1 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:10,680 You've probably heard of NFTs, but what exactly are they? With NFTs, we found a 2 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:14,660 medium that people really connected with. What they brought us felt alive. 3 00:00:18,340 --> 00:00:22,620 A team from Non -Fungible Labs tell the story of how they created a multi 4 00:00:22,620 --> 00:00:27,800 -million dollar NFT business right here in Aotearoa. It was a runaway hit. 5 00:00:28,220 --> 00:00:31,320 Around $15 million in sales through First Day Alone. 6 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:35,180 They're now collaborating with international superstars. There's only 7 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:38,160 Gianni. I got to hang with the DOWG. 8 00:00:39,140 --> 00:00:41,940 And bringing the metaverse to the masses. 9 00:00:42,220 --> 00:00:45,080 It's going to blow people's minds where we're heading to now. 10 00:00:51,300 --> 00:00:56,160 To find out how non -fungible labs became such a success, we need to rewind 11 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:57,069 the 80s. 12 00:00:57,070 --> 00:01:00,410 when a family got their first computer and fell in love with technology. 13 00:01:00,910 --> 00:01:02,710 I'm one of five kids. 14 00:01:03,090 --> 00:01:04,510 Grew up in a rural setting. 15 00:01:04,750 --> 00:01:07,090 We had a pretty basic life. 16 00:01:07,310 --> 00:01:11,930 My hobby as a kid was building stuff and solving problems, trying to figure out 17 00:01:11,930 --> 00:01:12,930 how things worked. 18 00:01:12,950 --> 00:01:17,330 And when we were young, we saved and bought a computer, an Amiga 500. 19 00:01:18,850 --> 00:01:23,130 I don't think other kids had computers in the neighborhood, as long as we were 20 00:01:23,130 --> 00:01:24,130 particularly fancy. 21 00:01:24,330 --> 00:01:28,830 It was probably the flashiest computer around at the time. It never felt like 22 00:01:28,830 --> 00:01:33,390 that before, so it was kind of a special thing, and maybe that helped create the 23 00:01:33,390 --> 00:01:35,390 emotional connection to technology. 24 00:01:36,890 --> 00:01:42,190 The sense of invention and adventure was pretty strong in our childhood. We were 25 00:01:42,190 --> 00:01:47,370 building a pig shed, and we had to haul a lot of stuff down there. So me and 26 00:01:47,370 --> 00:01:52,710 Aaron spent the entire day inventing a very complicated pulley system. 27 00:01:53,450 --> 00:01:57,350 And by the time we built the system, our other brother had just used the 28 00:01:57,350 --> 00:01:59,130 wheelbarrow and kind of shoveled it down there. 29 00:01:59,490 --> 00:02:03,350 But it worked. So that was all that me and Aaron really cared about at the 30 00:02:03,750 --> 00:02:07,850 I was 16 or 17 when I finished high school, saved up some money and went 31 00:02:07,850 --> 00:02:08,850 travelling. 32 00:02:09,250 --> 00:02:14,530 I came back and started working and I did a lot of my learning on the job. 33 00:02:14,970 --> 00:02:19,570 from the ground up really literally in some cases i started in technology 34 00:02:19,570 --> 00:02:25,090 digging trenches and laying cables for a telecommunications company and then 35 00:02:25,090 --> 00:02:29,490 more technical roles and then more business decision roles and eventually 36 00:02:29,490 --> 00:02:35,990 out from there into startup land i first heard about bitcoin in around 2015 37 00:02:35,990 --> 00:02:42,180 i was interested in it from a technology perspective, but I didn't really click 38 00:02:42,180 --> 00:02:46,040 at the time to how fundamental a change it could make in society. 39 00:02:46,300 --> 00:02:51,020 The thing that really got me interested in crypto was when I discovered 40 00:02:51,020 --> 00:02:52,020 Ethereum. 41 00:02:52,300 --> 00:02:56,500 Earlier in the series, we talked about why Ethereum was such a game changer. 42 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,300 Its programmable blockchain means you can do things like build decentralized 43 00:03:00,300 --> 00:03:05,060 apps on its platform and create currencies, tokens, and NFTs. 44 00:03:05,630 --> 00:03:07,890 They describe Ethereum as the world computer. 45 00:03:08,210 --> 00:03:12,150 It has something called a smart contract scripting language. 