Bitcoin Association held its inaugural BSV: Bitcoin for Business program on October 21 in Tokyo. The event was designed to provide educate business executives about how Bitcoin SV (BSV) is the ideal blockchain for enterprise applications. Held at the Tokyo American Club, it saw participation from 65 members of the Japanese business and blockchain community and was an overwhelming success.
Speaking about Bitcoin and what it means for business was Dr. Craig Wright, chief scientist of nChain and the man better known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. He was interviewed in a Fireside Chat on the topic, emphasizing several key characteristics that are driving business innovation in Bitcoin. Acting as moderator was Jerry Chan, Bitcoin Association’s regional manager for Japan and South Korea; Jerry is former cryptocurrency executive at Japanese internet financial conglomerate SBI Group and has a deep fintech background at major enterprises.
The backdrop of the program was poignant because Japan has always been known as being a forward-thinking country when it comes to new technology. This is part of the reason major multinational companies such as Sony and Toyota have been able to excel. However, as Wright pointed out during the chat, Japan has fallen behind and hasn’t been able to fulfill its promises of decades ago. Embracing Bitcoin is the leading way to regain its position. The Bitcoin blockchain (now in the form of BSV) is designed to offer enterprise-class application and business solutions on a scale never before seen.
Included by default in its capabilities, Bitcoin can help eliminate corruption on multiple levels. Its immutable nature makes it easy to track processes and activity in business environments, allowing for greater confidence and security in an entity’s operations. In the end, this fosters improved relationships between business partners, as well as between businesses and their investors. Since Bitcoin, now reborn as BSV, was meant to work with existing regulations and laws from around the world, it can be easily integrated and deployed without hesitation over running into conflicts with established legal frameworks.
Furthermore, Wright explained that Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, isn’t meant to replace fiat currencies nor compete with them. It was designed to facilitate the implementation of micropayments, which gives content creators and Internet users ways to monetize their content and online activities that were never possible before. This is one of the strongest arguments for Bitcoin, as it develops a whole new commercial market that was never before possible.
On hand for the program were representatives from well-known companies like ecommerce giant Rakuten and global audit firm KPMG, ready to learn more about Bitcoin and how it can be integrated into business operations. Bitcoin can be especially beneficial to auditing firms such as KPMG, since the Bitcoin ledger is able to combat fraud and make the auditing jobs immensely easier—no more way to keep two sets of accounting books.
Wright recognizes that there is still a lot of work to be done, especially in Japan. The country’s self-regulatory body for cryptocurrency exchanges has not yet whitelisted BSV, and Wright, as well as others, hopes this will change in the very near future. The Bitcoin Association’s BSV: Bitcoin for Business program is going to go a long way to helping make that happen, and the success of this initial event is leading to the creation of others, both locally and abroad.
For more details on Wright’s discussion and how the program is helping to advance Bitcoin’s vision in Japan, check out additional coverage of the topic at CoinGeek by visiting this link.
Gareth Evans contributed the transcription of the inaugural BSV: Bitcoin for Business program in Tokyo.