Exclusive interview with Mai Fujimoto, Co-Founder of "INTMAX"

Mai Fujimoto is known as "Miss Bitcoin". Exclusive to her new challenge, whose mission is to give property rights to people around the world through "INTMAX", whose mission is to lower fees while maintaining the decentralization and security of Ethereum. Through the interview, we learned...

What inspired me to aim to solve social issues

Please tell us about your current activities.

Mai Fujimoto (hereinafter Fujimoto): I am currently focusing on an Ethereum layer 2 project called "INTMAX".

Ethereum has the problem of rising fees (gas fees) because limited resources are shared when many users use it. This also affects the expansion of Ethereum's economic zone (scalability).

Some blockchain chains have strategies to lower fees at the expense of decentralization. However, in order to maintain the original benefits of blockchain, I believe that fees should be kept low while maintaining decentralization.

INTMAX's mission is to lower fees while maintaining the decentralization and security of Ethereum.

Please tell us about your career up to the present.

Fujimoto: When I was in university, I worked in education. Since we were a tutoring company for children who couldn't go to school or who were not good at studying, we came into contact with people who had a variety of problems.

It was very rewarding to see up close people who were able to study and had the opportunity to go to school through this job.

This experience led me to drop out of university at the age of 19 and work as a private tutor for about seven years.

Thankfully, I was able to achieve results that I was satisfied with through that job. When I turned 26, I decided that I wanted to work in industry that would help solve larger social issues.

Of course, I am not saying that the problems of the children who have been concerned about their studies up until that point are small.

However, when I learned that there were many children around the world who were having problems with their daily lives, I started thinking, "I wonder if I can do something about it?"

Therefore, we decided to take care of iKids Co., Ltd., which operates "Kids Watches".

The company was providing web content that connects the world around the smiles of children, but the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred around that time, and they started making donations to support children around the world in need. They were launching a platform.

During the project, when collecting and sending donations, we aimed to support individuals rather than just giving to organizations, but the high remittance fees became an issue.

The overseas remittance fee is approximately 7,000 yen for one transfer. It takes time and effort. That's when I discovered Bitcoin and was impressed by its extremely low fees (around 10 yen) and ease of use.

This encounter led to me preparing to start a business, founding Gracone Co., Ltd., and moving my base to Tokyo. After that, we will establish the crypto asset donation platform "KIZUNA".