Another Google Blockchain Move
February 11, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Google is busy in court explaining that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a cow. I want to focus briefly on another Googley blockchain move. The company has a tie up with Alibaba, and it has some other interesting deals under its belt. I learned this morning (February 11, 2026) from the crypto centric online information service The Block’s article “Citadel and Ark Invest Back LayerZero As It Launches Blockchain, Partners with Google Cloud and DTCC” headline can be tough to figure out without some crypto jazziness. Let’s tackle the wild and crazy crypto kid lingo:
- Citadel is a hefty U.S.-based multi-strategy hedge fund, and it has been around for about 35 years
- ARK Invest is a U.S.-based investment management outfit whipped up by Cathie Wood, who likes disruptive investing
- LayerZero Labs created a system for connecting chains that process crypto transactions and supports smart contracts on one blockchain interacting with another blockchain’s smart contracts. (Do fraud investigators find these functions helpful?)
- A blockchain is a database; that is, a distributed record book that many computers share and update together. (The idea is that it is hard to fiddle information written to a blockchain.)
- Google is an online advertising system with some side interests such as crypto
- DTCC is Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. It is a back office service provider that provides clearing, settlement, custody, and record-keeping services for securities transactions
Google explains that if it looks like a duck, it is definitely a cow. Thanks, Venice.ai.
Putting together the crypto bro words, the cross chain operator LayerZero is going into the blockchain business. Now what’s the Google doing with this outfit and some investor types? The write up says:
"As AI agents start to become economic actors, the programmability of cryptocurrencies and blockchains will require infrastructure as reliable as the cloud itself," Google Cloud’s Head of Web3 Strategy Richard Widmann said. "LayerZero is rethinking how blockchains work from the ground up. By pairing their expertise with our infrastructure, we are exploring how to expand the definition of the internet to include value."
Okay, the Google Cloud is semi clear. This is essentially remote computing services with that extra Google cleverness. Google offers Amazon and Azure type of cloud services. It can do some cloud security. It can process lots of data and train its “personalized” AI “experiences.” It can provide inputs to lawyers who do the “it’s not a duck. It is a cow” arguments in a courtroom. It can do advertising stuff.
Web 3 is a bit of marketing play. Web 1 was Yahoo. Web 2 was Facebook. Web 3 is crypto (with no single outfit owning the market yet). When I think of Web 3, it interpret the jargon to mean Web3 is a fantasy Internet in which users, not just platforms, own and move crypto using blockchain technology.
My interpretation of the Google wizard’s comment is in simple terms: A market which Google eventually wants to dominate like online advertising.
Is this important? For Google, the answer is, “Yes.” Google is obviously in the crypto game. Google likes to win. Ducks are cows.
You ask, “Why?”
The same reason that Telegram has been trying quite diligently to become the preferred platform for global crypto transactions. Telegram has taken some short cuts. The Google is just doing what Google does. It lines up its moves in the money chess game and starts pushing pieces around. The idea is to checkmate the opponent and, of course, win the game.
Therefore, the Block story and the quote from the Googler is important.
Stephen E Arnold, February 11, 2026
Google Will Not Change; the EU Will Not Change; Writing Checks to the EU Will Not Change
January 28, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
I suppose one could summarize the information in “Commission Opens Proceedings to Assist Google in Complying with Interoperability and Online Search Data Sharing Obligations under the Digital Markets Act” with a new mobile number for these types of complaints: +1 800 YOU WISH.
Two EU professionals look at a facility. Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
My hunch is that Google will email the legal document to its legal eagles. Leadership at Google does not do legal paperwork. The company is busy inventing the future with its quantumly supreme technology. Let’s look at what the EU’s media office says about the online advertising outfit with smart software and even smarter people:
the European Commission has started two sets of specification proceedings to assist Google in complying with its obligations under the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’). The specification proceedings formalize the Commission’s regulatory dialogue with Google on certain areas of its compliance with two DMA obligations.
Two violations for Googzilla. First, the company allegedly is not making life easy enough for Android developers. Second, the Google is not providing access to search data.
