皆様、２０１８年は大変お世話になりました。ブロックパンクの立ち上げでお世話になった皆さまへの感謝を忘れず精進して参りますので、２０１９年もどうぞよろしくお願いいたします。今年はたくさんのエクサイティングなお知らせがありますのでご期待ください！ここまでのストーリーはこちらです：
In November 2017, I was having dinner with a friend at Steve Jobs favourite sushi restaurant in Palo Alto. My friend was late so I decided to catch up on some podcasts. One of them was an interview with Matt Clifford, founder of early stage VC/incubator Entrepreneur First (EF). It was like he was talking to me. “EF is where outliers come together” I was struggling to find a co-founder in Tokyo so the idea of getting paid to find a brilliant co-founder combined with an accelerated programme to start a new company sounded perfect.
I applied the next day and what followed has been an intense period of learning that saw me grow as a professional and start a new company in my domain of film, tv and anime. BlockPunk allows any anime creator to turn their digital assets into collectible merchandise. We use blockchain to create scarcity, proof of authenticity and ownership, and secondary sales. This is our beachhead to creating a p2p ecosystem for creators and fans.
January 2018: Flew from Tokyo to Singapore to join the EF kick-off weekend. Met my co-founder Jatin in a sweaty jungle resort.
April 2018: Teamed up and launched our first MVP cryptoanime.
May 2018: Announced investment from Japanese studio DLE capital and EF.
June 2018: Added original content from film directors Kazuto Nakazawa (Kill Bill) and Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge).
July 2018: Pitched to hundreds of investors at EF Demo Day at Google APAC HQ.
August-October 2018: Follow-up meetings and pitches with potential investors.
October 2018: Spoke at Apostech with producer and adviser Takeuchi-san on Anime and Tech Innovation.
November 2018: WeWork Labs Asia first ever member. Re-branded site as BlockPunk.
December 2018: Participated at ETH Singapore and built “KAWCR” an auction app that allows purchasing of collectibles using any ERC20 token. Added payments via fiat currency! Year-end drop featuring more content and creators including the iconic title Cyborg009 from Ishimori Pro.
It’s been a huge year for us at BlockPunk, our best ever :) … and we’re just getting started. We’ll be making some big announcements in the New Year and we can’t wait to get stuck into 2019. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far, we hope you’ll continue with us on our journey.
If you’re an anime fan or creator, tell us about the future you’d like to see at hello@blockpunk.net
Originally published at medium.com on January 1, 2019.
