GSENetwork today announced the entry into the Sharing Economy Association of Japan (SEAJ) as a Special Member, a membership status only awarded to sharing economy businesses who share the same ethos as the SEAJ to drive the development of the sharing economy and wider adoption of blockchain technology in Japan.
SEAJ is the largest non-government body consisting of over 200 businesses and is managed by sharing economy leaders in Japan including Airbnb, Aircloset, Anytimes and Crowdworks to name a few, and is committed to driving the growth of the sharing economy in Japan.
According to a report by Yano Research Institute released in mid-2018, the Japanese sharing economy in 2017 has grown to over 130 percent of the previous year. Sales of domestic sharing economy providers such as space or car-sharing services were forecasted to grow from approximately 72 billion Japanese yen in 2017 to almost 139 billion yen by 2022.
As one of the first businesses to empower the global sharing economy with blockchain technology, GSENetwork is committed to working closely with sharing economy giants to develop real world applications such as the green-mining initiative, “Ride & Earn” program that was launched in partnership with ofo, the largest dockless bike-sharing service, in Singapore, Japan and South Korea. The “Ride & Earn” program was piloted in Singapore and successfully earned 400,000 users in 40 days, and subsequently gained hundreds of thousands of Japanese users after it was launched in Japan in August 2018. The program’s popularity and success has garnered interest from businesses from various industries.
The Decentralized Service (DService) layer in GSENetwork is designed to allow fellow businesses and developers in the sharing economy to easily develop sharing economy DApps. As a special member of SEAJ, GSENetwork will be able to collaborate with other members in SEAJ to share resources and technological research to grow the sharing economy.
The Japan government have been supportive of the blockchain industry, recognizing Bitcoin as a legal currency. Bitcoin has also become a widely accepted payment option in various retail stores, convenience stores. The sharing economy has its roots in Japan where innovative homegrown car-sharing service, Times and shared parking spaces, Akippa were introduced years ago.