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I’m Obi( @obnty ), the founder of NodeTokyo, the first tech-focused international blockchain conference in Japan and CryptoAge, the blockchain community of devs and students.
You can check out the past issue #1 from here.
#2 from here
On to this week’s update covering the happenings mainly from April 8-15, 2019.
⛓ Startups
Two Japanese startups, BUIDL and Alis joined EU’s International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications(INATBA) as founding members - Link
BUIDL is a blockchain consulting firm founded by Omise’s founder Jun Hasegawa and Global Brain. Alis builds a blog media platform on Ethereum.
💱Exchanges
Zaif exchange(formerly operated by Tech Bureau) and Fisco exchange to be merged in 2019 - Link
Fisco acquired Zaif in November 2018 and continued operating two exchanges.Coincheck has added ETH and XRP for their OTC trading service - Link
Initially started just with BTC.
💼Enterprises
MUFG’s CEO announced their plan to put JPY-pegged stable-coin to practical use within 2019 - Link
MUFG is the largest bank in Japan and the fifth biggest one in the world. Their employee of 1,500 people have been participating stablecoin POC since 2017.
📖Regulation
Government revealed the companies to participate the Point Reward Project for Consumers using Cashless Payment - Link
Government plans to pay-back for consumers and businesses using cash-less payments from October 2019. Among many other payment service providers, SBI Ripple Asia was selected.
👋Meetups / Events
EDCON was held in Sydney on April 11-13th and several Japanese community members participated. - Link
Ryuya Nakamura, the researcher at LayerX gave a talk on his work around CBC Casper - Slides
Yuriko Nishijima, the plasma researcher at Cryptoeconomics Lab gave a talk on Plasma Chamber - Video
I participated in a panel “Debates on the Controversial Issues from Ethereum Community“ with Vitalik Buterin, Karl Floersch (Ethereum Core Researcher), Albert Ni (Ethereum Foundation), Michael Elliot (Blockchain Engineer at MakerDAO), Remington Ong (Partner, Fenbushi Capital), and Anthony Sassano(Co-founder of ethhub.io)
Also gave a talk on “Current State of Japanese Blockchain Ecosystem“. Here are some of the slides:Full slides here
Almost 150 people gathered for “Tokyo DOT day” by Web3 Foundation at DMMcom HQ office. - Link
Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood from Parity / Web3 Foundation and several other core developers gave tech talks for developers.
That’s all for now. See you next week! - Obi