Consideration of a Business Partnership with the SMBC Group in the Soulbound Token Domain

HashPort Inc. (CEO: Seihaku Yoshida, hereinafter collectively referred to as the "HashPort Group") and its consolidated subsidiaries HashPalette Inc. (CEO: Seihaku Yoshida) and HashBank Inc. (CEO: Kazuyuki Tsuji) have entered into a basic agreement on a business partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (President and Group CEO: Jun Ohta; hereinafter collectively referred to as "SMBC Group") and its consolidated subsidiary Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (President and CEO: Makoto Takashima) .

1. Overview of basic agreement

・The HashPort Group and the SMBC Group have been discussing the launch of a joint business for developing a safe and secure Web3 economic zone since signing a basic agreement in July 2022. ・Based on the outcomes of the aforementioned discussions, the parties concluded this basic agreement to commence specific deliberations toward launching a new joint business centered on practical use of Soulbound Tokens (hereinafter, “SBTs”). ・As the first phase of demonstration testing under this basic agreement, the HashPort Group will provide technical support and the SMBC Group will issue SBTs on a trial basis through the end of March 2023. ・As the second phase based on the results of the above testing, demonstration testing will be conducted envisioning scenarios in which SBTs are used as proof of behavior/career. Consideration will also be given in this phase to carrying out testing to produce case studies of SBT utilization with the cooperation of companies considering forming and marketing fan communities using tokens. ・In addition, the two parties will also consider undertaking content business associated with NFTs and developing infrastructure for the Web3 economic zone to encourage the spread of the token business both in Japan and overseas.

2. Background of basic agreement on business partnership

・SBTs are non-transferable NFTs that are issued as tokens indicating the personal history and activities of the individual holding the SBT wallet. The wallets in which the various SBTs are stored are called "souls" because they represent the identity of the owners of the wallets. ・With more and more people taking on side jobs, personal technology and knowledge sharing services gaining traction, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) (*1) emerging, and other changes taking place in society, it has become common practice for individuals to assume diverse roles and personalities within society. It is expected in this new society that each individual will be able to control which personality he/she displays in each community in which he/she participates. SBTs satisfy these new social needs through the use of multiple "souls". ・Partnering with the SMBC Group to conduct research on SBTs that can be put to practical use in future is a meaningful initiative to help the Web3 economy catch on more widely in Japan. (*1) What is a DAO? DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization, a jointly-owned organization in which there is no specific manager or owner, and the members of the organization make decisions by voting to promote businesses and projects.

[Examples of SBT usage]

・Suppose, for example, that there is a user who has a soul as a working adult and a soul as a music fan at the same time. If this user wants to prove his/her skills and work history when changing jobs, he/she can simultaneously prove his/her identity and his/her career information associated with them by allowing his/her employer to reference the SBTs held in his/her working soul as well as his/her personal information such as name and address stored outside the blockchain. ・On the other hand, if a user wants to share his/her fan activity history within an artist's fan community to prove his/her loyalty as a fan, he/she can allow the community to reference only those SBTs held within the user’s soul as a music fan to show how many live shows he/she has attended, how many times he/she has played the artist’s music, etc., while remaining anonymous.

◆Company profiles

＜Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group＞ Company Name : Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. Location : 1-1-2, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Representative : Jun Ota Establishment : December 2, 2002 Business Overview : Management and administration of banks and other companies that may be made subsidiaries under the Banking Act, and other operations incidental thereto URL : https://www.smfg.co.jp/ ＜Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation＞ Company Name : Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Location : 1-1-2, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Representative : Makoto Takashima Establishment : June 6, 1996 Business Overview : Banking business URL : https://www.smbc.co.jp/

＜HashPort Group＞

＜HashPort＞ Company Name : HashPort Inc. Location : EDGE Shiba 4-chome BLDG, 4-5-10, Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Representative : CEO Seihaku Yoshida Establishment : July 13, 2018 Business Overview : Blockchain-related consulting ・Support for handling new crypto assets ・IEO support (domestic/overseas) ・Blockchain code review support ・Token design support URL : https://hashport.io/en/ ＜HashPalette＞ Company Name : HashPalette Inc. Location : EDGE Shiba 4-chome BLDG, 4-5-10, Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Representative : CEO Seihaku Yoshida Establishment : March 2, 2020 Business Overview : Product development in the NFT field ・Development of "Palette", a blockchain network optimized for NFT distribution ・Development of NFT marketplace "PLT Place” ・NFT game development by blockchain studio "HashGames” URL : https://hashpalette.com/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/hashpalette ＜HashBank＞ Company Name : HashBank Inc. Location : EDGE Shiba 4-chome BLDG, 4-5-10, Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Representative : CEO Kazuyuki Tsuji Establishment : April 15, 2022 Business Overview : Product development in the field of crypto assets ・Crypto Asset Wallet for business use ・Crypto asset trust solutions URL : https://hashbank.co.jp/