Market Overview

The domestic blockchain-employed services market size (based on the sales at businesses) is projected to attain 17,150 million yen for FY2019. There have been various verification processes mainly for the platforms for value distribution including supply chains and virtual currency. In some cases, these verification processes have developed into effect verification toward commercialization.

Blockchain is a system that utilizes a peer-to-peer (abbreviated to P2P) network to record and certificate rights-transfer and other deals. Because blockchain technologies ensure authenticity by disallowing data modification, they have attracted the attention mainly of financial institutions at the time when blockchain first emerged as a basis of virtual currency.

However, in the period between the latter half of 2017 and 2018, wide range of industries not confined to financial institutions began groping for blockchain technologies by proactive demonstration and verification of feasibility of blockchain-employed supply chains and certification of rights.

Blockchain technologies have begun being utilized for diverse purposes in recent years, including traceable distribution of wild game, transfer of rights and authenticity proof of art works, which contributed to improve the efficiency in various aspects, such as cost reduction led by increased transparency in distribution, and time savings in checking documents. It is expected that more blockchain-employed services across the various industries are to be commercialized for the future.

Noteworthy Topics

A blockchain technology infrastructure consists of three layers: The basic layer is represented by multiple foundational structures already emerged and used separately according to BtoB, BtoC, or for IoT and etc. The second layer consists of the technologies that supplement blockchain technologies such as Colored Coin and Lightning Network together with other specific solutions, studied and developed primarily by domestic startup enterprises. The third layer is comprised of various applications utilizing blockchain technologies. Each layer has been verified and demonstrated mainly large IT businesses and domestic startups progressively.


In addition, BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) solutions have been started providing mainly by major IT businesses to support building from the platform to the applications of blockchain, encouraging proactive utilization of blockchain systems from a technological point of view.
*1. Colored Coin refers to a system that applies “colors” on each of Bitcoin to express distribution of different types of asset, such as a deed for a house, stocks, bonds or futures.


*2. Lighting Network is the solution developed to solve the challenges such as scalability and process speed that Bitcoin blockchain technologies face.

Research Outline