Astar Releases First Web3 Hackathon Supported by Toyota Motor Corporation

JAKARTA- Japanese auto giant Toyota is digging deeper into blockchain use cases through its involvement with the Web3 hackathon for decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) developers.

On February 1, multichain smart contract and decentralized application network (DApp) Astar announced its inaugural Web3 hackathon powered by Toyota Motor Corporation.

Astar Network founder, Sota Watanabe, commented on the importance of Toyota's involvement in the initiative.

“During the event, we aimed to develop the first DAO PoC (Proof of Concept) tool for Toyota employees. If a good tool is produced, Toyota employees will interact daily with the product on the Astar Network,” said Watanabe, quoted by Cointelegraph.

This is Toyota's first Web3 event as a multinational auto company seeking new technologies to "support its vision of enhancing the company's operations," the announcement said.

The Astar Foundation pledged US$100.000 (IDR 1.5 billion) in funding for the event, which will be used as a prize to win projects selected by Toyota.

Event participants will develop all their products on Astar Network, a layer-1 blockchain based in Japan. The hackathon will be held in Astar's Polkadot-based metaverse, COZMISE.

This is not the first time Toyota has dabbled in crypto and blockchain. In 2020, the auto giant's IT division teamed up with Japanese crypto exchange DeCurret to develop a Toyota-branded digital token.

Toyota set up a blockchain laboratory in 2020 to explore the future of distributed ledger technology and its role in the automotive industry.

Astar (ASTR) prices jumped 10.5% outright on the news to trade at 0.06 US dollars at the time of writing. The token has gained 53% over the last month but remains down 86% from its all-time high.