In this episode of Blocklayer Podcast, Kenzi Takahashi speaks with Sota Watanabe about what it’s like building as a Japanese founder in crypto, the factors that most strongly shape Web3 valuations, and why the multichain future is more practical than it is ideological. They also dig into what’s next at Astar — and how the team thinks about positioning smart contracts in a world where ecosystems are no longer “either/or.”

Before co-founding Astar in Japan in 2018, Sota studied information technology at San Francisco State University in the U.S., then worked in the San Francisco Bay Area at Chronicled, a blockchain startup. After returning to Japan, he became a blockchain researcher at The University of Tokyo. A turning point came when Gavin Wood visited Japan and spoke about Web3 — a moment that helped cryst ...