NTT Digital Director and CISO Endo Eisuke talks about "scramberry WALLET"

NTT Digital, a subsidiary of NTT Docomo established in 2022 to promote Web3.0

This year, the digital wallet "scramberry WALLET," which serves as the gateway to the Web3.0 realm, is finally getting off the ground. We spoke to Eisuke Endo, a director at NTT Digital who is involved in service development, about his thoughts on web3 and the outlook for the next service.

Aiming to provide new and extra value

Your parent company, NTT Docomo, announced that it will invest 600 billion yen in the Web3.0 sector in 2022. Could you tell us again why the NTT Group has decided to focus on the Web3.0?

Eisuke Endo (hereinafter, Endo): We are proud of our support of the communications infrastructure as the NTT Group, but we thought that by combining communications technology with web3 technology, we could provide new value that is even more significant.

Blockchain technology is sometimes discussed in terms of web2 and web3, but we see it as a continuous technology, and as a means to accelerate and advance things that could not be done with conventional technology.

Our initial idea was that we should be able to create an even more significant business by visualizing and transferring value, centered on blockchain technology, in addition to supporting infrastructure.

The figure of 600 billion yen tends to attract attention, but if you want to create a stable infrastructure foundation, the scale will naturally become larger. We did not want to attach meaning to the figure of 600 billion yen, but rather announced our intention to settle down and create infrastructure that incorporates web3.

We would like to work long-term to create services that will become part of your daily life infrastructure.

Is there still a possibility of investment in the future?

Endo: We see value in the power of tokenization and tokens, so we would like to consider investing in them in the future.

We also don't think we need to be tied to blockchain. For example, if AI technology is effective in advancing tokenization, we may consider using it in that way.

What do you think about the current challenges in the web3 field?

Endo: In Japan, many people are still skeptical of web3. In fact, it is a technology that only a few engineers can understand, and many people have a dangerous image of it because of the idea that "Web3.0 = crypto assets".

We want to dispel that image as well. Above all, we think it is important to create meaningful use cases not only for crypto assets, such as tokenization, which is the idea of ​​web3, but also from an emotional perspective, such as revitalizing fan communities.

We think that the ideal form for web3 technology is to be "used without knowing it". We want to create a situation where people can use our services as a matter of course, without being strongly aware of it in their daily lives.

When it comes to communications infrastructure, the NTT Docomo brand is likely to be a strong weapon, but how do you plan to operate as NTT Digital?

Endo: We would like to contribute to creating an orderly environment by utilizing the technology and knowledge we have cultivated as the NTT Group.

At present, web3 technology is ahead of the competition, and legal systems have not yet caught up, so we believe it will be difficult to realize the safe and secure web3 experience we are aiming for. We hope to play the role of a trust anchor and not only establish rules, but also change the skeptical perception of web3 to some extent.

We ourselves are behind the scenes of the services you use as infrastructure, and this stance will not change even with web3. Even in web3, we believe it would be desirable for "NTT Digital's infrastructure to be used behind the scenes of existing apps and services."

In addition, we currently have 98 million "d Account" users (as of the end of December 2023) as the NTT Group. We would like to provide our services to these users in the future by collaborating with NTT Group services.

There are other companies that are working in the Web3.0 field, but what approach will NTT Digital take?

Endo: Currently, the situation in this business is similar to the Internet around 1995, so rather than thinking of it as a competition, I think it would be more meaningful for us to help each other grow. Above all, this is an area with global opportunities, so I want to work hard and improve myself.