IOST’s Robust Expansion Into Japan- A Complete 3-Year Overview
IOST has been approved by Financial Services Agency (FSA), the Trading platforms supervision Alliance in Japan, successfully become the 14th compliant token on Coincheck and the 29th compliant token in the Japanese market.
Listing on Coincheck is a testament to IOST’s advanced compliance progress, and is a catalyst to unleash more future opportunities in the Japanese market. With this successful step, let’s review and walk through the prominent milestones and impacts of IOST’s 3-year hard work in Japan.
1. Establishment of IOST Ecosystem & Upgrade of Compliance Standards
In November 2018, IOST reached a partnership with the well-known mainstream Japanese media- Crypto Times.
After this partnership, Crypto Times would work as a media partner of IOST to help IOST further expand in the Japanese cryptocurrency community. The contents of the Crypto Times include the latest news on cryptocurrency, trader columns, cryptocurrency interpretation, and more. It is one of the mainstream digital media with the widest audience and the most influential in the field of blockchain and virtual currency in Japan.
In July 2019, Japan’s top tier law firm onboarded IOST as a partner node.
In July 2019, Japan’s top law firm Zelo officially joined the IOST node ecosystem as an IOST partner node and aimed to empower IOST’s development in the Japanese market by providing legal advice, technology, and business support. The addition of Zelo makes IOST the first project to receive direct ecosystem support from law firms among all public chains in the entire blockchain industry. Powered by its rich blockchain resources, network, and professional legal practices, Zelo plays a crucial role in helping IOST accelerate our compliance process in the Japanese market and facilitate negotiation and cooperation with the Japanese Blockchain Association (JBA) as well as major Japanese exchanges.
In July 2019, Stir, a leading Japanese incubator, fully supported the IOST Staking ecosystem.
Stir, operated by Ethersecurity Pacific Holdings Pte. Ltd., is a professional team with rich experience in operating nodes in the PoS networks. They have run nodes in TEZOS, COSMOS, and other several projects. Stir has received venture investments in May 2019 to launch StaaS (Staking as a Service) services for global blockchain investors. The partnership with Stir expands the IOST ecosystem by making it easier for investors to access and join IOST staking.
In July 2019, HashHub joined IOST node ecosystem as a servi node
HashHub is a blockchain studio based in Tokyo. It was founded in April 2018 and is actively engaged in accelerating crypto / blockchain businesses in Japan by providing industry research reports, supporting PoC and product developments with enterprise clients. HashHub also hosts a startup studio in Tokyo for cryptocurrency and blockchain developers both from Japan and abroad. This startup studio serves as a bridge between startups and traditional enterprises as well as for Japanese and foreign crypto communities to connect.
In December 2019, IOST was invited to an open exchange meeting with business leaders in the Japanese House of Representatives
Makoto, head of IOST’s Japanese market, and IOST partner node PHI were invited to an open exchange meeting of business leaders on social issues inside the Japanese House of Representatives building. At the meeting, Makoto introduced the development and vision of IOST blockchain technology and shared along with Mr. Takashi Oka of PHI, about the development Coordinated Working Platform based on IOST — GUILD.
In March 2020, the IOST Foundation joined forces with the Japan Energy Blockchain Enterprise Alliance.
The IOST Foundation joined forces with the Japan Energy Blockchain Enterprise Consortium (EBEC) and hosted various events in Tokyo and Osaka. IOST has been working with the members of EBEC to boost the blockchain adoption. While empowering the Japanese energy industry, EBEC also promoted the application of IOST blockchain technology to more industries and application scenarios in Japan.
In August 2020, IOST Won the 1st place in Huobi Japan voting and became the only listing candidate
In the popular coin voting event, from July 16 to August 16, 2020, organized by Huobi Japan/co-hosted by HashPort, IOST officially won the number 1 spot against 5 other popular blockchain projects Tezos, Ontology, Enjin, NEO & Qtum, all of which have active community members and talented developers in Japan.
Two days before the end of the event, IOST turned the tables, overtook Tezos, and claimed first place. By the end of the event on August 16, the gap to the second place was more than 100 votes. IOST will continue to cooperate with HashPort incubator and Huobi Japan to actively promote the listing of IOST on Japanese exchanges, and cooperate in-depth in marketing, asset management, ecosystem co-construction, and technical cooperation.
HashPort incubator and Huobi Japan will also help with the compliance process of IOST in the Japanese market.
In September 2020, IOST gets listed on leading Japanese crypto exchange CoinCheck
IOST has been approved by the Financial Services Agency (FSA), the Trading platforms supervision Alliance in Japan, and will be listed on the largest compliance exchange in Japan, Coincheck at 5:00 AM, September 8, 2020, UTC.
Established in 2012, Coincheck obtained a virtual currency trading license from the Financial Services Agency of Japan in January 2019 and soon became Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Coincheck is the most compliant trading platform with the most virtual currencies in Japan, with 2.8 million downloads in Japan. From both Bitcoin trading volume and registered/active users, Coincheck ranks first in Japan’s compliance trading platform index.
