Emurgo Showcase Meetup @ Tokyo June 10 recap
On June 10, Emurgo opened up their brand new office to the public for the first time, and hosted a showcase meetup. The meetup was kicked off by an introductory speech by Ken Kodama, CEO of Emurgo. Followed by speakers from Emurgo’s partners that presented their projects and Charles Hoskinson who gave a speech and participated in a Q&A with attendees.
In Ken Kodama’s talk, he focused on the rules and regulations that will help foster Cardano’s progress, and how he foresees this to take shape in the near future, especially as more companies enter the blockchain and fintech space.Another important aspect of his speech was consumer safety, which is necessary for blockchain to gain acceptance and mainstream adoption. Recent hacks of (Japanese) exchanges, in addition to several scam projects, have created a negative perspective and it will take time to regain trust among consumers in Japan.
Mr. Kodama further discussed the sort of blockchain protocols large-scale companies and governments are choosing to work with. He adds that a blockchain project like Cardano is highly suitable due to the nature of its development, methodical scientific approach and use of Haskell programming language.
In closing his introductory speech, he also mentioned the Cardano community and the important role they play to connect and eventually create businesses and collaborations. Emurgo is currently focussing on growing the community in India, and they are aiming to form partnerships with 100’s of universities across the country.
This meetup was held to showcase four of Emurgo’s new partners, each presenting their projects to the audience:
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YOO Sourcing: an app platform for buyers, suppliers and service providers. Some of their partnerships include: Eram, Lacoste, Omnibrand & Lagoon. They are also holding a special Airdrop of YST token for Cardano community members, and did an airdrop for meetup attendees at the venue via a QR-code.
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Coincome: the world’s first distributed cashback system, which rewards people with cryptocurrency. Participants get CIM (tokens) by shopping online via COINCOME. Some of their partners are major industry leaders, such as: Rakuten, Amazon, Adidas, HP and more… Also part of this is project is Makers Farm, who created the ‘open beta’ for Coincome platform. They also held an Airdrop at the venue with a QR code, specifically for the attendees.
- HEROBIT: a blockchain-based, hands-on sports video game service implementing smart contracts. They will offer a decentralized ecosystem for trading digital goods. It is based on an ecosystem that trades and exchanges digital goods, a spin-off of its successful, physical indoor sports theme park business, including screen baseball, screen football, and hands-on sports games machines.
4) ARA Pay: with their first ever public presentation at Emurgo’s Office, ARA Pay wants to bridge cryptocurrency into real-world transactions. This is done through their ARA Pay app and card technologies. The app combines cryptocurrency, points, and fiat. The card/app will allow users to make everyday transactions. This is possible due to ARA Pay’s established and proven technology and platform, combined with the already established infrastructure of Seoul Neo SmartCard Co., Ltd. They are currently developing and working on making a Cardano spending card for processing payments in Korea with ARA Pay Life.
After the showcase introductions, Charles gave a speech, thanking and commending the Japanese community for their continued support. Charles stressed the importance of the community and how he is amazed at how well-informed and driven people are. He praised the work Emurgo has done and is looking forward to more wonderful contributions.
Like Ken, Charles also spoke on the rules and regulation of the industry. He shared about the G20 & FATF (Financial Action Task Force), which are currently discussing the possibility of adding metadata to each and every bitcoin transaction for regulatory purposes. These decisions are big and not easily made. It involves many organizations and people, and therefore can make things move more slowly.
He compared creating blockchain projects to the creation of the Japanese sword, which he saw in a store next to the hotel he stayed at. It is a time-consuming project that requires efforts of many people in order to create it. And that was also one of the main reasons why Cardano came to Japan. Building great things take time, and patience is part of the Japanese society. The Japanese people and community will understands these hardships and thrive for perfection, more than any other.
After a brief Q&A, the meetup wrapped up with a raffle, where lucky winners were able to get Emurgo merchandise and memorabilia items.
The Cardano Foundation also had the opportunity to give-away and introduce the Tangem Card to the meetup attendees. You’ll be seeing more of this in the upcoming meetups & events held across the world!
A big thank you to everyone who came out to this successful event!
The Emurgo Showcase meetup video can be watched here.
If you’re ever in the neighborhood, don’t forget to try out the Emurgo themed vending machine @ Emurgo’s HQ!