Intorduction in mashbean brief
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is mashbean, and I am here today representing the Ministry of Digital Affairs in Taiwan. Our ministry, also known as moda, is a newly established government department that was founded in August last year. We have a lot to learn from Japan, especially in the area of web3 collaboration between government and the private sector.
The word "digital" in Chinese has another meaning, which is "several." So our minister, Audrey Tang, often says we have "several" members because we work together to handle all things digitally. I am proud to be one of the several. And I came from the Section of Plurality, which was also named by Audrey to handle interoperable standards and web3 affairs. Maybe we can discuss more about what is plurality means later. Let me briefly introduce myself first.
I used to be a medical doctor. After I quit my job, one day in 2021, while watching TV from the Tokyo Olympics 2020, I witnessed a historic moment during the men's badminton doubles final between Taiwan and China. The winning team would receive a gold medal. Taiwan was leading the game, and in the last ball, the winning shot landed on the opponent's baseline. The opponent challenged the call, but the replay showed that the ball was in, and Taiwan won the gold medal.
This moment was so iconic that I turned it into a meme. It became very popular online and even in real life, with people making masks, bags, and even car paint with the image. I decided to mint the meme as an NFT and auction it off, with all profit going to a non-profit organization that provides remote medical services. The NFT was called "The New Flag" and sold for 280,000 Japanese yen. It was the first time that a national-level meme was turned into concrete help through on-chain societal activity. This is an example of how Taiwan can help, and it's similar to Japan's use of NFTs for local revitalization.
After that, we established a non-profit DAO to continue researching how to use web3 to help more non-profit organizations in Taiwan. This is how I became interested in the theory of plurality or radical exchange. Today, I am honored to have the opportunity to discussed what plurality really means and share some examples from Taiwan. Thank you.