partnership also signifies that developers creating decentralized applications (dApps) on the LayerZero platform can now utilize the Google Cloud oracle to authenticate transactions. The team behind LayerZero Labs, the creators of the cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero, described the operation of this high-performance cloud infrastructure in the following manner: ‘The Google Cloud oracle is designed to function as the ‘https’ of cross-chain messaging. Just as they validate all ‘https’ certificates to confirm the authenticity of websites, the Google Cloud oracle now automatically verifies all LayerZero messages by default.’

LayerZero is an interoperability protocol that facilitates seamless communication, including the transfer of data, assets, and information, between various blockchains while maintaining robust security. It serves as a User Application (UA) that can be configured as an on-chain endpoint, operating a highly efficient Ultra Light Node (ULN). This design combines the security of a light node with the cost-effectiveness of intermediate chains. LayerZero relies on two key parties to facilitate message transfer between on-chain endpoints: the Oracle and the Relayer.

Prior to the recent collaboration with Google Cloud

LayerZero provided developers with the option to choose from various verifiers, known as oracles, to secure cross-chain functionality for their dApps. Each oracle represented a distinct network that either approved or disapproved cross-chain messages based on its validation logic.

Moving forward, the Google Cloud oracle will be responsible for verifying messaging across 15 different chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, BNB, and Avalanche. Since its inception in March 2022, LayerZero has achieved significant adoption and now handles approximately 10 million messages per month. Additionally, it has scaled its systems to accommodate over 40 billion monthly Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) using Google Cloud’s fully managed node hosting product, the Blockchain Node Engine (BNE), as a central provider for its RPC connections.

LayerZero, backed by prominent venture capital firms such as a16z, Sequoia, Binance Labs, Christie’s, Lightspeed, Opensea, Bond, Samsung Next, and GBV, recently received a valuation of $3 billion. With more than 24,000 different contracts utilizing its omnichain infrastructure, the platform has facilitated over $20 billion in transactions across its network.

Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, shared his thoughts on harnessing Google Cloud’s infrastructure: ‘Google Cloud is the ideal partner to serve as the default verifier for securing messaging, given their longstanding leadership in security over multiple decades, which they now bring to the core of the LayerZero protocol. From its inception, LayerZero was designed to offer maximum flexibility for a genuinely decentralized architecture. With LayerZero’s exponential growth, now handling over 95% of all cross-chain messaging, Google Cloud is the perfect partner to serve as the default oracle.’