Google Unveils Layer 1 Chain for Banks with Python-based Smart Contracts

Google is expanding its presence in the blockchain space with the Google Cloud Universal Ledger — or just GCUL — which it pitches as a Layer 1 network with a focus on financial institutions.

In a Wednesday LinkedIn post, Rich Widmann, head of strategy for Web3 at Google, framed GCUL as a way to avoid the conflicts that might arise with blockchains backed by competitors.

“Tether won’t use Circle’s blockchain – and Adyen probably won’t use Stripe’s blockchain. But any financial institution can build with GCUL,” he wrote in the post.

According to Widmann, the Universal Ledger brings together “years of R&D at Google to provide financial institutions with a novel Layer 1 that is performant, credibly neutral and enables Python-based smart contracts,” although he didn’t clarify whether the network itself will also run on Python.

Crowded Space

Google isn’t the first to push for easier smart contract development. Solidity has long been known for its tricky syntax and potential for costly bugs, which is why Ethereum once tried Serpent, a Python-like language that was quickly retired due to security and compiler issues.

Vyper still exists as a leaner, more secure alternative, but it never really dented Solidity’s dominance. Outside Ethereum, Solana uses Rust, Algorand has PyTEAL, which is a Pythonic library that generates TEAL code, and Tezos offers SmartPy, a Python-style framework.

In its blog post, Google Cloud said that institutions will be able to connect through a single API and pay fixed monthly fees, rather than dealing with fluctuating gas costs.

There aren’t many technical details yet, and Widmann said the network will be tested privately at first, so regular users won’t get an early look.

Some big players are already on board. CME Group said back in March that it’s working with Google to test GCUL for “seamless and secure wholesale payments and tokenization of assets.” It’s expected that CME will launch new services based on GCUL in 2026.