46 00:03:12,910 --> 00:03:18,810 So it's a whole new language for programming that allows for creating 47 00:03:18,810 --> 00:03:23,670 contracts. Smart contracts are able to move the currency around depending on 48 00:03:23,670 --> 00:03:28,130 conditions that are set and if met, the transaction will go through. If you buy 49 00:03:28,130 --> 00:03:32,170 a piece of art off of me, I send the art to you, then the money is immediately 50 00:03:32,170 --> 00:03:36,340 transferred. Smart contracts are kind of like the robot lawyer of the crypto 51 00:03:36,340 --> 00:03:40,800 world. Through code they automatically enforce the rules of a contract without 52 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:42,380 the need for any human involvement. 53 00:03:42,860 --> 00:03:47,720 It's kind of like having your very own RoboLawyer 3000 and they are the 54 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:48,720 blocks of Ethereum. 55 00:03:49,940 --> 00:03:53,740 One of the most important things about Ethereum is that it means applications 56 00:03:53,740 --> 00:03:58,340 can be owned by a global community and you are in control of your own data 57 00:03:58,340 --> 00:04:00,000 instead of major corporations. 58 00:04:00,500 --> 00:04:02,380 But why is this such a big deal? 59 00:04:04,330 --> 00:04:11,050 Back in 2015 to 2020, you're seeing the rise of these huge mega tech 60 00:04:11,050 --> 00:04:15,870 corporations, social media in full swing. There was this massive amount of 61 00:04:15,870 --> 00:04:21,190 information being captured and being concentrated into a small group of 62 00:04:21,190 --> 00:04:22,530 technology companies. 63 00:04:23,350 --> 00:04:27,050 There's an old adage that if you're not paying for the product, you are the 64 00:04:27,050 --> 00:04:28,039 product. 65 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:32,020 And that's very much the case with social media platforms where people 66 00:04:32,020 --> 00:04:35,800 realise that actually the sheer amount of data that they're handing over is the 67 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,880 reason that they get these services for free. There's a digital you that exists 68 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:44,400 on the internet today and that data is being used by government agencies, 69 00:04:44,500 --> 00:04:45,500 corporations. 70 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:50,120 Data is an extremely important thing and these big companies have it all and 71 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:55,200 they're using it in ways that we probably holistically as a society don't 72 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:56,200 with. 73 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:03,040 If we can put tools in the hands of people that allow them to be in control 74 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:05,520 their digital self, then we can change everything. 75 00:05:05,940 --> 00:05:10,040 It's really undoing the last 20 years of technology. 76 00:05:10,380 --> 00:05:15,160 And I started thinking about how we could change the way that we as society 77 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:16,400 interact with technology. 78 00:05:19,790 --> 00:05:26,150 In mid -2016, we formed Centrality, and the idea was to build a venture studio 79 00:05:26,150 --> 00:05:32,330 which would incubate a company that would build a collection of applications 80 00:05:32,330 --> 00:05:37,970 technology together and put the customer back in control of their data. You 81 00:05:37,970 --> 00:05:41,470 couldn't do that without this underlying blockchain and crypto infrastructure. 82 00:05:42,490 --> 00:05:46,130 Social media marketing was an area that lots of businesses didn't have 83 00:05:46,130 --> 00:05:52,190 capability in, and so we could see this need for some kind of expert to help 84 00:05:52,190 --> 00:05:53,190 them on that journey. 85 00:05:54,070 --> 00:05:58,670 Aaron and I really bonded about the creator economy and understanding that 86 00:05:58,670 --> 00:06:01,890 was definitely going to change the traditional media landscape. 87 00:06:02,310 --> 00:06:07,510 And so we brought Brooke's agency into the portfolio, and Brooke and I were 88 00:06:07,510 --> 00:06:10,330 having these conversations about the NFT craze. 89 00:06:10,730 --> 00:06:14,890 He said, you need to learn about these things now. I hadn't ever heard the word 90 00:06:14,890 --> 00:06:17,070 fungible. It was a deep dive. 91 00:06:17,550 --> 00:06:22,790 You can think of an NFT or non -fungible token as a digital version of a one -of 92 00:06:22,790 --> 00:06:27,070 -a -kind collectible. But instead of, say, an autographed basketball card, 93 00:06:27,070 --> 00:06:29,370 a digital image, video or even tweet. 