Japanese AI Company Anchors Construction Cost Diagnostic Protocol to the Bitcoin Blockchain - Founded by 30-Year Construction Veteran

The Horizons Co., Ltd. today announced that the Pre-Transaction Knowledge Anchoring (PTKA) Protocol Declaration - a written statement of the diagnostic methodology used in its AI-assisted construction cost service, HORIZON SHIELD - has been permanently anchored to Bitcoin Block #949356 as of May 14, 2026 (JST) via the OpenTimestamps protocol. The anchored item is the Declaration document itself; per-diagnostic anchoring is under separate development. The Declaration anchoring provides a cryptographically verifiable, immutable public record of the methodology, independently auditable by any third party.

In parallel, the company released JCCDB v1.2.2, an open-access technical paper documenting the SHA-256-based audit hash mechanism and macroeconomic correction subsystem deployed in HORIZON SHIELD. The paper is available under CC-BY 4.0 on Zenodo and engrXiv.

THE PTKA ANCHORING - BITCOIN BLOCK #949356

The PTKA Declaration was anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain on May 14, 2026 (JST):

Bitcoin Block: 949356
SHA-256 of Declaration: 596da30ba4ca731f21efaa1c4a6537290e996e0f039cbe57704de1674e4a0282
Verification Method: OpenTimestamps Protocol

This anchoring creates a permanent, tamper-proof public record of the diagnostic methodology that cannot be altered retroactively by any party - including the company itself.

WHY THIS MATTERS FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION

Disputes over residential renovation pricing remain a persistent consumer protection issue in many markets. AI-generated cost references, while increasingly common, have lacked an independent verification mechanism that consumers could present to contractors during negotiation. By anchoring its core methodology declaration to the Bitcoin blockchain, The Horizons Co., Ltd. has established a verifiable public reference that any party can independently confirm.

"A diagnostic methodology that cannot be independently verified loses credibility at the negotiation table," said Toshikatsu Oga, Representative Director of The Horizons Co., Ltd. "Anchoring our protocol to Bitcoin establishes a verifiable public record that cannot be retroactively altered by any single party."

A FOUNDER WITH DIRECT INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Toshikatsu Oga began a carpentry apprenticeship at age 15 in Osaka in 1993 and accumulated more than three decades of hands-on experience in carpentry, on-site supervision, and construction management before transitioning to AI engineering. This background directly informs the technical design of HORIZON SHIELD.

WHAT JCCDB v1.2.2 DOCUMENTS

The technical paper documents three core components: (1) a SHA-256 cryptographic audit hash computed over a canonical input fingerprint, producing a deterministic 12-character code printed on consumer-facing PDF reports that enables third-party re-derivation; (2) a 170-category construction cost database covering Japanese residential renovation, derived from 30 years of direct field observation; (3) a macroeconomic correction subsystem applying monthly adjustment factors derived from Bank of Japan Corporate Goods Price Index data and manufacturer announcements, subject to human approval before publication.

VOLUNTARY ALIGNMENT WITH EU AI ACT PRINCIPLES

While Japanese consumer-protection AI is not currently within the scope of EU AI Act Annex III, HORIZON SHIELD has been voluntarily designed to align with the spirit of Article 12 (record-keeping) and Article 14 (human oversight). The Horizons Co., Ltd. is establishing a separate third-party verification framework intended to enable independent audit of diagnostic outputs. The framework is currently in development and is not yet operational; details will be announced upon launch.

OPERATIONAL DATA

As of May 2026, HORIZON SHIELD has processed 98 diagnostic cases from a self-selected user population (homeowners actively seeking second opinions on contractor quotes). Within this selection-biased sample, the system identified an average overcharge rate of 27.3 percent against the contractor-quoted amount. The Horizons Co., Ltd. notes that these figures reflect a self-selected user base and should not be interpreted as a market-wide estimate.

The Horizons Co., Ltd. has committed to directing a portion of HORIZON SHIELD revenue to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) as part of its stated mission to reduce information asymmetry in consumer-facing construction markets.

RESOURCES

JCCDB v1.2.2 (CC-BY 4.0):
Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20019572
engrXiv DOI: 10.31224/7007

PTKA Declaration verification:
Bitcoin Block: #949356 (2026-05-14 JST)
OpenTimestamps: https://opentimestamps.org

GitHub repository: https://github.com/ogasurfproject-jpg/japan-construction-cost-database

ABOUT THE HORIZONS CO., LTD.

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan, The Horizons Co., Ltd. is an AI technology company focused on reducing information asymmetry between contractors and property owners in residential renovation. The company is led by Toshikatsu Oga, who holds over 30 years of direct construction industry experience and is the sole author of the JCCDB technical paper series.

MEDIA CONTACT

Toshikatsu Oga, Representative Director
The Horizons Co., Ltd.
Email: contact@the-horizons-innovation.com
Web: https://shield.the-horizons-innovation.com

Company Name: The Horizons Co., Ltd.

Postal Address:
1-1-47 Higashi-Mado, Hiratsuka City
Kanagawa Prefecture 254-0018
Japan

Contact Information:
Phone: +81-463-74-5917
Email: contact@the-horizons-innovation.com
Website: https://shield.the-horizons-innovation.com

Press Contact:
Toshikatsu Oga, Representative Director
Email: contact@the-horizons-innovation.com
Phone: +81-463-74-5917

The Horizons Co., Ltd. is an AI technology company headquartered in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan. Founded in 2022 by Toshikatsu Oga, the company develops AI-assisted diagnostic tools that address information asymmetry between contractors and property owners in the residential renovation market.

Its flagship product, HORIZON SHIELD, applies a deterministic AI cost diagnostic engine combined with a SHA-256 cryptographic audit hash, enabling third-party verification of every diagnostic report. In May 2026, the company became the first known Japanese AI company in the construction sector to anchor its core methodology declaration to the Bitcoin blockchain via the OpenTimestamps protocol.

The company operates under a stated mission to reduce information asymmetry in consumer-facing construction markets and has committed to directing a portion of HORIZON SHIELD revenue to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Founder Toshikatsu Oga brings over 30 years of direct construction industry experience, having begun a carpentry apprenticeship at age 15 in 1993 and progressed through site supervision and construction management before transitioning to AI engineering.

This release was published on openPR.