From 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm on August 27th, Tokyo time, the WebX side event [Bridging Real & Virtual: Global Meets Local in WebX], co-organized by CGV, XStar and Starbase, and co-organized by mizu, Aylab and LayerPixel, came to a successful conclusion. The event invited Japan's top companies, projects and communities, as well as industry-leading institutions and projects, to discuss the Japanese Web3 market and share how to achieve growth in the Japanese market.

Special thanks to all the following partners for their strong support for this event.

The following is a highlight recap of the event.

Host Speech | CGV、XStar、Starbase

CGV (Cryptogram Venture) is a crypto investment institution headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Partner YZ introduced the overall development background and investment situation of CGV: Since 2017, its funds and predecessor funds have participated in the investment of more than 200 projects, including investment in the incubation of licensed Japanese yen stablecoin JPYW. At the same time, CGV FoF is a limited partner of many world-renowned crypto funds. In addition, CGV actively pays attention to the development of Japanese Web3 startup projects. Since 2022, it has successfully held two Japan Web3 Hackathons (TWSH), which have received joint support from institutions and experts such as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, Keio University, and NTT Docomo.

Recently, CGV invested in and incubated Mid-Levels KOL Club and RONA.

Mid-Levels KOL Club is a service organization that brings together outstanding opinion leaders from around the world and has a large community. Team members come from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and other regions, and have rich project experience and extensive KOL resources in the fields of crypto asset investment and research, community operation, branding and marketing.

RONA is a high-performance Web3 gaming ecosystem that is committed to combining advanced hardware with blockchain technology to provide players with an immersive gaming experience and the opportunity to earn income through gaming. By integrating gameplay, cryptocurrency mining, and AI computing power sharing, RONA has created a new ecosystem for players to enjoy gaming and achieve economic value-added.

Currently, CGV has branches in Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Toronto and other places, and is also one of the founding members of the Bitcoin Tokyo Club in Tokyo.

XStar is an Omnichain identity protocol for proof of humanity. Founder and CEO Ervin introduced how XStar's decentralized identity system (DID) is combined with Proof of Humanity to deal with Sybil attacks. The system implements anti-fake account and anti-fraud functions in Web2 social networks by binding Web2 social accounts. XStar's comprehensive scoring system, Personality Points (XHS), combines biometric verification, Web2 social graph analysis, and offline event participation to help identify the personality attributes of users and on-chain addresses while protecting user privacy. In addition, XStar also provides an independent personality verification service platform (Proof of Humanity as a Service) for Web3 projects, so that Web3 projects can confirm the personality attributes of participating addresses before TGE, and provide preferential price plans for the first batch of project parties using the service.

Starbase is a Web 3.0 accelerator focusing on GameFi and AI. Founder Vivian introduced Starbase's core operating model, including project investment, incubation and acceleration. Starbase has invested in more than 100 projects, covering major hot fields, and provides financial support for start-up projects. Currently, Starbase's second "EverGrow Grant" has a total value of more than 2 million US dollars and is now open for application. Selected projects can receive comprehensive funding of 10,000 to 30,000 US dollars to help projects save development costs.

In terms of incubation and acceleration, Starbase provides four major supports: consulting management, including economic model design and financing strategy; user growth, enhancing the exposure of projects in markets such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia through KOL and community networks; marketing, formulating strategies to increase market awareness and participation of projects; developer ecology, cooperating with the global developer community to provide necessary development support.

In addition, Vivian also shared Starbase's Asia tour plan: During major industry conferences, Starbase will hold side events with industry-leading organizations and local partners to explore local markets, connect resources, and explore growth opportunities. Currently, Starbase has successfully held two Asia tour events, and several more events will be held in succession.

Keynote | Aylab: Web3 User Acquisition At Scale

Aylab is building Aylab Traffic Loop (ATL), an innovative Web3 advertising engine designed to help Web3 projects gain large-scale mobile users from Web2 and Web3. CEO Robert Zhang said that the Aylab team believes that most Web3 projects are currently complex to operate and require gas fees, which largely hinders the entry of Web2 users and Web3 novices. The goal of ATL is to simplify these processes so that users can access and use applications more intuitively. At present, ATL has completed more than 100 million on-chain transactions with partners such as SUI, BASE, Mantle, opBNB and Wormhole, and will cooperate with more Web3 projects in the future to attract larger users.

Panel

Panel 1: Navigating Japan's Web3 Market 

Japan's positive Web3 policy, unique market atmosphere, as well as KOLs and vibrant community culture have made it gradually become an important market. More and more emerging companies are actively expanding and seeking opportunities in this market. Panel 1 is a Japanese-only session, hosted by Anome's Japanese ambassador Kaori, and invited guests from well-known local Japanese companies, projects and communities: JANCTION CEO and JASMY CFO Hara, ACG Worlds Director Kab, LEGENDARY HUMANITY CEO and founder Mack Suzuki, and GuildQB founder Keisuke Horiguchi. Several guests shared their views on the development of Web3 in Japan and their insights on how overseas projects can enter the Japanese market.

Panel 2: AI Meets Crypto: Beyond the Hype, Into Real-World Application 

AIxCrypto has quickly become an important narrative direction in the current market. As this trend develops, related applications, protocols, and infrastructure are also emerging. Panel 2 was hosted by Alex, Strategy Lead of XStar, and guests included Kobby Chen, Investment Director of Fenbushi Capital, Kevin Qi, Investment Director of Mask Network, Jane, Director of CGV, and Sam, Co-founder of mizu, from well-known VC institutions and projects. The guests discussed in depth the current landscape of the AIxCrypto field, its wide range of applications, and its future development potential and prospects.