The vigorous listing review of general trading platforms requires 7 items and 20 major categories of materials. CoinCheck’s listing process is even harder in which an incomplete ecosystem, relatively low security, or bad liquidity are disqualifying factors. Listing on CoinCheck validates IOST’s compliance work and unlocks more future opportunities of IOST in the Japanese market.
2. Holistic Technical Layout & Extensive Blockchain Education Programmes
In September 2018, Akio Sashima, a member of the IOST Japan team, had a business meeting with Code Chrysalis co-founder & CTO Yan Fan.
Code Chrysalis is a Japanese offline tech school that provides intensive coding boot camps for engineers. Although it was just established in 2017, it’s a pioneer in bilingual developers in the Japanese technology industry, and influence in the media and the general public has been considerable.
IOST and Chrysalis jointly hosted a series of technical activities, launching blockchain-related courses and hackathons to help promote IOST blockchain technology in Japan.
In October 2018, IOST and Code Chrysalis co-organized an event for developers.
Kanna Sato, head of IOST’s Japanese community, delivered a speech at an event themed “Programming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” co-organized with Code Chrysalis. IOST and Code Chrysalis will continue to hold more developer activities and blockchain programming courses to truly realize IOST’s developer-friendly technical concept.
In October 2018, IOST sponsored a hands-on DApp event in Nagoya with our local partner EverSystem.
IOST Japan team members and partner node EverSystem hosted a hands-on DApp event in Nagoya. By that time, EverSystem released a now well known DApp game CryptoNinja, which runs on the IOST mainnet.
Subsequently, on November 6, IOST cofounder Terry Wang traveled to Japan to discuss future cooperation with EverSystem team members, so that their next DApp game would also be developed on top of IOST.
In November 2018, IOST delivered a presentation at the 7th Toyama Blockchain Research Group Meetup, featured on local TV.
IOST Japan BD Lead, Makoto Ota, delivered a speech at the 7th Toyama Blockchain Research Group Meetup, hosted by INTEC, one of the largest SIER in Japan, and had an interactive discussion with 30 local engineers who joined the event. This event was also featured on local Television.
In November 2018, IOST co-founder Terry visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya for a series of Meetups and Workshops, put forward IOST tech to potential developers.
This series of activities aimed to empower more talented developers into building on IOST. In these meetups and workshops, Terry introduced and explained to Japanese blockchain enthusiasts the latest development of IOST and discussed how IOST support for JavaScript (the most used language by Github developers) can make the process of building DApps more friendly to developers.
In November 2018, IOST hosted an in-depth blockchain technology seminar at Nagoya University, Japan.
IOST co-founder Terry and the Japanese team hosted a blockchain technology seminar at Nagoya Institute of Technology. 15 university developers, IOST technical partner EverSystem CTO, and several well-known industry reporters participated in this seminar. During the event, there was an in-depth discussion of the current and future trends of blockchain technology in a very active atmosphere.
In December 2018, IOST hosted a seminar at Akita International Liberal Arts University, Japan.
IOST organized a seminar with EverSystem and Swissborg, which was planned by the school’s student ambassador. At the seminar, participants actively discussed the opportunities and challenges facing blockchain technology. The head of the IOST Japan team also introduced how IOST will use its technology and advantages to contribute to the adoption of applications and promote the development of blockchain technology.
In January 2019, the 2019 IOST officially launched the Global Developer Meetup Series.
On January 13, IOST hosted a workshop in Kyoto, Japan. Terry introduced and explained in detail to the Japanese developer community the use of Javascript for DApp development.
The following day, IOST was invited to Tokyo to participate in the Blockchain Unicorns Tokyo Conference and had in-depth discussions with outstanding blockchain projects in the Japanese market.
In this trip to Japan, IOST attracted a considerable number of blockchain developers and DApp developers, many of whom expressed their willingness to become IOST nodes and participate in DApp development.
In February 2019, IOST organized a blockchain technology event in Japan.
The IOST Japanese team organized a blockchain technology open discussion event at the coworking space- WeWork for well-known technology startups in Osaka.
IOST community manager Kanna provided a full explanation to the event participants the value of being IOST partner nodes and the administration details of elected and candidate nodes. Many supporters of IOST Japanese partner nodes such as CryptoNinjaGame, BlockchainKyoto, and MEETIOST also participated in this event.
In April 2019, IOST and Izumisano city, Osaka, Japan co-hosted the Japan Blockchain Ideathon event.
Hosted by Kanna, the head of the IOST Japanese community, the Japan Blockchain Ideathon event was to use blockchain technology to solve the problems faced by Izumisano City. More than 30 developers participated in the event and the city mayor, along with the board of directors of Izumisano City attended the meeting as observers. The mayor also delivered a speech on the challenges the city faces and his support and expectations for this event.
