Tomo, founder of Pheasant Network, previously built and exited PoL, a Learn-to-Earn project. In Q3 2022, Pheasant became the only Layer 2 project worldwide supported by the Ethereum Foundation. Pheasant also received grants from Optimism, Polygon, Scroll, and Taiko, and is now driving enterprise adoption of Ethereum and Layer 2 in Japan.

President, The Ethereum Foundation
Aya was originally drawn to the blockchain space for its potential to advance financial inclusion in emerging economies. In 2013, she joined Kraken and helped educate the public, regulators, investors, and media as Managing Director of Japan. Driven by a passion for creating lasting impact, she joined the Ethereum Foundation as Executive Director in 2018. There, she led efforts to support the Ethereum ecosystem through core research and development activities,

Leading the development of MynaWallet, a crypto wallet leveraging Japan’s national ID card (My Number Card), preparing for launch.

• Started exploring Ethereum around 2017, joining international hackathons and developer conferences, and winning several awards.
• Strong expertise in zero-knowledge proofs and account abstraction.
• Selected as a finalist at ETH Global Tokyo 2023.
• Spoke at Devcon 2024, the world’s largest Ethereum developer conference.