What do you think about the current state of the web3 field?
Mitsushi Ono (hereinafter, Ono): For the second consecutive year, the use of web3 technology has been incorporated into the Cabinet's basic policy, and as a result of the promotion of the environment as a national policy, such as the use of stable coins and security tokens, not only startups but also major companies are increasingly entering the web3 business. Until now, the first step of new web3 business projects has been trial projects such as NFT distribution and sales, but in the future, as described below, I expect that web3 projects as digital infrastructure will become full-scale.
On the other hand, mass adoption is a challenge. In addition to developing digital infrastructure, if services that trigger its use are not developed on both axes, users will not settle and the infrastructure will become useless. In particular, "wallets as the entrance to web3," "stable coins as settlement currency," "security tokens as a means of fundraising," and "games" will be the starting points, and I expect that major companies will enter web3 as digital infrastructure in earnest. Wallets are essential for settlement with cryptocurrencies, so their ownership rate can be said to be the penetration rate of web3 into the masses. As major Japanese companies are working on developing wallets, we can expect high-quality, easy-to-use products to emerge from market competition.
Stablecoins are more suitable for payments than other cryptocurrencies, which are highly volatile, so they are the most realistic utility for general consumption. As major Japanese financial institutions have announced their entry into this field, we believe that general users will be able to trust and use them.
Security tokens can be traded through securities accounts, so they will be accessible to users who do not have wallets. In the future, we can expect to see the emergence of use cases other than real estate, such as film production and art, which will reach new demographics.
Finally, games and entertainment have many of the most easily understandable web3 applications, and there is a great opportunity to attract a large number of people other than existing crypto users.
