Google Cache payment system no threat to bitcoin

Google is the latest technology company that interferes with the banking industry by offering current accounts. The company says it plans to work with US banks and credit unions to offer smart checking accounts.

Earlier this year, the search giant already reported about their Quantum Computer, a potential threat to bitcoin. Can we also include this new payment service?

Code word: Google Cache

According to various sources, Google has entered into a partnership with US banking giant Citigroup to launch its own “smart checking” bank accounts. Or smart payment accounts. The product, codenamed Cache, is made available through Google Play. Google wants to use its own analytical tools for traditional banking products.

The concept and details are still not completely clear. That’s what the Financial Times says, but they already call Cache the future of the banking system. It is possible that customers simply get access to a slick Google platform on which a traditional bank account is processed. But that is now mainly guesswork.

Learn from Facebook

Google is not the first tech giant who wants to take a slice of the banking pie and they won’t be the last. Facebook (and their Libra) is a well-known example of another major tech company with financial ambitions. But Google seems to have learned from Facebook’s mistakes. Facebook is under attack from global regulators and politicians because they blow so high from the tower and want to launch the product in an unorthodox way.

Traditional approach

Google goes for the more traditional approach by working together with a reputable bank. Sengupta from Google in conversation with The Wall Street Journal:

“We want to collaborate with banks and the financial system. It may be a slightly longer path, but it is more sustainable. “

Collecting data, but not selling

WSJ hinted that the search and advertising giant was more interested in the data of accounts, salaries, and store habits. Trust will be an important issue here, because Google and Facebook both earn a huge amount from people’s personal information. So it is not surprising that the next logical step is to be able to look into everyone’s spending pattern.

Sengupta added that Google would never sell customers’ financial data and that it does not use Google Pay data for advertising purposes.

No threat to bitcoin

It is for this reason that Cache will not be a bitcoin threat. The fact that a large company such as Google is intervening in the banking sector reinforces the argument for a decentralized and global currency. This applies twice if your privacy is worth something to you.

Billy Bambrough of Fobes wrote that Google’s Chace may be a greater threat to bitcoin than quantum computing, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Bitcoin and traditional banks (and apparently Google) don’t even play on the same playing field. In addition, it is almost unthinkable that people with cryptocurrency are eager to become an intermediary in the banking world.