I am a dinobaby. I live in rural Kentucky. From my point of view, this is similar to the government Lilliput demanding that France ship the Mona Lisa for an exhibition in the Lilliputian National Art Gallery. Sorry, won’t happen. France will just plug along being France.
The EU will work on this matter for several months and then let the Google know what’s up. Is this a surprise the the leadership or the legal eagles at Google? Perhaps. The Google has only known about this matter since September 2023.
What will happen now? Google will allow its legal eagles to flap and bill. Then the EU will respond. Then there will be outputs from Google. Then the EU will find Google a less than willing party to this matter. Google will appeal. Eventually Google will write a check. But what will happen in the meantime? My view is that Google will continue to be Googley. The approach has worked well for the last 25 years.
The EU might want to rethink its system and method. It seems to be flummoxed by Googzilla’s. Just a thought.
Stephen E Arnold, January 27, 2026
YouTube: Fingernails on a Blackboard
January 22, 2026
I read “From the CEO: What’s Coming to YouTube in 2026.” Yep, fingernails on a blackboard. Let’s take a look at a handful of the points in this annual letter to the world. Are advertisers included? No. What about regulators? No. What about media parters? Uh, no.
To whom is the leter addressed? I think it is to the media who report about YouTube, which, as the letter puts it, is “the epicenter of culture. ” Yeah, okay, maybe. The letter is also addressed to “creatives.” I think this means the people who post their content to YouTube in the hopes of making big money. Plus, some of the observations are likely to be aimed at those outfits who have the opportunity to participate in the YouTube cable TV clone service.
Okay, let’s begin the dragging of one’s fingernails down an old-school blackboard.
First, one of my instructors at Oxon Hill Primary School (a suburb of Washington, DC) told me, “Have a strong beginning.” Here’s what the Google YouTube pronouncement offers:
YouTube has the scale, community, and technological investments to lead the creative industry into this next era.
Notice, please, that Google is not providing search. It is not a service. YouTube will “lead the creative industry.” That an interesting statement from a company a court has labeled a monopoly. Monopolies don’t lead; they control and dictate. Thanks, Google, your intentions are admirable… for you. For a person who wants to write novels, do investigative reporting, or sculpt, you are explaining the way the world will work.
Here’s another statement that raised little goose bumps on my dinobaby skin:
we remain committed to protecting creative integrity by supporting critical legislation like the NO FAKES Act.
I like the idea that YouTube supports legislation it perceives as useful to itself. I want to point out that Google has filed to appeal the decision that labeled the outfit a monpoly. Google also acts in an arbitrary manner which makes it difficult for those who alleged a problem with Google cannot obtain direct interaction with the “YouTube team.” Selective rules appear to be the way forward for YouTube.
Finally, I want to point out a passage that set my teeth on edge like a visit to the dentist in Campinas, Brazil, who used a foot-peddled drill to deal with a cavity afflicting me. That was fun, just like using YouTube search, YouTube filters, or the YouTube interfaces. Here’s the segment from the statement of YouTube in 2026:
To reduce the spread of low quality AI content, we’re actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content.
Whoa, Nellie or Neil! Why can’t the AI champions at Gemini / DeepMind let AI identify “slop” and label it. A user could then choose, slop or no slop? I think I know the answer. Google’s AI cannot identify slop even though Google AI generates it. Furthermore, my Google generated YouTube recommendations present slop to me and suggest videos I have already viewed. These missteps illustrate that Google will not spend the money to deal with these problems, its smart software cannot deal with these problems, or clicks are more important than anything other than cost cutting. Google and YouTube are the Henry Ford of the AI slop business.
What do Neal’s heartfelt, honest, and entitled comments mean to me, a dinobaby? I shall offer some color about how I interpreted the YouTube statement about 2026:
- The statement dictates.
- The comments about those who create content strike me as self serving, possibly duplicitous
- The issue of slop becomes a “to do” with no admission of being a big part of the problem.
Net net: Google you are definitely Googlier than in 2025.