In May 2019, IOST continued to host a workshop at Meiji University, one of Japan’s top universities.
IOST node AIYAA hosted an IOST smart contract workshop with developers from Meiji University, one of the top universities in Japan with over 130 years of history. CryptoNinja developer, Dr. Wada also gave a great lecture as IOST continues its rapid growth in Japan.
In August 2019, IOST organized a 1 Day workshop & hands-on at Yamaguchi University, Japan
IOST, Avex Technologies, and Eversystem jointly organized a 1 Day workshop on blockchain and smart contract development practices where more than 50 students from the School of Engineering of Yamaguchi University in Japan participated.
As of August 2019, more than 150 students from five educational institutions, including the Japanese National College of Higher Education, have participated in the blockchain technology courses hosted by IOST, as well as offline smart contract programming practices.
Since 2018, IOST has hosted numerous seminars and activities in various universities and educational institutions in Japan, which were very popular among local blockchain enthusiasts and practitioners in Japan.
Blockchain technology talents from various universities and educational institutions in Japan will cooperate with IOST to explore the application and potential development of blockchain technology in Japan.
On Feb 2020, IOST co-organized a 2-day “Education x Blockchain” Hackathon with Kindai University
On Feb 20 and 21 2020, IOST jointly hosted a 2-day “Education x Blockchain” HIVEHack hackathon with the well-known private university Kindai in Japan, who provided the venue and incentivize professors and students to participate in the Hackathon. With the participation of 5 guest speakers, 1 local media and 19 enthusiastic students, the event was a great 2-day learning and growth journey for every participant.
3. Acceleration of Blockchain Adoption and Commercial Use Cases
In November 2019, IOST partners EverySystem and ElDesign launched the P2P electricity trading project
IOST, in cooperation with EverySystem and elDesign, launched an electricity trading project based on the IOST blockchain to empower the power system. On November 14, 2019, the Mayor of Fujimi City, IOST co-founder Terry, CEO of elDesign, Dr. Wada from Eversystem, and 4 well-known local Japanese media attended the launch of the power trading project. This was the first large-scale application of IOST implemented in Japan, which provides great convenience for IOST to enter the Japanese and other important markets.
In June 2020, IOST inked an alliance with the Japanese medical health tech venture “Pracs” to power medical record platform
In a bid to promote the use of blockchain technology in the segment of the healthcare industry, IOST has inked an alliance with Japanese Medical Health Tech Venture “Pracs” to develop a secure, transparent, and tamper-proof on-chain medical record platform. IOST and Pracs will together build a platform to validate and evaluate existing medical data to patients who are data holders with a better level of assurance than existing platforms on the market. Patients and providers of healthcare information will benefit from the privacy guarantees of existing healthcare data operations followers.
In June 2020, the Japanese political party SANSEITO adopted IOST in digital voting.
Japanese political party- SANSEITO has implemented GUILD VOTING, a digital voting application developed and provided by PHI- an IOST core community leader and developer in Japan. IOST’s smart contract will guarantee vote counting and voting mechanism, result storage, and data reliability.
Unlocking IOST’s Future Potentials in Japan
The highly compliant and strictly regulated Japanese market is well-recognized by global crypto investors. Japan, the leading country in blockchain development officially recognizes Bitcoin as a legal payment and is also the first country to incorporate digital currencies into the legal regulatory system.
In 2017, IOST established an office in Japan and has been constantly recruiting outstanding local members to deepen the Japanese blockchain market, comprehensively lay out the ecosystem, and accelerate the local market growth.
The hardwork is paid off. Local and first-line investment institutions, well-known blockchain media, and senior development teams all join hands in IOST’s exploration in the Japanese market.
Compliance is undeniably crucial to enabling blockchain adoption. IOST has demonstrated its improvement and success in compliant work as well as building its robust ecosystem, which will pave the way for more future opportunities, and adoption in Japan, and beyond.
Join the IOST Community
Up to now, more than 400 partner nodes from over the world have joined the IOST Ecosystem, with more than 4.9 billion IOST votes pledged. IOST has become the fourth big public chain project in terms of the number of users alongside Ethereum, EOS, and Tron. With its great usability, IOST has now the support of over 500,000 community members worldwide and its influence has reached more than 20 countries around the world.
If you would like to hang out with the IOST community on chat, social media or to discuss product development, we have something for everyone:
- International English Telegram Group: https://t.me/officialios
- IOST Announcement Channel: https://t.me/iost_announcements
- IOST Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/IOST_Official
- IOST CTO Terry Wang Twitter: https://twitter.com/terrence_iost
- IOST CEO Jimmy Zhong Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimmyzhong_iost
- Slack Developer Community: https://invite.iost.io
- Uptrennd: https://www.uptrennd.com/iost
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IOStoken
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/IOSTofficial/
- Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IOST-FB-Group
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