"Japan No.1 Token" The Struggle to Break Regional Boundaries

Hara has now become an important figure in the Japanese cryptocurrency industry. Although he accumulated rich experience in IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and auditing at a well-known accounting firm, his true turning point was his encounter with blockchain. Reflecting on his career, Hara admits that he has struggled in multiple fields, but what truly made him feel a "leap" was his experience participating in a certain blockchain project.

As a professional in the traditional financial industry, he faced numerous doubts and resistance to blockchain technology. In 2016, the project's predecessor was still a semiconductor supply company focused on the development of IoT devices. It wasn't until the end of 2017 that the company decided to transform and enter the blockchain industry. "At that time, the management did not have a clear understanding of blockchain technology, and the uses of tokens and governance structures were also vague concepts," Hara admitted. "I spent a lot of time researching ICOs and the cryptocurrency market and proposed using decentralized identity and data applications as the core idea of the token economy." This journey full of exploration and trial and error has now become Hara's valuable asset.

For Hara personally and his company, the two unavoidable questions are "how to achieve innovation" and "how to cultivate talent." "The development of the Internet of Things and blockchain has shown me the immense potential of AI, which is why I decided to venture into this field," Hara said. Their core business is building a Layer 2 platform that provides GPU computing resources and data storage solutions, aimed at providing technical support to academic institutions and startups to help them develop large language models.

"AI has a natural connection with blockchain, especially in terms of data storage and computing power," Hara explained. "By building GPU nodes and Layer 2 technology, we provide a powerful platform for researchers and developers to accelerate the R&D of AI technology." Currently, about 4,000 nodes have been deployed on their platform, and they plan to provide computing resources to academic institutions such as the University of Tokyo to help achieve breakthroughs in the field of AI.

Barriers in the Japanese Community: Dual Challenges of Culture and Regulation

"The blockchain market in Japan always faces significant barriers." Hara pointed out that despite Japan being one of the most advanced technology markets in the world, there are still many issues regarding the acceptance and regulatory environment for blockchain. In particular, Japan's regulatory policies in the DeFi space have remained relatively conservative. "One of the biggest challenges when launching blockchain projects in Japan is the uncertainty of regulation," he said. "DeFi projects have almost no opportunity to take root in Japan, and even decentralized exchanges are prohibited. This is not only a policy obstacle but also a limitation of the entire society's understanding of blockchain technology."

This has become a question that Hara repeatedly contemplates during his entrepreneurial journey. In 2018, when he joined a project as CFO, although the project was originally intended to innovate around the Internet of Things, he understood that in order to truly grow, it was necessary to transcend the limitations of the Japanese market and go global. "Although we have achieved success in listing in Japan, our focus for market expansion has always been overseas," Hara emphasized, "This is not because we are pessimistic about the Japanese market."

Indeed, Hara observed that many blockchain projects from Korea and China often face language and cultural barriers when trying to enter the Japanese market, especially when these companies do not have localized teams, making communication and collaboration particularly difficult. "One of the biggest challenges we face when working with large Japanese companies is the differences in language and culture," he mentioned. "However, if we can find team members who speak Japanese, these issues can be overcome. For instance, when collaborating with a well-known electronics company, we must confront and resolve these challenges."

However, Hara does not deny the potential limitations that may arise from over-reliance on the Japanese market. "When launching the project, we first chose to start from overseas markets, and this strategic decision determined that we would not focus solely on Japan." He admitted, "We are clearly aware that if we only rely on the Japanese market, the project will face huge limitations. The Japanese market is large, but its openness is relatively small; internationalization is the future."

In addition to technology, there is talent. The rapid development of the blockchain industry is also facing the replacement of talent and the handover of new and old forces. Just like Hara experienced during the early stages of the project, the flow of talent and succession issues have always been a challenge. "In the industry in Japan, there are actually very few opportunities to recruit blockchain engineers. Even if we can find them, it is difficult to find engineers who are proficient in large projects like Layer 1. Therefore, in our company, we are able to recruit excellent engineers from places like Argentina, Greece, and Spain, and our CTO comes from Australia, so our team also includes members from Europe and South America. This globalized technical team brings us great advantages."

Hara pointed out that although Japan's acceptance of cryptocurrency is gradually increasing, most projects in the market are still limited to small-scale experimental applications, lacking sufficient innovation and breakthroughs. "We see many overseas projects, especially blockchain companies from Korea and China, that want to succeed in the Japanese market, but both language barriers and cultural differences pose significant challenges for these projects when entering Japan," he said. "Even if the services they offer have a global perspective and even support Japanese, it is still difficult to overcome these barriers."

For most overseas projects intending to enter small language communities, they often encounter repeated setbacks in the Japanese market. The "encircled city" situation, where internal breakthroughs are needed while also integrating externally, has consistently been a hot topic of discussion among many founders. However, Hara also mentioned that for overseas companies that can find localized teams in Japan, there are still opportunities to establish partnerships with large companies in Japan. However, such collaborations often require more patience and time to overcome language and cultural differences.

Blockchain Idealism and Popular Cryptocurrencies: Cultural Phenomenon or Market Bubble?

When discussing the blockchain industry, Hara deeply analyzed the current two forces – blockchain idealism and the phenomenon of popular cryptocurrencies. For projects like theirs, Hara has always believed in the potential of blockchain technology, emphasizing: "The true meaning of blockchain lies in decentralization, data sovereignty, and transparency, not just in transactions or speculation." He believes that truly valuable blockchain projects should be applications that bring long-term benefits to users, not born out of short-term speculation. "Our goal has always been to build a blockchain platform that can solve real-world problems, not just to attract attention."

However, with the rapid development of the cryptocurrency market, the phenomenon of popular coins has gradually become a unique cultural phenomenon, which has also made many industry professionals who were originally focused on technological innovation feel confused and uneasy. "The cultural phenomenon of these types of coins has its significance for existence," Hara admitted, "They provide ordinary investors and the public with more understanding of blockchain, but that does not mean they are sustainable projects." He continued, "For example, some recently popular coins are attractive because they can quickly bring profits, but they do not have actual application scenarios. In the long run, such coins are difficult to support real value."

Hara's view on these types of cryptocurrencies is complex. "From a market perspective, they can indeed attract a large number of investors quickly, even bringing about a short-term wealth effect. However, in the long run, this kind of speculative behavior can have a negative impact on the entire industry." He said, "Personally, I do not invest in these types of cryptocurrencies because they lack genuine technological innovation and do not align with my idealism about blockchain." He also pointed out that while these cryptocurrencies themselves carry risks, they also serve a kind of social experiment, revealing the market's understanding and misunderstanding of blockchain technology. "This is also why many large companies, including a well-known electronics firm, have begun to impose bans on these types of cryptocurrencies."

The success of these popular cryptocurrencies is undeniable, but this very fact has also become a point of skepticism regarding the speculative sentiment in the industry in recent years. Some people believe that it is merely driven by short-term speculative emotions, lacking real technical support and intrinsic value; while more importantly, the question remains whether blockchain technology can still create a completely new technological ecosystem that surpasses the current achievements?

For Hara, the idealism of blockchain should not stop at the phenomenon of pursuing short-term profits, but should focus on technologies and applications that can truly solve real-world problems. "Just like what we are doing, we are more focused on how to leverage blockchain technology to bring innovation to the Internet of Things and data management, rather than simply relying on speculative market trends," he said.