Google is quietly working on blockchain technology, according to unnamed sources who spoke with Bloomberg News.

The search company is developing its own distributed ledger blockchain software to verify transactions within its cloud services. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Google will use the technology internally as well as provide a white-label version that other companies can run on their own servers. These sources said that Google has looked at the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger blockchain software. But it’s unknown whether the company will ultimately choose that open source software or something else.

It’s also unknown precisely how Google might be planning to use blockchain. But Cointelegraph reported that the company filed a patent application for a tamper-proof auditing system based on the technology.

While Google is secretive about its development efforts, its cloud competitors have been more forthcoming.

Microsoft has been working on its blockchain-as-a-service on its Azure cloud platform since November 2015. Microsoft is bullish on the Ethereum platform. And the company is also involved with the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger project. In August 2017 Microsoft introduced its Coco Framework — software to help enterprises adopt blockchain.

IBM has also been working on blockchain technology for awhile. It introduced its IBM Blockchain, a service based on the Hyperledger Fabric. The service enables developers to build production blockchain networks on the IBM Cloud, underpinned by the IBM LinuxONE server.

And late last year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) acknowledged that it too was working on blockchain. The company still isn’t planning its own service based on the technology. But it launched a portal to support its customers’ integration of blockchain services built on its cloud. “AWS provides the broadest and deepest capabilities with the largest global infrastructure for building end-to-end blockchain solutions,” Ale Flores, global segment lead for Blockchain at AWS wrote in a blog post announcing the new AWS Blockchain Partners Portal.

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