On April 28th, 2023, Cryptogram Venture (CGV) announced that the second Tokyo Web3 Spring Hackathon (TWSH), is initiated by CGV and jointly supported by experts from institutions such as Keio University, NTT DOCOMO, MetaFocus, TEAMZ, CoinW Labs, etc.
The registration channel for (pre-)participation projects has now opened at https://www.web3hackathon.io/, and institutional cooperation and recruitment are underway.
CGV FoF recently sponsored one of the most influential Web3 offline summits in Japan, the TEAMZ Web3 Summit 2023, and will organize the Tokyo Web3 Spring Hackathon (TWSH) Demo Day event at Toranomon Hills on the first day of the summit (May 17th) in Tokyo.
Dozens of guests, including former Japanese Cabinet Secretary and current Ministry of Digital Society Promotion Minister Hiroshi Hirano, Tim Draper, the founder of Draper Associates, Satoshi Watanabe, the founder of Astar Network, Yuzo Kano, the CEO of BitFlyer, Jason Sai, a web3 special examiner for NTT DOCOMO, Amo Kensuke, the COO of Coincheck, David Gan, the founder of OP Crypto, Akio Tanaka, a founding partner of Infinity Ventures Crypto, Mable Jiang, the chief revenue officer of STEPN, Tony Gu, a partner of NGC Ventures, and Qi Liu, the co-founder of SevenX Ventures, will attend the event and give speeches.
The choice of Japan as the birthplace of TWSH is in line with the Japanese government’s efforts to develop Web3. Recently, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated that the advent of the Web3 era could lead to economic growth in Japan. In the future, the Japanese government will carry out institutional reforms to create an environment that promotes the creation of new services, including Web3-related infrastructure. Japan has great development potential in the encryption and Web3 fields and may occupy an important position in the global Web3 market.
The organizer CGV stated this hackathon activity differs from previous industry hackathon events in that it emphasizes the sustainability and development capabilities of projects in addition to development capabilities. Therefore, the contest is expected to last for up to six months. The construction and development of the Web3 ecosystem is not something that can be done overnight, and it is hoped that, with a more responsible examination and more patient support, outstanding talents and teams in the Web3 field can be discovered and assisted globally to jointly explore the enormous development space of Web3.
The first Japan Web3 Hackathon, hosted by CGV, was held from July to October 2022, and was jointly launched by institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, Keio University, Sony, Softbank, and Cointelegraph Japan (CTJ). Dozens of well-known global blockchain industry institutions such as Metis, MetaEstate, Atom Capital, Binance, BAI Capital, Consensus Lab, Gate.io, IOSG Ventures, IPFS infinite Japan, NGC Ventures, OKX, Tokyo Tower, and Tokyo Esports Gate supported the event, with over 100 outstanding projects participating from Japan, the United States, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong and other regions. Ultimately, nine projects from different tracks stood out through selection and shared a $150,000 prize pool. Some of the favored projects also received investment from investment institutions and support from Japanese local resources.
When it comes to the focus of the second Japan Web3 Hackathon, Steve Chiu, the founder of the organizer CGV, stated that the projects for this event not only cover popular Web3 tracks such as blockchain infrastructure, DeFi, GameFi, Metaverse, NFT and SocialFi, but also place emphasis on innovative trends such as Zero-knowledge Proof (ZK), encrypted AI fusion, innovative stablecoins, DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network), Soul Binding Tokens (SBT), completely on-chain games, and new social applications.
Participating institutions will have the opportunity to have early contact with front-line projects, and communicate with global Web3 industry institutions and practitioners. As for participating projects, they will have the chance to obtain investments and entrepreneurial guidance from top global VC institutions, win the total prize pool of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and receive support from a multimillion-dollar incubation fund.
According to the schedule of the competition, from April to June during the event, project registration, screening and review, Demo Day exhibitions (Tokyo Toramagashi), online preliminaries, and excellent project roadshows will be held sequentially, and the award ceremony will be held in Japan in September.
As of now, more than 30 VC institutions from all over the world have registered to participate in the project selection and review, and more institutional cooperation is being confirmed.
For institutional cooperation applications (event support, project selection and review, media cooperation, etc.):
Yurinatyou@cgv.fund
Registration channel for participating projects (pre-registration):
About Cryptogram Venture (CGV):
Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a compliant crypto industry research and investment institution headquartered in Japan. With “research-driven investment” as its business orientation, it has participated in early investments in projects such as FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, The Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, Powerpool, and JPYW, a yen stablecoin regulated by the Japanese government. At the same time, CGV FoF is an LP of funds such as Huobi Venture, Rocktree Capital, and Kirin Fund. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and Hong Kong,
About Keio University:
Keio University, is a world-renowned research-based comprehensive university and the first institution of higher education in Japanese history. Keio’s predecessor was the “Rangaku Juku” founded in 1858, a private school that spread Western natural sciences. Under the guidance and influence of its founder, Yukichi Fukuzawa, it continued to develop and played a pioneering leadership role in Japanese society.
About NTT DOCOMO:
The largest mobile communication operator in Japan, with over 60 million contracted users. It provides 3G network services throughout Japan and provided LTE commercial network services as early as 2010. In November 2022, NTT DOCOMO announced that it will invest up to 600 billion yen (US$4 billion) in developing next-generation Web3 internet technology.
About MetaFocus:
MetaFocus is an accelerator that focuses on incubating innovative projects in the fields of cryptocurrency and metaverse. Its headquarters are located in Singapore, and it has branches in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and other locations. Its business currently covers some countries and regions in North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, with over 50 partnering organizations and nearly 100 industry mentors. MetaFocus provides matching support to the founding teams at every growth stage of their startup projects. With a top-notch team of mentors and rich experience in project localization, MetaFocus offers personalized and differentiated coaching and support in areas such as industry, operations, marketing, financing, and going public.
About TEAMZ:
TEAMZ is a digital creative team that provides business strategies and solutions for Web3-related companies seeking new opportunities. It supports customer needs in the Japanese Web3 market through one-stop services from planning and development to ongoing support for Web3 products and services such as NFT, DAO, GameFi, wallets, and Metaverse integration.
About CoinW Labs
Established in early 2022, CoinW Labs is committed to building a world-class distributed ecosystem incubation laboratory, providing industry-leading and highly professional global blockchain investment and incubation services to accelerate builders and achieve sustainable growth and success in the blockchain field. The business focuses on Gamefi, NFT, DeFi and other areas. Since its establishment, it has successfully discovered and incubated more than 300 projects, achieving a financial investment return of over 20 times overall, and has been highly recognized in the industry for its high coverage and efficiency of services.