Stephen E Arnold, January 22, 2026
Gemini, Listen Up
January 20, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
We were testing Google Gemini last week. We learned several things:
- Gemini does not follow instructions even if these are input into the “rules” form
- Gemini refuses to stay on track. The system attempts to hijack the line of questioning by inserting “Would you like…” suggestions
- Gemini pushes YouTube videos into results, ignoring a user’s request for text only responses.
As if these were not sufficiently annoying amidst the incorrect responses and the smarmy tone adopted when informed that a professional, objective response is requested.
This is Venice.ai’s interpretation of my using Google Gemini and getting giant, stupid links to AI infected YouTube videos. Hey, thanks, Gemini. Good enough Venice.ai.
Nope, the big news is that Gemini is about as good as ChatGPT and Perplexity on our test prompts and queries.
Where it fails is a window into Google’s approach. I characterize this services of the entitled to the less adept method.
Here’s one example. “YouTube Views Less Effective Than Audio Downloads in Driving Purchases, According to Study” states:
YouTube views are 18-25% less effective than audio downloads at driving purchases and may not be interchangeable despite common industry belief and practice…. It suggests there may be a loss of up to $250k in conversion value for every $1m spent on YouTube podcast impressions.
Do I believe these studies by outfits which are essentially unknown to me? Answer: Absolutely. I believe everything I read on the Internet.
But let’s assume that the data reported are close enough for horse shoes. Google certainly has data that supports its decision to shove YouTube videos into Gemini outputs. Furthermore, some Google wizard instructed Gemini to include YouTube videos whenever possible into Gemini. Plus, those videos consume a significant segment of the output. Finally, when copying a Gemini answer the YouTube “links” screw up basic document formatting in Word and LibreOffice. Some documents are unusable after pasting a YouTube output from Gemini into a Word file.
Several observations:
- Google is definitely into providing links to YouTube videos which are increasingly generated by AI or manipulated by AI with the notice that AI produced the videos missing or at the tail end of the “More” text
- Gemini is configured to present video in a text response. What about podcast links? Why not a link to the transcript of the video instead of creating an annoyance?
- Gemini, like Microsoft, is trying to make smart software work better than Boolean search in my opinion. Guess what? It is not as effective for queries requiring a fast, precise answer. Why spend billions and make me wait for a simple look up.
- Google Advanced Search is still available, but it presents AI slop. At least Yandex.com tries to provide something relevant and Alice thankfully is not pushing her way into a query.
Net net: Google’s management of its technical resources is poor. Both Google and Microsoft are taking steps to increase user frustration. Gemini, to its credit, knows when I am angry. That doesn’t matter. I am a dinobaby, and I like to do work the old fashioned way. Okay, Google, why not automatically play podcast snippets in the Gemini output. That would be really cool, right, whiz kids?
Stephen E Arnold, January 20, 2026
Is This Correct? Google Sues to Protect Copyright
December 30, 2025
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
This headline stopped me in my tracks: “Google Lawsuit Says Data Scraping Company Uses Fake Searches to Steal Web Content.” The way my dinobaby brain works, I expect to see a publisher taking the world’s largest online advertising outfit in the crosshairs. But I trust Thomson Reuters because they tell me they are the trust outfit.
Google apparently cannot stop a third party from scraping content from its Web site. Is this SEO outfit operating at a level of sophistication beyond the ken of Mandiant, Gemini, and the third-party cyber tools the online giant has? Must be I guess. Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
The alleged copyright violator in this case seems to be one of those estimable, highly professional firms engaged in search engine optimization. Those are the folks Google once saw as helpful to the sale of advertising. After all, if a Web site is not in a Google search result, that Web site does not exist. Therefore, to get traffic or clicks, the Web site “owner” can buy Google ads and, of course, make the Web site Google compliant. Maybe the estimable SEO professional will continue to fiddle and doctor words in a tireless quest to eliminate the notion of relevance in Google search results.
