Has Google just blacklisted Ethereum again and is it to protect us or to stifle their new competition?

You may remember how last year Google, Facebook and Twitter had a major and total ban on all Cryptocurrency –related ads. It seemed a bit harsh at the time, perhaps even to them, certainly to their users, so they backtracked a little. Well it looks like Google are back in the conservative camp again, this time banning Ethereum ads from being displayed on their search engine, severely impacting industries related to the hugely popular and well-utilised Ethereum blockchain platform.

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Unless you’re in USA or Japan

You will not see ads come up promoting companies that use Ethereum products. It’s a curious discrimination by country there. Much of the money involved in crypto is in those two countries, so in this case it seems we simply need to follow the money and we will get to the bottom of this interesting development. Profit is usually the motivation behind anything the top companies do. With the top corporations it’s the bottom line that counts, and we the end users are simply consumers who get tossed about somewhere in between the two levels of “support and resistance” on their balance sheets.

As they say in business circles

If you are getting it for free, then you are the product. Or if you don’t know who the fool in the room is, then it’s probably you. Since we generally get to use online products like Google ads and Google search, as well as Facebook and Twitter, all for free, it is probably us and our data that are being mined and engaged somehow for potential profit on those platforms.

Am I just being suspicious?

Anyway, for some reason, of which there is one probable obvious contender, Ethereum ads are being blocked. “Due to the complex and evolving nature of regulations related to cryptocurrencies and related products and services…” Google says in its recently updated small print, they seem to be only allowing ads for mining and exchanges, and only in USA or Japan. Other cryptos are still being advertised, but Ethereum has been singled out…to begin with.

Basically, since 9 January

There is a “hard stop” on Google ads containing the key word Ethereum. It is now listed like a criminal to be flagged every time its name pops up. This was recently discovered by the Serbian company Decenter, who offer smart contract security auditing services. They use Ethereum products in their business, and when they saw the view on their ads drop by the thousands suddenly overnight, they did some investigation.

Google doesn’t always announce these shifts in policy and its only after you see the symptoms on your website that you realize something is wrong. Being a progressive tech company it didn’t take them long to get to the bottom of the saga.

If we look back at Google’s history

We can see this tendency in their service, where they chop and change their policy regarding this new and revolutionary product of blockchain technology. At first it was presumed that they were protecting their customers. Last year there were numerous ICO scams as well as fake trading signals or investment services promising you returns that were obviously inflated or unrealistic. Many people fell for the bogus ads in this unregulated industry and lost a lot of money. As a result Google and the others stated that they had seen enough damage done to unsuspecting consumers and that they wanted to protect us.

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This all sounds very noble, of course, but it did throw the baby out with the bathwater and honest crypto companies were unfairly targeted in the blanket ban. There are, after all, many decent and legitimate ICOs, exchanges, wallets and trading advisors out there in the crypto industry, but they were the victims of friendly fire, which doesn’t totally make sense if you think it through.

So what was really going on?

We can say this because if Google and the rest were really doing this blanket ban on potential scams or con artists, and were really keen to protect their customers from loss of funds, then why are they still allowing other far more suspect products to advertised, like suspect gambling, casino-related or unethical products, some of which appear to be just as controversial? And why are other crypto companies not banned? You can still find EOS-referenced ads. EOS has not been flagged as a keyword to be automatically or manually blocked.

As we said earlier, just follow the money

In this case it is likely that it all boils down to competition. Google want their slice of the blockchain pie and so as a giant company they are jumping on board the blockchain train. And as a result any other company who appears to be getting too much of the share, is simply being sidelined. Google sees Ethereum as competition. It’s as simple as that. Everyone in the industry knows that it’s just a matter of time before blockchain technology takes over the world and becomes as mainstream as the internet now is.

Even the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey said last year that bitcoin will probably become the “single world currency” by 2028.

So it’s a targeted move.

Like Facebook last year, Google now also wants to get in on the action

And is probably preparing the way to launch its own cryptocurrency – the “Googletoken”, or whatever. They want to bring in their own centralised digital asset and so Ethereum, which is currently the major blockchain by far, has to get out of the way. So many new coins or tokens are being released on the Ethereum blockchain now. Every day a new bunch pop up. If Google want to advertise their coin and get us consumers to buy into that instead of all the others, then they will need to block the ads from all the others, and since they are all mostly Ethereum-based, they have simply decided to put a blanket ban on Ethereum-related services or any ads using the Ethereum keyword or tag.

We might see more of this in the future.

Every mega company on the stock exchange is going to want to get on board with the new tech. It only makes sense. Research suggests that six out of ten multinational companies want to incorporate blockchain technology into their system now. Microsoft and Amazon are considering it. IBM has already jumped on board, announcing partnerships with Nestle, Unilever and Walmart to use blockchain in tracking and identifying their products. Even some time back, already random companies just had to put the words blockchain or bitcoin somewhere into the names of their products of services and they literally saw their share price go up significantly.

This was I like to call the “miracle effect”.

For example, the creator of Firefox, Brandon Eich

Has already jumped ahead and launched the Brave browser, based on the BAT blockchain and cryptocurrency asset. It is a brilliant product that blocks ads from using up your bandwidth and attention, thus the coin’s name curiously. Users can now get paid in cryptocurrency for viewing ads only relevant and interesting to them.

No more scalping of our data to customise ads targeted at us based on our interests and searches, as we see on Facebook or Google.

Of course if Facebook wants their own blockchain

They will have to still come up with something that can handle their huge quantities of data. Every sixty seconds over half a million comments are posted and about 140 000 photos uploaded. That’s way more than the iotcoin blockchaincan handle and even more than Ethereum’s 1200 transactions per second, rivalling Visa’s 25 000 tps.

Nevertheless all the top companies are going in the direction of blockcahin.

Google has a history of experimenting with every new or progressive technology

That has emerged in recent years, from cloud technology to neural networks, big data, AI, augmented reality, self driving cars, machine learning, all of them, so obviously they are into blockchain like never before. They would never simply sit back and let the competition run ahead in the game. They have already invested in other blockchain-related corporations or start-ups and now they are keen to go main stream. So Ethereum has to get out of the way. Therefore they have blocked them at the ad level.

These guys will do whatever it takes to keep their competitive edge.

The fact that Google has now suddenly banned Ethereum ads again

Simply goes to show how successful Ethereum has become and how the competition is intensifying at the top, for market share among these global leaders. And competition is a good thing apparently. It should improve the end use facility and service for us consumers, making it smoother, cheaper and more efficient as innovation comes into play.

Let’s hope Ethereum and the companies that use their features don’t suffer too much fallout though.

It’s tough at the top and it’s only fair that the playing field as a bit more level for all involved.

Enjoyed reading today's report of the Crypto News?

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