5 lessons building web3 community in Japan by Ed On

ecosystem and our learnings to support building a Webster community in Japan and also now we are glowing subscribers or newsletters like 1.5 times or two times since beginning of 2023 so I think with having the East Tokyo or Dao Tokyo this April I think our community will become speaker and bigger right now cool um and so before uh before we go into uh our lessons learned just wanted to share a little bit of a context so Japan is known for many things it's known for breathtaking views it's known for a compelling storytelling as well as shavoya meltdowns I don't know if you guys are familiar with it but I was I was very shocked the first time I ever saw it basically it's just people super drunk and super wasted around Shibuya um so on a more serious note um some context recently the Prime Minister talked about blockchain technology in a recent House of Representatives meeting he said if you consider Dows people are interested in the same social issues can form new community nfts can also be used to diversify the income of creators and maintain highly loyal fans so Japan is starting to be known as more embracing of of web3 so there is that recent Spotlight of blockchain Technology um in the House of Representatives meeting there's been updated nft taxation guidelines to make it easier for nft Traders and creators to understand what what our Taxation and legal requirements as well as Central Bank uh potentially piloting a program for a digital version of the yen and finally there's a web 3 policy office being established under the ministry of economy trade and Industry focusing specifically on creating policies to enable more adoption of blockchain technology so here are some recent articles that that were published around Dows how Japan is a Japan government is creating uh Dows to have deeper web3 exploration as well as some updated updated taxation rules so for example recently they they're easing what was an existing 30 crypto tax on paper profits for token issuers um a second a second reason why uh Japan is starting to be known uh for being a crypto Hub is its growing ecosystem um so it's already home to several prominent blockchain companies uh like bitflyer which is one of the largest exchanges in the world there's also a lot of emergence of blockchain startups and in Dows and there's also very Vibrant blockchain Community of regular meetups conferences and hackathons so um bankless bankless Japan uh bankless Japan being creating regular meetups there's several conferences like uq was saying there's Dao Tokyo ethokyo Japan blockchain week that's all starting I think next or in April or May or June of this year and then there's different hackathons happening to encourage more participation in web3 one of our core team members Kaz is creating a daothon in Tokyo and that is helping helping folks create Dows all around all around the world but gathered in in Tokyo there's also a cryptocurrency adoption so Japan has been early adopters of Technology but several large retailers like big camera which is I guess akin to a Best Buy already except Bitcoin payments and so there is like examples of large retailers accepting um accepting payments so that that's just to set some context and so like I can get into some of the lessons learned so one of the first Lessons Learned is we wanted to recognize cultural differences between projects in Asia versus projects maybe in in the west um and so uh we set about talking to several folks that are in in Japan but also outside of Japan to get more context uh in terms of like how we should think about structuring and organizing the community um one VC and Builder we talked to uh who's uh heavily focused in Asia as well as South America mentioned that many projects really Target Niche communities and homogeneous audiences um in in Asia specifically in Korea and one of the biggest challenges is that information flow is definitely a barrier because what's happening in crypto Twitter will reach an Asian audience a little bit later due to language but also time differences um one Community um kudasai which is a Japanese web3 Community one of the comments that they made was that one of the things they first set out to do was actually just to build a large community and because of that um they have a a very diverse background of contributors and community members and because of that like they're seeing a lot of positive impacts from these contributors because it enables them to provide a lot of different types of you know services or activities things like amas advisory Services creating nfts because they can tap into the expertise of of their Community which is both very large I think they have about 20 000 telegram members as well as tapping into the expertise of their community um we also talked to um organizer of boots which is a Taiwanese Dao um and they they repeated something that that we heard uh previously which was you know it's it's really focused on creating a community of people first um the tech and token design doesn't really matter as much in the early stages um and culturally there's just more trust by default to be more cooperative and there's heavier emphasis on consensus versus individualistic efficiency so so those were just like some of the factors that we uh that we thought about when we were building our own community and finally we were talking to a bank uh Duke who's uh I think he's here today um he he started bankless Korea and used part of the the nonce community which is a web 3 focused community in Korea so um he echoed that same comment which was uh like Koreans build a lot of their own language communities due to language barriers because most web3 projects are in English and in order to sort of overcome this this hurdle they typically uh again this is generalizing but a lot of Koreans will join web3 projects in the ecosystem as a tribe rather than a sovereign individual um so yeah we just thought about talking to these folks just to get more more insight into their own communities while we build ours um the second lesson we learned was we had to find something that makes us unique uh the reason is because you know like we we recognize that there are already existing communities uh in Japan um that either provide crypto education or you know nft projects building products Etc so um when we were looking inward to decide like what would make us unique we recognized that being a bridge between Japan and the rest of the world uh would be our differentiator um because like we come from a background being an international media node of bankless like we're able to provide education for uh beginners from a trusted Source but at the same time uh it like be able to create original content so on the left is uh just like a screenshot of the articles that we've published so far of translations from bankless but then on the right side is uh is an article that I recently wrote about Akiya Dao which I'll touch on uh later so we have both translated and original content the third lesson uh was you know reuse what works uh or you know copy paste so in in doing so uh we we leverage the same structure from the international media node of bankless um so we get ongoing uh bankless support in terms of like how to structure things in terms of content um and for our own team um we're just like leveraging existing coordination tools that we already use uh myself like I use Wonder because I you know I work on wonder but