94 00:06:29,610 --> 00:06:33,170 And just like those rare cards, NFTs can be incredibly valuable. 95 00:06:33,710 --> 00:06:35,030 because they can't be replicated. 96 00:06:35,650 --> 00:06:42,030 It's essentially a method of verifying ownership of a unique digital asset, and 97 00:06:42,030 --> 00:06:45,450 that could be a piece of art, it could be a weapon in a video game, it could 98 00:06:45,450 --> 00:06:46,490 even be an event ticket. 99 00:06:46,750 --> 00:06:51,590 If you've got children or you yourself play games, you're already buying a lot 100 00:06:51,590 --> 00:06:55,510 of digital items, skins, characters, cool outfits. 101 00:06:56,110 --> 00:07:00,630 But they're not really yours. You're just renting them in the game. And if 102 00:07:00,630 --> 00:07:03,690 game disappears, all of your investment is gone. 103 00:07:04,770 --> 00:07:10,790 Now, with NFTs, you can truly own that skin because that has become a part of 104 00:07:10,790 --> 00:07:11,509 the blockchain. 105 00:07:11,510 --> 00:07:15,710 And you can on -sell it. It puts the power in your pocket. 106 00:07:16,690 --> 00:07:18,610 One of the cool things about... 107 00:07:18,830 --> 00:07:24,890 The NFT world is that smart contracts enable us to automate the process of 108 00:07:24,890 --> 00:07:29,950 royalties. The artists not only earn up front, but whenever that piece of art is 109 00:07:29,950 --> 00:07:33,490 sold down the line, they still take a small cut of that profit. 110 00:07:34,770 --> 00:07:38,430 With NFTs, they're not just about the content itself. 111 00:07:38,810 --> 00:07:42,730 It's about ownership of your identity inside a community. 112 00:07:42,990 --> 00:07:46,350 We found a medium that people really connected with. 113 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:52,280 We both realised that NFTs were clearly connected to communities, content, the 114 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:56,160 creator economy, and so we built non -fungible labs to explore them. 115 00:07:56,580 --> 00:08:00,840 We brought on Alex Smaler, who's a really brilliant young guy. We had a 116 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:04,260 of great, interesting experiments, but it did not make us a lot of money. 117 00:08:04,860 --> 00:08:06,420 Enter Jesse Metcalf. 118 00:08:07,260 --> 00:08:11,180 Jesse Metcalf and I met late high school. 119 00:08:12,060 --> 00:08:15,340 I had a lot of appreciation for his... 120 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:16,640 artistic talent. 121 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:20,820 Jesse and I started exploring half a dozen different project ideas. 122 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:27,220 Jesse actually had a pet rabbit called Fu, a Flemish giant, and we decided to 123 00:08:27,220 --> 00:08:31,340 take inspiration from Jesse's rabbit, an avatar that people can embody. 124 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:36,679 Everything that was being produced at the time was largely this two 125 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:40,240 cartoonish art, and what they brought us was this. 126 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:45,040 vibrant 3D animated bunny that felt more alive. 127 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:48,700 Every great world starts with a great story. 128 00:08:48,980 --> 00:08:53,960 Alex had really thought about the story behind these characters. 129 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:59,240 These creatures, they've seen the horrors of mankind. They have decided 130 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:01,980 they're just going to basically be new age hippies. 131 00:09:02,500 --> 00:09:07,300 They'd had a cataclysmic event that had started to awaken the community. 