Astar Network CEO Sota Watanabe to explain why Japan is embracing crypto at Consensus 2023

[PRESS RELEASE – Tokyo, Japan, April 17th, 2023]

Astar Network, a smart contract platform for multi-channel, is delighted to announce that its Founder and CEO Sota Watanabe will be presenting at the prestigious Consensus 2023 event in Austin, Texas. He will take the stage on Thursday, April 27 from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CT.

Sota Watanabe will explain why Japan is embracing crypto while regulators in other major economies are struggling to figure out how to handle crypto and Web3. He is a leading authority on the subject, having worked closely with the Japanese government to shape the country’s Web3 strategy.

As lawmakers and regulators from the United States to Europe to Asia express heightened distrust of crypto, promoting Web3 is still part of Japan’s national strategy. A forerunner in the field, Japan learned hard lessons from the Mt Gox collapse in 2014 and the record-breaking Coincheck hack in 2018 and its approach to regulation has mitigated the impact of the FTX collapse on Japanese users. .

“I am excited to join this group representing the Japanese crypto community to share ideas with the Consensus community. Being one of the founders of the first public blockchain in Japan led me to get involved in strategy planning of using digital assets and developing Web3 solutions. I want to take these lessons to the United States and other countries,” said Sota Watanabe, Founder of Astar Network.

Today, the Japanese government has made Web3 part of its national strategy, and Astar Network’s CEO, Sota Watanabe, is helping the government as well as major commercial players advance Web3. Major Japanese companies, including Toyota Motor Corporation and Sony Network Communications, have partnered with Astar Network to explore the opportunities of Web3.

Consensus 2023, CoinDesk’s coveted Web3 event, is set to kick off April 26-28. It is the largest and most influential gathering in the world that brings together all parts of the cryptocurrency, blockchain and Web3 community, including developers, investors, founders, brands, policy makers and more Again. In its 2022 edition, the event brought together more than 20,000 participants from 112 countries alongside more than 500 thought leaders and speakers.

Astar Network is the first Layer-1 in Japan, having been voted the most popular blockchain in the country by the Japanese Blockchain Association. It is the go-to blockchain for developers and companies wishing to explore the Japanese Web3 space. Astar is also the first public blockchain in the country to be listed there despite Japan’s strict listing regulations. Astar’s native token, ASTR, is registered as a cryptocurrency, not a security, by the Japanese government.

About Astar Network

Astar Network supports building dApps with EVM and WASM smart contracts and offers developers true interoperability with Cross Consensus Messaging (XCM) and Cross Virtual Machine (XVM). Astar’s unique Build2Earn model allows developers to get paid through a dApp staking mechanism for their code and the dApps they build.

One of the first parachains to come to the Polkadot ecosystem, Astar is a dynamic network that is backed by all major exchanges and Tier 1 VCs. Astar offers the flexibility of all Ethereum and WASM tools for developers to start create their dApps. To accelerate growth on the Polkadot and Kusama networks, Astar SpaceLabs offers an incubation hub for the best TVL dApps.