we also use notion because like uh we're also heavy notion users but the idea is that like we're not going to reinvent the wheel um by by having existing content to just translate um it does save us a lot of time and we can focus our energy on finding like what um what resonates with our community instead um the the fourth Lesson Learned was uh Partnerships are awesome um and so it kind of like there's there's definitely overlap with some of the other lessons um so Partnerships are awesome because because there's uh because there's a number of um communities uh in Japan already uh we can leverage audience Partnerships with existing communities uh groups and thought leaders um so on the right side uh this is Yuki being interviewed by uh Joe takayama who's a YouTuber with about a hundred thousand um YouTube subscribers who talks about on a regular basis uh Dows and web3 so Yuki here was being interviewed about bankless bankless Japan and bankless and in doing so like it really helps um uh grow our audience but it also exposes our audience to uh to Joe's and then we're also working with uh in real life Meetup Partners like crypto base which is a venue that is really focused on crypto education in Japan um interestingly one of the requirements they have of whenever organizing events there is that they have to be um the speaker has to be someone who they've never heard uh heard from before so that their members can can learn something new and then finally like we've been working a lot on media Partnerships uh specifically for Dow Tokyo and East Tokyo where we'll be creating uh content like interviews articles and things like that um but we're leveraging um bankless's distribution um so that we can Spotlight some Japanese projects um that are either started by Japanese Founders or the Japanese Community or International projects building in Japan and spotlighting it through bankless and then on the on the flip side like you know we're also going to create uh interesting original content uh like interviews and things like that for uh for our audience um and then the final lesson was um just recognizing that there's a lot of challenges but there's also a lot of opportunities um uh in web3 uh for for Japan um some of the challenges that uh that we that we that we heard um was infrastructure um there is a a lack of infrastructure Builders um which creates potentially a risk to Asian cryptosis ecosystem um we would love to see more infrastructure like not not to say that there isn't any right now but um I think um by by creating more I think that just like creates more um like building blocks so that future companies can build on language is something that we keep on hearing um so that's that's why uh for us like we're trying to translate uh articles but also create original content to address that language barrier and then regulation and legal taxation challenges um there's currently no uh super compelling strong Geographic advantages of being based in Japan there are some um but and I think it is evolving but uh currently uh it's not uh it's not super strong there's also shifting of expertise because historically I think a lot of a lot of known expertise is around like Hardware but web3 shows that a lot of the projects that we work on can be borderless I think some of the opportunities that we've that we've I that we've heard were there's a lot of hungry retail investors and talent which are two pillars of building a larger ecosystem um for me this this resonates a lot which is I think web3 provides an opportunity to work on meaningful work because there's lowered barriers to work on things that you're you're passionate about it enables a lot of Japanese community members to identify any any specific like Dows or web3 projects that really resonate with their beliefs and they can work on it without you know going through like a very rigorous application process and if they if the project no longer resonate resonates with them there isn't this whole concept of you know like you're working with that Dao for Life similar to a traditional company and then also there's evolving immigration patient policies just last week two Visas were updated the J fine and J skip which which is meant to attract new graduates or skilled workers which is reducing the barrier to uh to build there and then lastly it is a very technologically savvy population that is quick to adopt new technologies which should actually uh help with this transition to uh to web3 um so so what's what's next I just wanted to highlight two projects because I think they're very interesting um so one is um uh Japanese Builders expanding internationally so Yuki is an example because Yuki is building Beyond club which is building a token gated experience for uh for creators or for uh for Dows and we're actually working together through wonder and Beyond Club where we're providing um infrastructure for a project or or organization contribution while Yuki is working on the token gated experience I think that's like a great example of you know what what we would be encouraging which is not just you know build in Japan but it's also how do we encourage a lot more Japanese Builders to expand internationally um and and how do you address new markets and then the second is International Community Building in Japan so I mentioned Akia Akia Dao previously Akia means vacant homes in Japanese and currently like it is a big social social issue where a lot of rural towns they have a younger population who move away from from these rural communities and there it leads to an accelerated deterioration of these communities and so what Akia Dao does is uh they they build or sorry they purchase a an abandoned home and they renovated to turn it into a hacker house and providing also creative residencies which is very interesting because then it then it encourages um uh youth or younger generations to you know visit and stay in rural Japan and uh and see the natural beauty but also like it creates a sense of community uh in in rural areas uh in addition to uh this High concentration of talent inside big cities um so yeah so those are just like two projects I wanted to highlight uh I think as examples of projects we'd love to work with at bankless Japan to to promote and um and talk about um and finally um yeah if if what I what of what we talked about like resonates with you um you know we'd love for you to follow us on uh on Twitter banklist JP um and then also uh we have we have a subscription newsletter you can you can subscribe to us and then finally um you know like if if you know what we look like we would love to talk to you because um like I said uh Yuki and I are trying to create content uh from East Denver and so we'd love to interview uh projects and then uh of course like if you don't speak Japanese that's cool because Yuki does and he'll he'll do the translations uh and and we'll post it in Vanquish Japan or if you do speak Japanese that's even better please please find us because then it'll be less work for us um but yeah uh come find us um also uh we are like I said we are organizing um in-person meetups um in in Tokyo for bankless Japan um so if you uh you know if you're if you're going to be um in in Tokyo uh we'd love to talk to you and see if we uh you know can get you on as a speaker to promote more information sharing to our community um with that I think that's it uh thank you for thank you for the time we really appreciate it thanks thank you thank you so much