How to Use a City as a Testbed for Blockchain Technology

Transcript

Miss Shimoyama, the floor is yours. Hi, good afternoon everyone. I'm Mia Shimoyama from Shiba Startups and u it's very uh honor for me to be here at this uh global conference today and yeah I'm very uh happy to share some of the thoughts with all of you today. So uh it's actually the third day of Edoon today and I hope you guys are enjoying the event so far but also at the same time because we are in Osaka I hope all of you are enjoying the experience in Osaka as well. Well actually I um personally I have a strong

connection to the city Osaka. Well, I was born in Osaka, so I love the food and people here. And so I hope like all of you, maybe it's your first time here. So maybe I hope all of you are also enjoying the um experience in Osaka. So now we all can agree that Osaka is such a great city. And in my lightning talk today, I want you to remember one more great city in Japan, which is Shibuya. So if you hear the word Shibuya, what kind of images do you have? Maybe like art culture or street passion or night life or like famous big um scramble crossing

but actually not u Shria is not only famous for the street culture or passion. It's actually one of one of the leading cities for the innovation. So let me share a brief uh explanation about the Cibia how uh Shibuya is serious um for the open innovation. So in Shibuya um there are more than two 2,000 startups are based in Shibuya and more than 60 venture capitals are located in Shibuya and also more than two thou u 200 um IPO companies are coming from the Shibuya based company and also in Shibuya we have more than 100 co-working spaces. So by looking at these figure figures uh you know how Shibuya is friendly to the uh all the

innovators and startup founders. So why am I so passionate about Shibuya is because of my company. So I'm working for the company called Shibuya startups. Um the company was actually uh established by the Shibuya city with uh other three um major companies based in Shibuya which is Tokyo land corporation and Tokyo and also GMO internet group. So our mission of the company is to build a global ecosystem in Shibuya and let me also share uh some of let me also share Shibuya awards initiatives as an open innovation hub. So as a city uh Shibuya is driving open innovation by three main pillars. One is the

internationalization. So Shibuya is issuing the startup visas and also supporting um all the following startups in Shibuya and also the second pillar is the building ecosystem. So Shibuya city is partnering with other global cities and also partnering with uh other universities. And then the third pillar is the pilot testing. So uh if you want to test anything in Shibuya, there's a website. So you can search Shibuya and also test bed and you will um find the Shibuya's um test bed u website and then find out more information.

So that was a brief introduction about the Shibuya's initiatives as an open innovation hub and in addition Shibuya is hosting a lot of like web three or um blockchain related um global events. So uh these are the a few examples but the uh top left is the bright moments Tokyo which was held in u 2023 and it was the NFT art gallery event and last year um Eloon actually the first Eloon in Japan was held in Shibuya and also U Sana Super Tokyo was also held in Shibuya and uh recently last week actually issa Tokyo was also held in Shibuya. So we are hosting a lot of um global um conference and events in

Shibuya and also let me share one of the POC's example which we supported um this year. So uh since last year Shibuya is hosting organizing the event called Digush Shibuya which is the u citywide festival where visitors can uh experience art and technology in the city. So um this event transforms the entire city into the playground where visitors can experience an art and technologies. So it's actually a four days event and in this event uh we invited one web3 um startup um from Los Angeles the company's name

is flick play. So um yeah, Fick Play is the web three company u from um Los Angeles. So Fick Play offers the web three digital scavenger hunt game in this event. So all the participants in this scavenger hunt can explore the city and so all the participants can explore the city and then at the same time they can collect the digital collectibles. So yeah, this was u one of the um PC's example we supported this year.

So um let me check. So yeah, the event uh went very well and I believe uh it was more than the entertainment. Um it was a proof of concept that um showing how blockchain or gaming and physical communi communities can merge in everyday life. So of course um building a blockchain powered city uh requires changes to the rules and systems but just as it's more it's also important to give people in the city a chance to see and feel and also experience the technology in their daily lives.

So going back to uh my company's introduction but uh we have about 50 startups in our community right now and uh we are supporting all the startups u coming into Japanese market and our support is uh we are um offering the supports in three different stages entry level and also the growth and also the expansion with the regression changes and because Shibia startups has a very strong connection with the uh city uh our stren one of our strength Thanks is to we can also work on the uh deregulation part.

So um as my last comment uh we are supporting the global startups and if you want to test anything in Shibuya or if you uh have a great technologies uh please come and talk to me after wars and maybe we can find a way to collaborate together. Well, thank you very much for listening. I must stop. >> Thank you very much.