His speech covered several interesting cases from Japan. Mr. Takemiya also demonstrated Soramitsu\u2019s own projects, most of which employ Hyperledger Iroha.<\/p>\n
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According to the Hyperledger Project website<\/a>,<\/p>\n \u201cHyperledger Iroha is a blockchain platform implementation and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Hyperledger Iroha is designed to be simple and easy to incorporate into infrastructural projects requires distributed ledger technology. Hyperledger Iroha features a simple construction; modern, domain-driven C++ design, emphasis on mobile application development and a new, chain-based Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithm, called Sumeragi. Hyperledger Iroha was initially contributed by Soramitsu, Hitachi, NTT Data and Colu\u201d.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In his exclusive interview with ForkLog, Mr. Takemiya spoke of what Soramitsu is engaged in at the moment, however, it wasn\u2019t the only thing that he covered. It was an opportunity to find out about the current state of affairs in Japan\u2019s blockchain industry straight from the source, and whether the new regulatory framework could be a game changer when it comes to acceptance of new technologies.<\/p>\n In his own words, Makoto Takemiya is amongst bitcoin\u2019s early adopters. Years ago, he was an active user at Bitcointalk (though he preferred to keep his username dark). Our talk inevitably covered those issues as well. However, being a person who knows ins and outs of bitcoin\u2019s ecosystem, Mr. Takemia wasn\u2019t too optimistic.<\/p>\n ForkLog: Hello, will you tell us more about Soramitsu?<\/strong><\/p>\n Makoto Takemiya:<\/strong> We are a fintech company based in Tokyo and we deal mainly with banks and insurance companies, globally and in Japan. We do things like fintech solutions with blockchain technology, primarily with Hyperledger Iroha which we were initial contributors for. Just to clarify things: we developed Iroha internally and contributed it to Hyperledger Project. We also build mobile applications on top of that.<\/p>\n FL: What kind of applications are you building?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> We work with an insurance company in Japan on weather derivatives projects, creating contracts on blockchain. Then we also work with the National Bank of Cambodia on building payments system for the country, and it\u2019s also using Hyperledger Iroha.<\/p>\n FL: How did it start with your Cambodia project in the first place? Was it hard to convince people there to start trialing blockchain?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> They contacted us initially about the project and we talked about all the details, and now we are building the payment system infrastructure for the country. It is based on Hyperledger Iroha which is an open-source project under the Hyperledger umbrella. So it should be very interesting since it\u2019s something that is being deployed on the national scale. I don\u2019t think there are many examples of that, and it\u2019s important for the blockchain industry on the whole.<\/p>\n FL: And surely it\u2019s important to your company as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> Oh yes, it\u2019s very important to Soramitsu. We build our reputation with that and show that we can be trusted. That\u2019s actually one of the big things with the Hyperledger Project and their marketing team. People know that you can trust their data, and data is the core value of applications. So having a strong governance framework is very important.<\/p>\n FL: Do you have plans to expand your business to other countries?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> Yes, of course, Iroha Hyperledger is very well suited for micropayments. It\u2019s a permissioned ledger, so you can set it up inside a trusted and reliable network in order to do efficient payment processing even on a national scale. We came to Ukraine and spent time travelling and paying for things, and it would be really nice to do this digital. It\u2019 such small amounts that you can\u2019t use Bitcoin which would cost more than the amount you are sending. So, micropayments is one of the use cases, and I also think interbank settlements and DVP (Delivery Versus Payment) can be good use cases.<\/p>\n So we speak about the countries without good infrastructure, obviously, they are our targets, because if you build a new infrastructure you can build something more efficient and more secure than traditional infrastructure. That\u2019s one of the things Cambodia realized. Therefore it could be countries similar to Cambodia and also countries that rely heavily on digital payments, countries like Sweden for instance where people don\u2019t use much cash.<\/p>\n FL: Last year Sweden’s central bank said it was considering the possibility of issuing its own digital currency, the so called eKrona, however, they had a survey on that matter which found that less than 10% of the country\u2019s population supported having this option available in addition to cash.<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> It depends on the country as well. I don\u2019t think digital should be the only option, there should be non-digital options as well. Also proper governance and checks and balances are important in digital currencies. You want a centralized government to control all transactions in the country: it\u2019s not healthy for the economy and your need a little more privacy with your transactions. Blockchain can help build that, where you have rules that even central bank may have to follow. It\u2019s about things like what data you can see, what level of anonymity is there, should it be like Bitcoin where you can see the numbers but don\u2019t see who these people are, or maybe even potentially things like mixing services.<\/p>\n On the other hand, it also prevents criminal activity when you have checks and balances, or some process, if multiple parties agree, where you can use a sort of transaction history, or, perhaps, freeze accounts. That\u2019s important from the society\u2019s standpoint. Money is a very important aspect of our lives and you need some control over it, but it shouldn\u2019t be just one agency saying \u2018We want to control all transactions in the country\u2019. That\u2019s a terrible idea.<\/p>\n FL: That\u2019s something you call \u2018centralization\u2019, and something digital currencies are supposed to be a recipe against.