132 00:09:07,560 --> 00:09:09,940 We were like, whoa, this is... 133 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:12,200 bigger than anything that we've been thinking of. 134 00:09:12,540 --> 00:09:14,500 We didn't realise how big at the time. 135 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:18,120 One of the great watershed moments is when you realise that you're not the 136 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:19,280 smartest person in the room. 137 00:09:19,540 --> 00:09:23,720 It was clear that they were geniuses. And Aaron pulled me aside and said, 138 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:24,980 guys are the real deal. 139 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:29,640 We gave 60 % of the company to Alex and Jesse and got behind them to help build 140 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:30,680 the Fluff World vision out. 141 00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:35,700 Everything they did was five, six steps ahead of anything that anyone in the 142 00:09:35,700 --> 00:09:38,820 industry was doing. We already saw that this was all heading towards the 143 00:09:38,820 --> 00:09:42,840 metaverse. So why would we ever make something 2D? If this is all going to 144 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:45,180 in immersive environments, then they should be 3D. 145 00:09:45,460 --> 00:09:48,240 Then they should also be animated so they feel alive. 146 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,860 Well, if they're going to be animated, then let's make them dance to original 147 00:09:51,860 --> 00:09:55,020 music. Over time, they started to come more and more to life. 148 00:09:55,260 --> 00:09:59,820 It was important for the collection to represent society at large. 149 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,620 And we wanted to create a space that felt welcoming to different genders, 150 00:10:04,660 --> 00:10:10,140 different races, and to try and embody the kind of society that we want to live 151 00:10:10,140 --> 00:10:11,740 in through these characters. 152 00:10:12,180 --> 00:10:17,680 We definitely had an ambitious roadmap from the characters themselves into 153 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:19,560 building out the rest of the world. 154 00:10:19,780 --> 00:10:24,680 It was incredibly risky to build this production, this pipeline that was so 155 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:28,800 complex. As we got close to the launch, it all felt a bit surreal. 156 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:34,040 I could see it all coming together, but that still didn't remove the nerves as 157 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:38,180 we got close to launch date and just knowing that there's always a myriad of 158 00:10:38,180 --> 00:10:41,340 factors that can go wrong that could jeopardise all the hard work that we had 159 00:10:41,340 --> 00:10:42,340 done. 160 00:10:45,980 --> 00:10:52,880 We launched on the 8th of August 2021 and we had the full collection of 10 161 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:57,460 plus and within 40 minutes we sold out the entire collection. 162 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:05,080 Aaron called me to say that it's sold out and also that probably our lives 163 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:06,080 changed. 164 00:11:07,020 --> 00:11:11,680 Seeing how stoked everyone was in the community with what we'd built was 165 00:11:11,680 --> 00:11:13,700 actually such an incredible feeling. 166 00:11:14,020 --> 00:11:18,360 It's kind of like seeing your baby walk for the first time. It's that moment of 167 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:23,120 joy and elation and pride and euphoria all mixed together. 168 00:11:24,490 --> 00:11:30,690 When someone bought a fluff, they paid $300 US for it. We sold 10 ,000 digital 169 00:11:30,690 --> 00:11:33,370 bunnies. People paid us $5 million -odd for those. 170 00:11:33,670 --> 00:11:38,010 Then people started to trade them. Those people have sold them twice or three 171 00:11:38,010 --> 00:11:42,650 times. So there was around $15 million in sales the very first day alone. 172 00:11:43,430 --> 00:11:48,190 It was a runaway hit. It came down to Jesse and Alex's brilliance. 173 00:11:49,870 --> 00:11:51,870 It was just an incredible moment. 174 00:11:52,250 --> 00:11:56,270 but also I was under no illusion as to the amount of work that was coming down 175 00:11:56,270 --> 00:11:57,270 the pipeline. 176 00:11:57,310 --> 00:12:00,590 Let's get to work in delivering everything that we said we're going to 177 00:12:00,590 --> 00:12:01,590 community. 178 00:12:02,890 --> 00:12:06,390 The first thing you could customise was the name and the backstory. 179 00:12:06,630 --> 00:12:11,370 Then we released the ability to change the music and the background scenes so 180 00:12:11,370 --> 00:12:17,470 people were able to be a participant in creating the content they wanted to 181 00:12:17,470 --> 00:12:19,790 represent themselves in the metaverse. 