Now an SEO outfit is on the wrong site of what Google sees as the law. The write up says:
Google on Friday [December 19, 2025] sued a Texas company that “scrapes” data from online search results, alleging it uses hundreds of millions of fake Google search requests to access copyrighted material and “take it for free at an astonishing scale. The lawsuit against SerpApi, filed in federal court in California, said the company bypassed Google’s data protections to steal the content and sell it to third parties.
To be honest the phrase “astonishing scale” struck me as somewhat amusing. Google itself operates on “astonishing scale.” But what is good for the goose is obviously not good for the gander.
I asked You.com to provide some examples of people suing Google for alleged copyright violations. The AI spit out a laundry list. Here are four I sort of remembered:
- News Outlets & Authors v. Google (AI Training Copyright Cases)
- Google Users v. Google LLC (Privacy/Data Class Action with Copyright Claims)
- Advertisers v. Google LLC (Advertising Content Class Action)
- Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC
My thought is that with some experience in copyright litigation, Google is probably confident that the SEO outfit broke the law. I wanted to word it “broke the law which suits Google” but I am not sure that is clear.
Okay, which company will “win.” An SEO firm with resources slightly less robust than Google’s or Google?
Place your bet on one of the online gambling sites advertising everywhere at this time. Oh, Google permits online gambling ads in areas allowing gambling and with appropriate certifications, licenses, and compliance functions.
I am not sure what to make of this because Google’s ability to filter, its smart software, and its security procedures obviously are either insufficient, don’t work, or are full of exploitable gaps.
Stephen E Arnold, December 30, 2025
Way to Go, Waymo: The Non-Googley Drivers Are Breaking the Law
December 26, 2025
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
To be honest I like to capture Googley moments in the real world. Forget the outputs of Google’s wonderful Web search engine. (Hey, where did those pages of links go?) The Google-reality interface is a heck of lot more fun.
Consider this article, which I assume like everything I read on the Internet, to be rock solid capital T truth. “Waymo Spotted Driving Wrong Way Down Busy Street.” The write up states as actual factual:
This week, one of Waymo’s fully driverless cabs was spotted blundering down the wrong side of a street in Austin, Texas, causing the human motorists driving in the correct direction to cautiously come to a halt, not unlike hikers encountering a bear.
That was no bear. That was a little Googzilla. These creatures, regardless of physical manifestation, operate by a set of rules and cultural traditions understandable only to those who have been in the Google environment.
Thanks to none of the AI image generators. I had to use three smart software to create a pink car driving the wrong way on a one way street. Great proof of a tiny problem with today’s best: ChatGPT, Venice, and MidJourney. Keep up the meh work.
The cited article continues:
The incident was captured in footage uploaded to Reddit. For a split second, it shows the Waymo flash its emergency signal, before switching to its turn signal. The robotaxi then turns in the opposite direction indicated by its blinker and pulls into a gas station, taking its sweet time.
I beg to differ. Google does not operate on “sweet time.” Google time is a unique way to move toward its ultimate goal: Humans realizing that they are in the path of a little Googzilla. Therefore, adapt to the Googleplex. The Googleplex does not adapt to humanoids. Humanoids click and buy things. Google facilitates this by allowing humanoids to ride in little Googzilla vehicles and absorb Google advertisements.
The write up illustrates that it fails to grasp the brilliance of the Googzilla’s smart software; to wit:
Waymo recalled a software patch after its robotaxis were caught blowing past stopped school buses with active warning lights and stop signs, including at least one incident where a Waymo drove right by students who were disembarking. Twenty of these incidents were reported in Austin alone, MySA noted, prompting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an investigation into the company. It’s not just school buses: the cabs don’t always stop for law enforcement, either. Earlier this month, a Waymo careened into an active police standoff, driving just a few feet away from a suspect who was lying facedown in the asphalt while cops had their guns trained on him.
These examples point out the low level of understanding that exists among the humanoids who consume advertising. Googzilla would replace humanoids if it could, but — for now — big and little Googzillas have to tolerate the inefficient friction humanoids introduce to the Google systems.
