[NEWS] METI begins public call for applications for demonstration projects to accelerate social implementation and acceptance of Web 3.0

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's "Pilot Project for Building Digital Public Goods Using Web 3.0 & Blockchain" began accepting applications from businesses on the 3rd, with themes determined in advance based on policy and industrial issues.

In its announcement, METI stated that "Web 3.0 and blockchain technology are technologies with great future potential," but pointed out that it is difficult for private businesses, who are driven by practical profit, to see their value. It also cited issues such as "infrastructure construction is highly public, so it is economically unreasonable for private businesses to tackle it alone," and "rules have been established, but there are still many complex and unclear parts," explaining that in reality, social implementation and social acceptance have not progressed.

To address these issues, the ministry will support demonstrations of the construction of digital public goods in each industry or across industries, and aim to accelerate the social implementation and social acceptance of Web 3.0 and blockchain.

For this project, 450 million yen has been allocated in the proposed supplementary budget for fiscal 2023. The five themes for the public call for applications are as follows:

• Building of a digital market (issuance and distribution market) for physical and intangible assets
• Building an information platform for autonomous and resilient resource circulation systems
• Establishing a rights management system and rules for portrait rights in the sports industry
• Establishing guidelines for content IP protection
• Establishing guidelines for Web 3.0-based regional revitalization and related population creation projects

Projects based on these themes will be proposed, and if they are adopted, a budget will be allocated and the project will begin.

In addition, METI explains that in order to carry out the demonstration experiment, an expert committee of 10 experts with knowledge of law, accounting/tax, technology, international affairs, and communities in the Web 3.0/blockchain field will be set up, and the system will be designed based on the discussions and advice of the advisory board.

The advisors include Sota Watanabe of Starrale Labs, Joichi Ito, president of Chiba Institute of Technology, Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, Shinichiro Matsuo, research professor at Virginia Tech and Georgetown University, and Takahito Kagami of CoinPost Co., Ltd.

Reference: METI, JISSUI

Image: Shutterstock

Related articles:

METI grants 72.5 billion yen subsidy to KDDI, Sakura Internet, and others for AI supercomputer development

FSA to ease regulations by expanding issuance and promoting the spread of digital securities