182 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:26,060 OK, hang on. I've heard this word a lot. But what actually is the metaverse? 183 00:12:30,580 --> 00:12:35,940 The first thing is the metaverse is already here. The metaverse exists. It's 184 00:12:35,940 --> 00:12:39,220 just the internet going through its next evolution. 185 00:12:41,620 --> 00:12:47,240 It's taking what have often been quite separate web -based experiences, social 186 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:49,020 media, gaming, shopping. 187 00:12:49,770 --> 00:12:55,110 and breaking those walls down so that you can shop while you're in a game and 188 00:12:55,110 --> 00:12:56,370 communicating with your friends. 189 00:12:56,650 --> 00:13:01,150 It's about user -owned content and applications and data being able to be 190 00:13:01,150 --> 00:13:02,790 portable between different applications. 191 00:13:03,230 --> 00:13:08,030 Each of us will have an avatar that starts to extend further and further 192 00:13:08,030 --> 00:13:09,210 these metaverse activities. 193 00:13:09,710 --> 00:13:13,750 People are already creating their own digital avatars of how they represent 194 00:13:13,750 --> 00:13:17,250 themselves online, but they don't truly own that identity. 195 00:13:17,530 --> 00:13:24,360 Whereas now with... nfts you have all of that ability we were constantly looking 196 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:28,860 at how we could introduce new characters with unique stories and one of the 197 00:13:28,860 --> 00:13:35,300 first things we did was release thingies 3d animated game ready spiders 198 00:13:35,300 --> 00:13:42,020 very cute ones we trained an ai to paint 10 000 pictures for us 199 00:13:42,020 --> 00:13:47,740 and then we used those pictures as a base for the patterns on the spiders 200 00:13:48,650 --> 00:13:52,390 They are themselves AI artists. They have their own little brain. It's 201 00:13:52,390 --> 00:13:55,930 incredible. But who would have made spiders? Only Jesse Metcalf. 202 00:13:56,210 --> 00:13:57,210 He crazy. 203 00:13:58,810 --> 00:14:02,310 We had lots of people approach us at the time wanting to collaborate with us, 204 00:14:02,390 --> 00:14:06,150 and one of those stood out from the pack, and that was the party beers. 205 00:14:06,370 --> 00:14:11,650 We wanted to bring a character in that was kind of just the lovable life of a 206 00:14:11,650 --> 00:14:13,910 party. And for us... 207 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:19,160 Music being a massive part of our community and to make them the DJs of 208 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:20,160 metaverse. 209 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,040 And it fitted into the world of fluffy. 210 00:14:23,260 --> 00:14:26,400 9 ,669 unique beers. 211 00:14:27,060 --> 00:14:31,040 The entire NFT community giggles when they say 69. 212 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:33,520 None of them have ever done 69. 213 00:14:34,540 --> 00:14:37,860 69 is the apex of ambitions. 214 00:14:38,260 --> 00:14:39,600 They only knew how. 215 00:14:40,100 --> 00:14:41,500 It's not that great, guys. 216 00:14:43,630 --> 00:14:47,570 As we continued to introduce different characters, we also needed to start 217 00:14:47,570 --> 00:14:48,770 building up the world itself. 218 00:14:49,170 --> 00:14:54,550 The bunnies had been hibernating underground, so the first space that we 219 00:14:54,550 --> 00:14:58,550 to create for these characters to exist in was the burrows, the underground 220 00:14:58,550 --> 00:15:00,890 world that the lore was originated from. 221 00:15:01,170 --> 00:15:06,830 I'd known Jessica from beyond for a while, and I knew she was kind of a 222 00:15:06,830 --> 00:15:08,890 specialist in the VR domain. 223 00:15:09,470 --> 00:15:14,250 There was obviously a high demand for their community to have something to do 224 00:15:14,250 --> 00:15:15,250 with these characters. 225 00:15:15,590 --> 00:15:20,550 We started off with the idea of having three different burrows of different 226 00:15:20,550 --> 00:15:22,730 sizes and different looks. 227 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:28,380 It's highly complicated to design something like this and to make this 228 00:15:28,380 --> 00:15:32,120 platform that people could then integrate their characters in and they 229 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:33,900 actually play and explore the space. 