Let’s recap:
- Humans fail to understand Google rules
- Examples of Waymo “failures” identify the specific weaknesses Gemini can correct
- Little Googzillas define traffic rules.
So what if a bodega cat goes to the big urban area with dark alleys in the sky. Study Google and learn.
Stephen E Arnold, December 26, 2025
Google Web Indexing: Some Think It Is Degrading. Impossible
December 25, 2025
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
I think Google’s Web indexing is the cat’s pajamas. It is the best. It has the most Web pages. It digs deep into sites few people visit like the Inter-American Foundation. Searches are quick, especially if you don’t use Gemini which seems to hang in dataspace today (December 12, 2025).
Imagine my reaction when I read that a person using a third-party blog publishing service was de-indexed. Now the pointer is still there, but it is no longer displayed by the esteemed Google system. You can read the human’s version of the issue he encountered in “Google De-Indexed My Entire Bear Blog and I Don’t Know Why.”
Google has brightened the day of a blogger. Google understands advertising. Some other things are bafflers to Googzilla. Thanks, Qwen. Good enough, but you spelled “de-indexed” correctly.
The write up reveals the issue. The human clicked on something and Google just followed its rules. Here’s the “why” from the source document:
On Oct 14, as I was digging around GSC, I noticed that it was telling me that one of the URLs weren’t indexed. I thought that was weird, and not being very familiar with GSC, I went ahead and clicked the “Validate” button. Only after did I realized that URL was the RSS feed subscribe link,
https://blog.james-zhan.com/feed/?type=rss, which wasn’t even a page so it made sense that it hadn’t been indexed, but it was too late and there was no way for me to stop the validation.
The essay explains how Google’s well crafted system responded to this signal to index an invalid url. Google could have taken time to add a message like “Are you sure?” or maybe a statement saying, “Clicking okay will cause de-indexing of the content at the root url.” But Google — with its massive amounts of user behavior data — knows that its interfaces are crystal clear. The vast majority of human Googlers understand what happens when they click on options to delete images from the Google Cloud. Or, when a Gmail user tries to delete old email using the familiar from: command.
But the basic issue is that a human caused the de-indexing.
What’s interesting about the human’s work around is that those actions could be interpreted as a gray or black hat effort to fiddle with Google’s exceptional approach to indexing. Here’s what the human did:
I copied my blog over to a different subdomain (you are on it right now), moved my domain from GoDaddy to Porkbun for URL forwarding, and set up URL forwarding with paths so any blog post URLs I posted online will automatically be redirected to the corresponding blog post on this new blog. I also avoided submitting the sitemap of the new blog to GSC. I’m just gonna let Google naturally index the blog this time. Hopefully, this new blog won’t run into the same issue.
I would point out that “hope” is not often an operative concept at the Google.
What’s interesting about this essay about a human error is that it touched a nerve amongst the readers of Hacker News. Here a few comments about this human error:
- PrairieFire offers this gentle observation: “Whether or not this specific author’s blog was de-indexed or de-prioritized, the issue this surfaces is real and genuine. The real issue at hand here is that it’s difficult to impossible to discover why, or raise an effective appeal, when one runs afoul of Google, or suspects they have. I shudder to use this word as I do think in some contexts it’s being overused, I think it’s the best word to use here though: the issue is really that Google is a Gatekeeper.
- FuturisticLover is a bit more direct: “Google search results have gone sh*t. I am facing some deindexing issues where Google is citing a content duplicate and picking a canonical URL itself, despite no similar content. Just the open is similar, but the intent is totally different, and so is the focus keyword. Not facing this issue in Bing and other search engines.
- Aldipower raises a question about excellence and domination of Web search technology: Yeah, Google search results are almost useless. How could they have neglected their core competence so badly?
Several observations are warranted:
- Don’t click on any Google button unless one does one’s homework. Interpreting Google speak without having fluency in the lingo can result in some interesting downstream consequences
- Google is unlikely to change due to its incentive programs. One does not get promoted for fixing up an statement that could lead to a site being removed from public view. One gets the brass ring for doing AI which hopefully works more reliably that Gemini today (December 12, 2025)
- Quite a few people posting to this Hacker News’ item don’t have the same level of affection I have for the scintillating Google search experience.
