Mercari's Web 3.0 strategy - and the procedure for buying bitcoin on Mercari.

Bitcoin trading services have surpassed 500,000 users in just over three months since their release.

Of these, approximately 80% have no experience in crypto asset trading.

Melcoin Inc, a subsidiary of Melcari Inc, launched a service on 9 March that allows users to trade bitcoin (BTC) within the Melcari flea market app.

The number of users of the service exceeded 300,000 in just over two months after its release and 500,000 in just over three months, with approximately 80% of the 500,000 users having no experience of trading crypto assets. The number of users who come into contact with Web 3.0 for the first time through ‘Mercari’ appears to be exploding.

Mercari is Japan's largest flea market app, a marketplace where users can freely buy and sell clothing, consumer electronics and other items. The service has a cumulative total of 48 million users and 22.26 million monthly users (*as of April 2023). The company also offers Melpay, a payment service that can be used at convenience stores and other physical shops, as well as for online shopping.

The company aims to make the experience of ‘buying, holding, watching the price fluctuations and selling bitcoins’ simple and easy to understand.

Mercari has finally launched its Web 3.0 service. The company's service is very simple: users can trade bitcoins within the Mercari app. Users can only ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ bitcoins within the app.

Bitcoins can be purchased from as little as one yen, and both buying and selling usually takes only a few seconds. When using the app, users can use ‘sales proceeds’ earned from Mercari sales or free points (Mercari points received from friend invitations, campaigns, etc.) to make purchases (it is also possible to buy bitcoins by depositing Japanese yen from a bank account).

Normally, you need to go through an identity verification process when you start trading crypto assets, but if you have completed the identity verification process on ‘Mercari’ or ‘Melpay’, you can skip this hassle. The service can be said to make the experience of ‘buying bitcoins’ easier to start anyway.

Any functions that might be a barrier to this have been thoroughly eliminated. There is no board trading where users buy and sell crypto assets, and there are no currencies other than bitcoin. There is also no in/out function for other exchanges or wallets at the moment. The reason for such a simple design is probably because it is thoroughly from the perspective of Web 3.0 beginners.

At present, knowledge of Web 3.0, such as crypto assets and blockchain, is not widespread in Japan. For many of these users, the act of comparing many currencies and deciding what to invest in, or the act of storing crypto-assets in their own wallets and enjoying DeFi and GameFi, is too high a hurdle.

Although there are many opportunities to hear words such as Web 3.0 and crypto-assets, the general feeling is that it is ‘difficult’ to actually experience them.

That is why it is immeasurably valuable for many users to have the simple Web 3.0 experience of buying, holding, watching the price fluctuations and selling bitcoins through Mercari.

The Web 3.0 industry has seen the birth of new products such as GameFi, DeFi, NFT, Metaverse, etc., but these products require a high level of Web 3.0 literacy and are not without risks.

The potential ‘Web 3.0 users’ are interested in crypto assets and Web 3.0, but do not know how to take the first step. Mercari's Bitcoin trading service is definitely the best service for guiding these potential ‘Web 3.0 users’ into the new world of technology.

How to buy bitcoins

Bitcoin trading is provided within the Mercari App. If you have already installed the Mercari App, you can buy and sell by tapping ‘My Page’. Bitcoin purchases can be made with Melcari sales proceeds or free points, and can be made from as little as one yen, so people who want to start with a small amount at first can do so.

After selling bitcoins, you can transfer them to your Melpay balance by going to My Page > Bitcoin > Settings > Transfer to Melpay balance, and they will be immediately available for use in Melcari and Melpay payments.

On My Page, the Japanese yen equivalent of the bitcoins you hold is displayed, so you can check the bitcoin price immediately. It should be fun just to buy bitcoins and watch the daily price fluctuations.

Steps to buy bitcoins on Mercari

Mercari's initiatives and prospects in the Web 3.0 area

Mercari's bitcoin trading service is expected to fill a major piece missing from the domestic Web 3.0 industry and businesses to date.

While words such as NFT and Metaverse have been picked up by the media and the Web 3.0 industry appears to be very active, the reality is that there are a small number of ‘Web 3.0 enthusiasts’ who are familiar with GameFi and DeFi, and a large number of people who view this from a cold perspective. In Japan, the former ‘virtual world’ has been used as a tool for the development of new technologies, such as the ‘Web 3.0’.

In Japan, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gained a lot of publicity through the former ‘virtual currency boom’, but it is estimated that only about 5% of users actually trade crypto assets. At the moment, there is no sign of another ‘boom’ and the spread of Web 3.0 in Japan.

On the other hand, if we look outside of Japan, products utilising blockchain technology are being created one after another, and unicorn companies are being born from Web 3.0 companies. Some countries have even adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, and cryptographic assets and blockchain are steadily being implemented in society.

In Japan, too, the government has begun to focus on Web 3.0, and promising Web 3.0 projects have been born, but in order for Japan to make its presence felt in this field, it is necessary to expand the scope of Web 3.0 even further than before.

In this context, Mercari's entry into Web 3.0, which can now be regarded as part of the social infrastructure, should serve as a catalyst to increase the number of Web 3.0 users in Japan.

Of course, simply ‘buying and selling bitcoins’ is only the beginning of Web 3.0. Even so, Mercari is probably the only company in Japan that can offer a similar experience to a wide range of users. With the success of the bitcoin trading service as a starting point, we can expect further expansion and enhancement of the service in the future.

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