230 00:15:34,260 --> 00:15:37,540 Some of them are a little bit grungier. They have a graffiti wall. 231 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,060 The high roller has a party space with a big disco ball. 232 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:46,440 One of the features we did was have art that came from your wallet. So if you 233 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:51,580 had other NFTs, you could customize your burrow by having your art gallery 234 00:15:51,580 --> 00:15:57,040 showing off. off your NFTs. They turned it into these incredible spaces. 235 00:15:57,460 --> 00:16:02,640 When everyone else was creating these quite stark square boxes in the 236 00:16:02,860 --> 00:16:08,220 to come back with this rich and textured organic world was pretty incredible. 237 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:15,160 Community is such an important part of this NFT digital character space. 238 00:16:15,870 --> 00:16:20,950 What NFTs do is they allow a community to exist that is passionate about an 239 00:16:20,950 --> 00:16:22,810 or an experience. 240 00:16:23,050 --> 00:16:27,090 And ownership changes the way people interact. People take on a different 241 00:16:27,090 --> 00:16:31,850 connectivity and then they get that sense, that real, it's mine now, I'm 242 00:16:31,850 --> 00:16:32,850 this. 243 00:16:33,670 --> 00:16:38,070 One of the really early community members was a guy called Nick Adler. And 244 00:16:38,070 --> 00:16:40,890 has been working with Snoop for a long time. 245 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:48,440 We started discussing the Burrows and we came up with the idea that we could 246 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:50,760 theme one with Snoop. 247 00:16:51,260 --> 00:16:55,800 Snoop is right into the space. He is everywhere. 248 00:16:56,100 --> 00:17:00,240 He's got a bunch of his own NFT projects, so he's big on this. 249 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:05,440 The opportunity to collaborate with Snoop Dogg definitely was a bit of a 250 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:06,440 yourself moment. 251 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:11,319 He helped provide some design cues, which we took back to the Beyond team. 252 00:17:11,599 --> 00:17:13,040 It's pretty cool being... 253 00:17:13,390 --> 00:17:18,250 A relatively small studio here in Wellington, working with such a big 254 00:17:18,550 --> 00:17:21,849 I'm an old -time Snoop fan. That was exciting. 255 00:17:22,190 --> 00:17:24,990 I think you'll see some leaves down there that you might recognise. 256 00:17:25,829 --> 00:17:32,190 It has an incredible Snoop sculpture in there, and then a full music studio. 257 00:17:33,210 --> 00:17:36,910 It's pretty dope. And we built a Snoop dog party there. 258 00:17:37,470 --> 00:17:39,370 It's got his vibe as if he was a bear. 259 00:17:39,590 --> 00:17:45,250 For me, it's like a Kiwi kid grew up on a farm meeting someone who you'd listen 260 00:17:45,250 --> 00:17:48,050 to their music and was the Hollywood celebrity. 261 00:17:48,410 --> 00:17:52,730 It was a pretty surreal experience. And I got to hang with the D .O .W .G. a 262 00:17:52,730 --> 00:17:55,650 couple of times, and he's actually just an awesome person. 263 00:17:56,010 --> 00:18:01,510 One of the biggest paradigm shifts is that we've built the exoskeleton of 264 00:18:01,510 --> 00:18:04,030 World, but then it's up to those... 265 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:10,220 own it to really flesh out their character once you have that avatar it's 266 00:18:10,220 --> 00:18:14,760 you can monetize it if you want to because all of that infrastructure 267 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:20,960 and contracts is now handled by smart contracts one of the 268 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:25,140 icons in our wider fluff world ecosystem would be angel baby 269 00:18:28,950 --> 00:18:35,470 The team behind Angel Baby, they're a songwriter and music producer that works 270 00:18:35,470 --> 00:18:37,570 with some of the biggest artists in the world. 271 00:18:37,990 --> 00:18:42,070 They took a fluff and they named it Angel Baby and started to build the 272 00:18:42,070 --> 00:18:46,710 around this character and have grown that up into a $100 million business in 273 00:18:46,710 --> 00:18:47,629 own right. 274 00:18:47,630 --> 00:18:49,890 But the idea didn't stop there. 