Net net: Get with the program. The courts have spoken in the US. The EU just collects money. Users consume ads. Adapt. My suggestion is to not screw around too much; otherwise, Bear Blogs might be de-indexed by an annoyed search administrator in Switzerland.
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2025
The Google Has a New Sheep Herder: An AI Boss to Nip at the Heels of the AI Beasties
December 17, 2025
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Staffing turmoil appears to be the end-of-year trend in some Silicon Valley outfits. Apple is spitting out executives. Meta is thrashing. OpenAI is doing the Code Red alert thing amidst unsettled wizards. And, today I learned that Google has a chief technologist for AI infrastructure. I think that means data centers, but it could extend some oversight to the new material science lab in the UK that will use AI (of course) to invent new materials. “Exclusive / Google Names New Chief of AI Infrastructure Buildout” reports:
Amin Vahdat, who joined Google from academia roughly 15 years ago, will be named chief technologist for AI infrastructure, according to the memo, and become one of 15 to 20 people reporting directly to CEO Sundar Pichai. Google estimates it will have spent more than $90 billion on capital expenditures by the end of 2025, most of it going into the part of the company Vahdat will now oversee.
The sheep dog attempts to herd the little data center doggies away from environmental issues, infrastructure inconsistencies, and roll-your-own engineering. Woof. Thanks, Venice.ai. Close enough for horseshoes.
I read this as making clear the following:
- Google spent “more than $90 billion” on infrastructure in 2025
- No one was paying attention to this investment
- For 2025, a former academic steeped in Googliness will herd the sheep in 2026.
I assume that is part of the McKinsey way, Fire, Aim, Ready! Dinobabies like me with some blue chip consulting experience feel slightly more comfortable with the old school Ready, Aim, Fire! But the world today is different from the one I traveled through decades ago. Nostalgia does not cut it in the “we have to win AI” business environment today.
Here’s a quote making clear that planning and organizing were not part of the 2025 check writing. I quote:
“This change establishes AI Infrastructure as a key focus area for the company,” wrote Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in the Wednesday memo congratulating Vahdat.
The cited article puts this sheep herder in context:
In August, Google disclosed in a paper co-authored by Vahdat that the amount of energy used to run the median prompt on its AI models was equivalent to watching less than nine seconds of television and consuming five drops of water. The numbers were far less than what some critics had feared and competitors had likely hoped for. There’s no single answer for how to best run an AI data center. It’s small, coordinated efforts across disparate teams that span the globe. The job of coordinating it all now has an official title.
See and understand. The power consumption for the Google AI data centers is trivial. The Google can plug these puppies into the local power grid, nip at the heels of the people who complain about rising electricity prices and brown outs, and nuzzle the folks who:
- Promise small, local nuclear power generation facilities. No problems with licensing, component engineering, and nuclear waste. Trivialities.
- Repurposed jet engines from a sort of real supersonic jet source. Noise? No problem. Heat? No problem. Emission control? No problem.
- Brand spanking new pressurized water reactors built by the old school nuclear crowd. No problem. Time? No problem. The new folks are accelerationists.
- Recommissioning turned off (deactivated) nuclear power stations. No problem. Costs? No problem. Components? No problem. Environmental concerns? Absolutely no problem.
Google is tops in strategic planning and technology. It should be. It crafted its expertise selling advertising. AI infrastructure is a piece of cake. I think sheep dogs herding AI can do the job which apparently was not done for more than a year. When a problem becomes to big to ignore, restructure. Grrr or Woof, not Yipe, little herder.
Stephen E Arnold, December 17, 2025
Google: Trying Hard Not to Be Noticed in a Crypto Club
December 16, 2025
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Google continues to creep into crypto. Google has interacted with ANT Financial. Google has invested in some interesting compute services. And now Google will, if “Exclusive: YouTube Launches Option for U.S. Creators to Receive Stablecoin Payouts through PayPal” is on the money, give crypto a whirl among its creators.
