Google has announced that they are to be helping developers in the Web3 space by launching the Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine, which many believe will be positive for the Ethereum price.

Many companies have become more involved with cryptocurrencies over the last few years, but the largest of the Big Tech companies have seemed somewhat reticent until now. This only makes sense given that the largest companies have to consider the reputation damage if something were to go wrong, and they are held to an extremely high standard by their users, as they have so many of them.

As one of the largest companies in the world, Google’s support of the Ethereum network has led many to believe that this stamp of legitimacy is to be hugely positive for the Ethereum price, and that ETH could even eclipse $10k in the next bull run.

When will the Ethereum price recover $2k?
The bear market has been fairly brutal for the Ethereum price, having fallen from a high of $4,500 with few very bullish rallies.

Over the course of the last week, however, the Ethereum price has begun to show some bullish signs once more, with the price having appreciated by over 17% in the past seven days.

Ethereum price prediction 
All eyes are on the Federal Reserve to see whether or not they will pivot their programme of hiking interest rates.

If they pivot soon, as economists at Blackrock have predicted, then “risk on” assets could be in for an extremely positive ride going forward, especially given that the sustained high levels of inflation mean that it is more desirable to hold commodities and stocks and coins like Ethereum than it is to hold bonds.

Ethereum’s corporate capture and growing censorship
Despite being fully aware that the merge would make Ethereum less resistant to censorship, the developers at the Ethereum Foundation decided to continue with the merge.

The high degree of centralisation amongst entities that stake Ethereum (Lido, Kraken and Coinbase controlling over 50% of the validators) was not deemed a significant enough risk, and the team decided that moving to proof of stake was more important than maintaining Ethereum as a decentralised and censorship-resistant network.

This decision was likely made because the proof of stake narrative lends itself very easily to being ESG-compliant, which is likely to attract institutional investors who do not understand the nuance of how proof of work is positive for the environment.

As it stands, the overwhelming majority of Ethereum blocks are now restricted by OFAC sanctions, and censorship on the network is gradually increasing by the day.

This has given more fuel to the Bitcoin maximalist camp, who warned that this would happen as soon as the blockchain abandoned proof of work.