275 00:18:51,730 --> 00:18:54,710 I really wanted to see what would happen when we... 276 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:59,320 created a space where our community could actually meet in real life. 277 00:18:59,940 --> 00:19:04,000 We thought it was really important, even though we're in this virtual space, not 278 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,540 to forget that we live in the physical world. So Fluff House is the brand 279 00:19:08,540 --> 00:19:12,440 the physical experiences that we interact with our community through. 280 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:18,380 And so at Basel 2021, we built our first party and it was like off the chain. 281 00:19:20,430 --> 00:19:25,690 We had artists perform alongside Angel Baby doing Angel Baby's first live 282 00:19:25,690 --> 00:19:27,190 performance as a metastar. 283 00:19:29,850 --> 00:19:34,350 And then it culminated with the biggest clubhouse so far, which was at South by 284 00:19:34,350 --> 00:19:40,630 Southwest. Two days, 18 ,000 people. That really has defined the next phase 285 00:19:40,630 --> 00:19:44,510 entertainment, which is far more experiential and immersive, community 286 00:19:44,510 --> 00:19:46,850 -oriented, token -gated experiences. 287 00:19:47,980 --> 00:19:52,800 Fluff wall that is expanding now, it's just completely and utterly going to 288 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:54,780 people's mind where we're heading to now. 289 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:04,460 Non -fungible labs is now part of a collective of companies working within 290 00:20:04,460 --> 00:20:05,700 McDonald's Futureverse. 291 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,620 These innovators are working towards a user -controlled metaverse. 292 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:13,700 We bring the full force of that last six. 293 00:20:14,010 --> 00:20:18,330 of work and the vision that we have for creating a better internet to life. 294 00:20:18,550 --> 00:20:24,630 The future -verse is at the very heart of it, people that believe in an open 295 00:20:24,630 --> 00:20:29,750 metaverse, an open, inclusive, fair and even free metaverse. 296 00:20:30,390 --> 00:20:34,890 The type of environment that we think can be transformative and bring positive 297 00:20:34,890 --> 00:20:36,930 change to people all over the world. 298 00:20:37,190 --> 00:20:40,970 To understand where the future -verse is heading, it's important to understand 299 00:20:40,970 --> 00:20:42,510 the concept of Web3. 300 00:20:43,100 --> 00:20:44,100 So what is it? 301 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:49,820 Web3 is really the collection of technologies that enable a world where 302 00:20:49,820 --> 00:20:51,220 internet is owned by society. 303 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,920 When we talk about Web3, we can take a step back and look at the journey of the 304 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:56,920 internet to date. 305 00:20:56,940 --> 00:21:00,620 If you remember websites you went to, you could just read the website. That's 306 00:21:00,620 --> 00:21:06,160 Web1. Then came the ability to leave comments and then write blogs, and 307 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:08,940 it was read and write. That's Web2. 308 00:21:09,390 --> 00:21:13,190 When we look at Web3, we've moved from just read and write to read, write and 309 00:21:13,190 --> 00:21:18,850 own. In Web3, you'll be able to see content from your favourite creators and 310 00:21:18,850 --> 00:21:19,789 them directly. 311 00:21:19,790 --> 00:21:23,810 And that direct payment is via smart contracts. 312 00:21:24,210 --> 00:21:27,370 It's putting content in the hands of the people. 313 00:21:28,490 --> 00:21:30,050 It's completely transformative. 314 00:21:31,410 --> 00:21:37,290 As tanga te whenua, it's been a really important part of our journey to try and 315 00:21:37,290 --> 00:21:41,750 connect. What we're doing in the metaverse through outcomes that we can 316 00:21:41,750 --> 00:21:46,310 change in the real world. There's no point building this awesome metaverse if 317 00:21:46,310 --> 00:21:49,850 the real physical world we exist in is going to hell. 318 00:21:51,350 --> 00:21:56,470 The things that we're focused on are both climate impact as well as impact 319 00:21:56,470 --> 00:21:57,470 indigenous communities. 