Japan Blockchain Alliance has more than 100 members

Baozou Comment : The Japanese Blockchain Alliance BCC, which was established in April, has developed more than 100 member institutions in a short period of time, including Sumitomo Mitsui, Microsoft, and PwC. It also launched a blockchain university project to train professional and technical talents in batches. However, even so, Japan is still seriously lacking in relevant professionals. Obviously, the development speed of the blockchain field is very rapid.

Translation: Annie Xu

The blockchain alliance has quietly emerged in Japan, quickly exceeding 100 member institutions.

The Blockchain Collaborative Consortium (BCC) was established in April and its members include Microsoft Japan, PwC, Mitsui Sumotomo, Bitbank, ConsenSys, etc.

The alliance announced that its internal Blockchain University project has successfully trained its 100th student, marking a major achievement in BCC’s plan to spread technological knowledge.

According to a blog post by Pina Hirano, CEO and founder of BCC, alliance member Infoteria called the blockchain university unique in Japan and that the alliance is also working on other educational projects.

"Although the fields related to blockchain and Internet finance are growing rapidly, BCC will leverage the power of more members and explore more actively to ensure that Japan does not fall behind."

Hirano said the alliance has 109 members, but the BCC website list only shows 101.

Japan and Blockchain

Over the past few months, Japan has become a focal point for blockchain discussion and exploration.

In November, distributed ledger startup Ripple and 42 banks launched a blockchain alliance to build a real-time cross-border payment network.

Earlier this month, Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and other banking institutions jointly released the results of the blockchain interbank payment test with Deloitte Japan.

However, Japan still lacks relevant technical talents.

To solve this problem, BCC has trained two batches of students, including eight course projects, such as practical training on basic knowledge of blockchain and Bitcoin blockchain courses. The course project lasts for two months, and the next batch of students is scheduled to start training in January 2017.