eXponential Finance

On January 16, the FinTech Association of Japan held a meetup with the Financial Services Agency (FSA), the financial regulator in Japan. The FSA updated on a variety of regulatory initiatives, including cryptocurrencies, ICOs and STOs.

This presentation is in Japanese

The slides accompanying the presentation are available from our Medium Publication: medium.com/tokyo-fintech/meetu…slides-827056079a8b

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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Yuki Kishi has been the FinTech Director for Plug and Play Japan since its inaugural startup batch two years ago. Since the beginning of 2020, he is also responsible for Brand & Retail. Listen in on this episode to learn... - Yuki's advice for startups entering the Japanese market - What to expect when working with Japanese corporates - More about the startup that Yuki found most impressive over this two year period - How much Yuki values his personal and professional network!

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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Ryan Lackey, Chief Security Officer at the Tezos Foundation, came straight from a red eye flight from Bangkok to talk to us about his career, the role of the Tezos Foundation, governance in the crypto/blockchain world, and some of the largest projects that are under way with Tezos in Thailand and Brazil, for example.

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the financial services regulator, kindly gave us the opportunity for a brief interview during his recent visit to Tokyo.

We talk about the FinTech innovation ecosystem in Singapore, ASEAN and Japan, the upcoming Singapore FinTech Festival, APIX as an open innovation platform, and how regulators might respond to the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement.

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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With So Saito, one of Japan's most prominent FinTech lawyers supporting several high-profile blockchain & crypto companies, as well as other startups, we discussed ICO and STO regulation in Japan, stablecoins and Libra.

There are significant changes coming in the regulatory environment over the next nine months, so please tune in!

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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The cashless payment wars are on. Millions are being spent on rewards and loyalty programs, in Japan and in markets across Asia, by the competing payment platforms.

pulse is an identity platform that provides seamless customer recognition, payment geo-validation & contextual engagement for banks, telcos and media organizations, allowing them to differentiate themselves.

With Alex Topaloski, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, we talk about his payments journey over the last decade, the emerging convergence of loyalty & payments, and how much fun it is to be an entrepreneur!

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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The accelerator program by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), the FinTech Business Camp Tokyo 2019, is open for applications until July 5 at the following link: www.senryaku.metro.tokyo.jp/bdc_tokyo/e…intech2019/

Jose Casanueva from Electronic IDentification has lead the company's effort as part of the 2018 accelerator program, and shares his experience. You will not be surprised to hear that he highly recommends it for anyone considering a Japanese market entry.

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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Benjamin Tsai is the President & Managing Partner of Wave Financial, a Los Angeles-based asset management firm focused on the cryptocurrency space, providing asset management products for high net worth and institutional investors. Ben shares his view on how the development of the crypto markets will mirror traditional markets, which requires the development of passive strategies and derivative products. Ben also focuses specifically on the securitization of hard assets. The benefits of securitizing whiskey are made very clear during our conversation.

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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Thomas Glucksmann is the Head of Data Management Solutions at Diginex, a leading provider of enterprise blockchain solutions, where he is focused on product management for a suite of blockchain enhanced Data Integrity solutions for corporations, governments and NPOs.

Going beyond the hype and the crypto markets, our conversation centered around real-world use cases that government agencies and corporations are deploying today, for example in helping to secure the rights of migrant workers, and identifying fraud. We hope you enjoy listening to the discussion as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

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Takemiya-san is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soramitsu, the gem among Japanese blockchain companies. Founded in 2016, the company's blockchain technology, Iroha, was accepted by the Hyperledger under the Linux Foundation's governance by November that year, complementing Fabric, Sawtooth Lake, and other potential projects by creating reusable components in C++ that can be called from languages such as Go. Just a few weeks ago, the Web3 Foundation has released a grant to Soramitsu to develop a Polkadot runtime environment in C++.

In between these two milestones were several implementations with the likes of Rakuten (for KYC system development), Sompo Holdings (for weather derivatives), the National Bank of Cambodia (for digital currencies), and many more. Soramitsu focuses on delivery, not marketing - this podcast offers a unique view into the different projects Soramitsu is working on, and how Takemiya-san's views shape how the company is operating.

Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via [email protected]

You can also find us on....