Japan Web3 Roundup: Product Dao-velopment platform, Cells going onchain, and Daiwa furthering crypto exploration

Story #1: Product Dao-velopment platform

On August 9th, Hakuhodo Key 3, a joint venture between one of the largest advertising companies and the web3 company Stake Technologies, announced the launch of a new type of product development platform called “New! Product development”.

The platform brings together loyal customers of companies with their internal teams to tap into the wisdom of crowds and develop the products that customers want to see. All of this is enabled through a DAO setup, in which customers hold NFTs granting rights to propose and vote on new product ideas. Companies can use the solution throughout the entire product lifecycle, starting at ideation all the way up to aftercare and engagement with customers using the product.

Involving customers will ensure that products align with their needs, while web3 adds transparency to an otherwise opaque process.

To launch the platform, Hakuhodo is planning to collaborate with other web3 partners, such as Astar Games, to add gamification to the process and Gaiax.

Takeaway: Customers’ feedback can be invaluable to companies. And their creative potential remains largely untapped. Web3 enables companies to engage more deeply with their products and contribute to nudging them in the right direction - a win-win situation.

Story #2: Cells going onchain

If there’s one thing everyone remembers from school about cells, then it’s that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Otherwise, most of us probably don’t spend time thinking about cells. However, iPS cells especially bear massive potential in regenerative medicine, yet their availability is often limited.

Ailom Group, a medical company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is set to change that with its recent partnership with the World Scan Project (not to be confused with the World Iris Scan Project, worldcoin), a provider of web3 infrastructure services. Together they will build the iCELL BANK project aimed at enhancing the availability of iPS cells by storing them in advance.

The Ailom group provides customers with its iPS cell production kit. Once these are created and stored, customers can access them as needed. NFTs will serve as certificates of ownership, and the data stored on-chain will be accessible at any time to NFT holders.

Takeaway: Despite the big potential at the intersection of medicine and blockchain, there has been little uptake. It’s exciting to see a pharma company working with cutting-edge recreational therapy exploring how they can leverage web3 to improve their offering.

Story #3: Daiwa furthering crypto exploration.

Daiwa Securities, the second-largest securities brokerage in Japan, is collaborating with Pafin. Pafin launched in 2017 and is focused on enabling enterprises to automatically calculate profit and losses and manage other book-keeping needs related to crypto. Through this collaboration, Daiwa will leverage Pafin’s suite of products, including budgeting services and visualizations, to facilitate its crypto endeavors.

Already in 2020, one of Daiwa’s group companies launched the first crypto-backed loan in Japan, and last year, the group started dealing with security tokens. Daiwa believes that the web3 space has big potential once legal and tax regulations are structured in a way to foster it. They’re putting their money where their mouth is, among other things, with its venture arm that invests in fintech companies.

Takeaway: The security token narrative is going strong in Japan. The top 2 brokerages are already exploring security tokens, and as a more compliant and controlled vehicle, it’s easy to see their appeal to lawmakers.

In other news 📰

• JR Kyushu opened its train NFT marketplace
• SBI VC is using Ava Cloud to provide web3 business solutions
• Centrum, a Co-working space in Shibuya, started using ZK-NFTs to gate entrance

Events 📅

• August 24th: NFT community is coming together in Tokyo for a networking event
• August 31st: SheisDAO is organizing a Meetup to bring like-minded people together and onboard more women to Web3
• Sept 7th: Tech Meets Business #2, imagining the future of NFT businesses.

Japan Fact of the Week: Akira is an epic Anime film that went down in history books for its technical accomplishments. It contained 160,000 single pictures (2 -3 x the average anime) and captured the hearts of millions. What’s less known is that the animators created 50 new colors exclusively for it to capture the night scenes. 🌃