A friendly creature warms up in a yoga studio. Few notice the suave green beast. But one person spots a subtle touch: Pink gym shoes purchased with PayPal crypto. Such a deal. Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
The Fortune article reports as actual factual:
A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, confirmed the video site has added payouts for creators in PayPal’s stablecoin but declined to comment further. YouTube is already an existing customer of PayPal’s and uses the fintech giant’s payouts service, which helps large enterprises pay gig workers and contractors.
How does this work?
Based on the research we did for our crypto lectures, a YouTuber in the US would have to have a PayPal account. Google puts the payment in PayPal’s crypto in the account. The YouTuber would then use PayPal to convert PayPal crypto into US dollars. Then the YouTuber could move the US dollars to his or her US bank account. Allegedly there would be no gas fee slapped on the transactions, but there is an opportunity to add service charges at some point. (I mean what self respecting MBA angling for a promotion wouldn’t propose that money making idea?)
Several observations:
- In my new monograph “The Telegram Labyrinth” available only to law enforcement officials, we identified Google as one of the firms moving in what we call the “Telegram direction.” The Google crypto creeps plus PayPal reinforce that observation. Why? Money and information.
- Information about how Google’s activities in crypto will conform to assorted money related rules and regulations are not clear to me. Furthermore as we completed our “The Telegram Labyrinth” research in early September 2025, not too many people were thinking about Google as a crypto player. But that GOOGcoin does seem like something even the lowest level wizard at Alphabet could envision, doesn’t it?
- Google has a track record of doing what it wants. Therefore, in my opinion, more little tests, baby steps, and semi-low profile moves probably are in the wild. Hopefully someone will start looking.
Net net: Google does do pretty much what it wants to do. From gaining new training data from its mobile-to-ear-bud translation service to expanding its AI capabilities with its new silicon, the Google is a giant creature doing some low impact exercises. When the Google shifts to lifting big iron, a number of interesting challenges will arise. Are regulators ready? Are online fraud investigators ready? Is Microsoft ready?
What’s your answer?
Stephen E Arnold, December 16, 2025
Ka-Ching: The EU Cash Registers Tolls for the Google
December 16, 2025
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Thomson Reuters, the trust outfit because they say the company is, published another ka-ching story titled “Exclusive: Google Faces Fines Over Google Play if It Doesn’t Make More Concessions, Sources Say.” The story reports:
Alphabet’s Google is set to be hit with a potentially large EU fine early next year if it does not do more to ensure that its app store complies with EU rules aimed at ensuring fair access and competition, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
An elected EU official introduces the new and permanent member of the parliament. Thanks, Venice.ai. Not exactly what I specified, but saving money on compute cycles is the name of the game today. Good enough.
I can hear the “Sorry. We’re really, really sorry” statement now. I can even anticipate the sequence of events; hence and herewith:
- Google says, “We believe we have complied.”
- The EU says, “Pay up.”
- Google says, “Let’s go to trial.”
- The EU says, “Fine with us.”
- The Google says, “We are innocent and have complied.”
- The EU says, “You are guilty and owe $X millions of dollars. (Note: The EU generates more revenue by fining US big tech companies than it does from certain tax streams I have heard.)
- The Google says, “Let’s negotiate.”
- The EU says, “Fine with us.”
- Google negotiates and says, “We have a deal plus we did nothing wrong.”
- The EU says, “Pay X millions less the Y millions we agree to deduct based on our fruitful negotiations.”
The actual factual article says:
DMA fines can be as much as 10% of a company’s global annual revenue. The Commission has also charged Google with favoring its associated search services in Google Search, and is investigating its use of online content for its artificial intelligence tools and services and its spam policy.
My interpretation of this snippet is that the EU has on deck another case of Google’s alleged law breaking. This is predictable, and the approach does generate revenue from companies with lots of cash.
Stephen E Arnold, December 16, 2025
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