<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s something that we have right now. No one can stop me physically from giving you cash, you can prevent me from giving the cash: once things move to digital you can prevent transactions automatically, and maybe that\u2019s something that is desirable from the country\u2019s point of view. You need a lot more privacy and you also need some check of authority.<\/p>\n FL: You mentioned Bitcoin saying it\u2019s not too suitable for microtrasactions. Could things change when solutions like Lightning Network are finally implemented?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> Yeah, potentially. Once countries start issuing digital currencies, Bitcoin will be mostly irrelevant to average person. It\u2019s just my opinion. The nice thing about Bitcoin is how easy you can send money anywhere, it\u2019s a very good user experience when you are able to send money as easy as an e-mail letter. Compare it to credit cards, where you have to put some numbers, your telephone number, then some numbers on the back. But once you start having traditional fiat currencies going digital with very low fees, I don\u2019t think anyone will be using Bitcoin for sending money.<\/p>\n That being said, the main application of Bitcoin right now is not sending money, its main application is speculation. People don\u2019t really use Bitcoin as a currency now.<\/p>\n FL: So what lies ahead for Bitcoin then?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> It all depends of what decisions that the Core development team and the miners take right now. Bitcoin has come to a certain crossroads and either has to impress with innovations and try to expand the system\u2019s usability, or we just pursue profits. Once things like SegWit are implemented, or maybe there\u2019s block size increase, and the scalability issues are solved, it will have lots of potential. Otherwise there has been surprisingly little innovation in Bitcoin space compared to other projects.<\/p>\n FL: What do you think about the political battle between various camps in Bitcoin then? Some people want bigger blocks, while others insist SegWit is the only way to go.<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a political battle, rather a religious one. But I think there\u2019s nothing wrong with trying new things as long everything is robust and there are no bugs like in Ethereum that would cause problems. Economic models change and they need to change.<\/p>\n FL: Speaking of blockchain, how deep is the level of penetration of the technology in Japan?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> If we talk about banks and other financial institutions, everyone knows about blockchain, there\u2019s hardly anyone who doesn\u2019t. People are really interested in the technology and study it, and books on blockchain are very popular in Japan. At least there\u2019s not a single major company that doesn\u2019t know what blockchain is. People in finance maybe even progressed to the point where they also know about the downsides of the technology, they know what it can do and what it can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n So, lots of companies are interested in the technology, but individuals, well, I think basically not.<\/p>\n For normal people, their interest is more economical, I think. There are big companies like Bic Camera or online credit card processors that accept Bitcoin on one hand, and on the other hand, Japanese people don\u2019t really use Bitcoin in daily life. Maybe until this year day Bitcoin\u2019s reputation wasn\u2019t too good, but after the Financial Services Agency changed the regulation people are starting to look at it more than before.<\/p>\n FL: Are there any special courses in Japan where people can study the technology?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> It\u2019s interesting, but there\u2019s not much education on blockchain right now. There are lots of people who are interested, but at the university level there\u2019s really not much educational classes about it. Part of the reason maybe is the connection to cryptocurrencies, because in the academia you don\u2019t want to have financial incentive. Blockchain is not just Bitcoin, blockchain itself is very interesting technology from the theoretical standpoint, so hopefully we\u2019ll start to see more penetration into the classroom, and more computer science courses teaching blockchain development skills and things like that.<\/p>\n Anyway, it\u2019s still very early in the field, there are no standards, and because of that I think it is going to take some time before we see more of it.<\/p>\n FL: Recently there have been many big banks and companies embracing blockchain, researching various aspects of the technology. SBI Holding, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho just to name a few, also there\u2019s Ripple obviously having interest in Japanese market. What do you think is their main incentive here?<\/strong><\/p>\n M.T.:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s a good question. SBI has always been impressive in fintech, and their collaboration with Ripple<\/a> is just one example of that. They are a huge financial group and they\u2019ve always been very aggressive. They intend to open their own cryptocurrency exchange, and they\u2019ve also been working on bringing other smaller banks into one network that will produce cost-efficient settlement. Whether it will be a success or not, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n Mitsubishi are also doing something with that MUFG Coin<\/a>. There\u2019s very little detail about the project, but basically it\u2019s a digital Japanese yen that is backed by Mitsubishi\u2019s settlement. We could say it\u2019s a private coin. Some Japanese banks are using Mitsubishi\u2019s settlement, so I can see that settlement network will be expanded by creating a digital currency. It could be very strong, but not much details so far.<\/p>\n SBI is always going to be very aggressive with new things, and they are really fast. It\u2019s funny, because Mitsubishi are bigger, but very slow. SBI are leaders in some sectors, they are very successful in banking and net security, and this also affects trading. That\u2019s why I believe it\u2019s a big deal that they\u2019ve created companies that handle Bitcoin too.<\/p>\n![\"Exclusive:](\"http:\/\/forklog.media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/19642443_1717950758506354_488750855773576170_n.jpg\")
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