320 00:21:58,270 --> 00:22:04,130 The Futureverse Foundation came together through making some connections to 321 00:22:04,130 --> 00:22:06,910 Keanu Reeves and his partner Alexandra Grant. 322 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:11,680 There's only one Keanu and it turns out there's only one Alexandra Grant who is 323 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:13,380 in her own right an amazing artist. 324 00:22:13,660 --> 00:22:19,260 She has this real vision for providing the opportunity for indigenous artists 325 00:22:19,260 --> 00:22:25,360 be in mainstream galleries and having their art become part of the economy 326 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:30,140 there. So now Alexandra and Keanu are the patrons of the foundation and also 327 00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:32,100 part of the Futureverse itself. 328 00:22:32,940 --> 00:22:36,740 We're already working now with young women in Afghanistan that are learning 329 00:22:36,740 --> 00:22:38,160 code and do digital art. 330 00:22:38,660 --> 00:22:42,620 We're looking at some amazing projects with First Nation cultures here and in 331 00:22:42,620 --> 00:22:43,379 the Pacific. 332 00:22:43,380 --> 00:22:49,940 This next internet, Web3, needs contributions from the thousands of 333 00:22:49,940 --> 00:22:54,840 beautiful cultures that exist out there right now. They have incredible stories 334 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:56,020 that have been missing. 335 00:22:56,460 --> 00:22:59,660 And so the next internet, we hope, is going to be rich. 336 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:08,660 People don't realize the difference in the world that we'll live in if it is 337 00:23:08,660 --> 00:23:15,380 controlled by a few tech billionaires and we are just effectively products or 338 00:23:15,380 --> 00:23:19,840 an open and inclusive metathesis where cultures from around the world are 339 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:23,660 contributing and there's a distribution of wealth that's a lot more fair. 340 00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:30,580 That's what we're battling for and so I'm so proud that we sit in that camp. 341 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:35,520 I'm extremely excited for the future. I think the technology has come a long way 342 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,040 since those early days of Bitcoin. 343 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:41,920 And when you're trying to change as much as the Web3 community is trying to 344 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:45,860 change about society, no doubt there'll be ups and downs. But I think we've 345 00:23:45,860 --> 00:23:50,460 reached a precipice now where the future is definitely in sight. And that makes 346 00:23:50,460 --> 00:23:53,660 me excited that it is possible that we can change the future. 347 00:23:54,060 --> 00:23:59,100 We're actually building something that even transcends the existing Fluffworld 348 00:23:59,100 --> 00:24:04,940 collection. The Third Kingdom is the world beyond the Burrows where all of 349 00:24:04,940 --> 00:24:09,100 characters plus lots of characters across the metaverse can come and enjoy 350 00:24:09,100 --> 00:24:12,620 social experience and explore other parts of that Third Kingdom environment. 351 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:19,320 We always had great ambitions of how far we could take this but never in my 352 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,960 wildest dreams did I think it would be anywhere near where it's gotten to now. 353 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:25,940 For me this is a dream come true. 354 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:36,180 Next time, we meet the innovators bringing Te Ao Māori into the metaverse. 355 00:24:36,660 --> 00:24:40,400 NFT is such a radical idea. 356 00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:42,640 I was very hesitant first. 357 00:24:43,900 --> 00:24:50,840 These tiki are on a mission to go and navigate the new waters of the 358 00:24:51,500 --> 00:24:54,540 And the disruptive, smashing crypto stereotype. 359 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,460 We really believe in what we're doing and how we can be a part of the change 360 00:24:59,460 --> 00:25:00,460 this industry. 361 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,760 maybe from the inside we can start to turn it into something more accessible.