Introduction

The development of blockchain services in Japan has proceeded in fits and starts, with periods when Japan was a global leader (early Bitcoin era) and periods when Japan has lagged behind other parts of the world (current web3 era).

Globally, the blockchain industry is maturing with innovative consumer offerings at scale, including payments, decentralized finance, real-world assets, and voting.

We believe one of the main constraints to the widespread adoption of web3 services in Japan is the lack of blockchain infrastructure optimized for Japanese financial regulations, Japanese data residency, and consumer protections.

With these critical elements in place, we believe that leading Japanese companies will be comfortable making long-term investments into services that leverage blockchain to unlock cost savings and consumer delight in payments, loyalty, real world assets and other areas. Our vision is a public Layer 1 (L1) blockchain validated onshore in Japan, without exposure to offshore influence, whether political, geographic, societal, technical, or economic. Simply stated, Japan Smart Chain (JSC) is an L1 that is “Japan-sovereign”.

This is THE sovereign blockchain for Japan ¹.

Footnotes

1. We define a Japan-sovereign blockchain as: (a) Data residency all onshore in Japan. (b) Every validator node operates onshore in Japan and is publicly disclosed.(c) Beyond reach and interference of foreign regulators, including the SEC. JSC responds to Japan only. (d) All JSC operations onshore in Japan. JSC’s Research Lab and Foundation are both registered kabushiki kaisha (KK) and ippan shadan houjin respectively. ↩