1 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,080 We've learnt how revolutionary crypto is. 2 00:00:09,940 --> 00:00:13,440 This is so much more than a currency. This is a paradigm shift. 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,700 But just how can crypto be used as a force for good? It provides us an 4 00:00:17,700 --> 00:00:21,180 opportunity to remake the world that we have today and remake it differently. 5 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:26,700 We meet one of Aotearoa's crypto pioneers and discover how he's using it 6 00:00:26,700 --> 00:00:27,880 communities a voice. 7 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:32,299 Decentralisation can create this new social infrastructure and empower 8 00:00:32,460 --> 00:00:34,600 give them more choice around their own destiny. 9 00:00:35,110 --> 00:00:38,850 We profile some of the innovative projects in New Zealand crypto space. 10 00:00:39,310 --> 00:00:44,010 It's not about making 50 million. It's about doing things that we can all 11 00:00:44,010 --> 00:00:48,910 in and all find passion in. How might technology give us a way to create a 12 00:00:48,910 --> 00:00:55,390 system that looked like a, felt like a, spoke like a... And find out how 13 00:00:55,390 --> 00:00:58,450 NFTs can allow us to own our own AI. 14 00:00:59,210 --> 00:01:04,010 The avatars themselves, the players, they're NFTs and the brains are NFTs. 15 00:01:24,900 --> 00:01:28,380 I grew up in South East England. 16 00:01:29,020 --> 00:01:33,080 I always had this sort of interest from an early age in new technologies. 17 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,340 At school, we persuaded the head of music to buy all these synthesizers, 18 00:01:37,340 --> 00:01:39,160 newfangled devices for making music. 19 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:43,120 I had these aspirations to be a famous pop star, but that never came to 20 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:46,840 fruition. I ended up doing a degree in acoustical engineering and vibrations. 21 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:54,120 I was really into windsurfing, and after uni, me and my friend decided we were 22 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:58,800 going to go travelling, and we looked for windy places, and up popped 23 00:01:58,800 --> 00:01:59,800 Wellington. 24 00:02:00,030 --> 00:02:04,350 We were just here temporarily, but I was looking through the yellow pages for 25 00:02:04,350 --> 00:02:05,490 acoustic companies. 26 00:02:05,710 --> 00:02:08,750 There was this one little consulting company, and I just wandered in, and he 27 00:02:08,750 --> 00:02:10,009 pretty much said, have a job. 28 00:02:10,250 --> 00:02:13,810 I ended up learning some computer languages and writing software. 29 00:02:14,070 --> 00:02:17,370 That really set me on this path in the world of software development. 30 00:02:19,910 --> 00:02:24,870 In my mid -twenties, I woke up one day and just felt a bit of crap, and that 31 00:02:24,870 --> 00:02:26,450 started a whole new chapter of my life. 32 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:30,360 After many tests concluded that it was a thing called chronic fatigue, and 33 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:31,760 there's not much you can do about it. 34 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:37,540 It was a question of learning to live with it, and if I lived a certain way, I 35 00:02:37,540 --> 00:02:38,780 could largely hide it. 36 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:44,380 I ended up creating a business, and we grew into a reasonably big software 37 00:02:44,380 --> 00:02:47,680 development company, specializing in web and mobile app development. 38 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:53,160 Our brand was built around doing the new, shiny, exciting stuff. 39 00:02:53,640 --> 00:02:55,720 My chronic fatigue, it was very up and down. 40 00:02:56,430 --> 00:03:02,130 Probably about 15 years into it, I went on this course and it didn't fix me 41 00:03:02,130 --> 00:03:05,150 immediately, but in a few months I was basically cured. 42 00:03:06,410 --> 00:03:11,350 When you go through that sort of health challenge, it does fundamentally change 43 00:03:11,350 --> 00:03:15,310 your outlook and well -being does become a primary driver. 44 00:03:16,270 --> 00:03:21,590 A common theme of my life has been this interest and desire to stay ahead of the 45 00:03:21,590 --> 00:03:22,590 technology curve. 46 00:03:22,830 --> 00:03:26,330 I was going to a lot of conferences just to really find out what's going on in 47 00:03:26,330 --> 00:03:30,690 the industry. And I came across this advertisement for this Bitcoin South 48 00:03:30,690 --> 00:03:32,050 conference in Queenstown. 49 00:03:32,350 --> 00:03:38,770 I'd not heard much about Bitcoin. This was back in 2014 and really just assumed 50 00:03:38,770 --> 00:03:40,470 it was an experimental currency. 51 00:03:40,710 --> 00:03:45,070 It was probably by day two or three that the penny really dropped. 52 00:03:45,710 --> 00:03:50,490 Wow, this is much bigger than a currency. This concept of creating money 53 00:03:50,490 --> 00:03:52,630 the control of state was quite transformative. 54 00:03:53,030 --> 00:03:57,370 This is something that could actually change how we organise ourselves as a 55 00:03:57,370 --> 00:03:58,370 society. 56 00:03:58,710 --> 00:04:02,110 Also, a few people were saying there was this Russian -Canadian guy who was 57 00:04:02,110 --> 00:04:06,110 writing this white paper around this new type of blockchain that could be 58 00:04:06,110 --> 00:04:09,450 programmed, and that turned into Ethereum. 59 00:04:10,170 --> 00:04:12,190 So there was this undercurrent of excitement. 60 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:18,579 I got back to Wellington and made the decision that we were going to refocus. 61 00:04:18,579 --> 00:04:21,519 think the guys at work thought I'd been working too many drugs at the conference 62 00:04:21,519 --> 00:04:25,720 or something, but that really started this journey of transitioning into this 63 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:26,740 blockchain company. 64 00:04:28,060 --> 00:04:33,080 We found ourselves at the beginning of what now we know was this hype cycle 65 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,980 around all things blockchain, and specifically this thing called an ICO, 66 00:04:37,980 --> 00:04:38,980 coin offering. 67 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:43,300 The concept was that you could use it to raise money for your startup, but you 68 00:04:43,300 --> 00:04:44,920 could do it in a decentralized way. 69 00:04:46,300 --> 00:04:50,820 These were a way for people who had a cryptocurrency -based project to give 70 00:04:50,820 --> 00:04:55,140 anyone the opportunity to buy their token and use that to fundraise for them 71 00:04:55,140 --> 00:04:56,140 build the project. 72 00:04:56,180 --> 00:05:01,960 And we found ourselves well -positioned to create the code that allowed an ICO 73 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:07,460 to happen. So we were writing and reviewing other people's smart contract 74 00:05:08,110 --> 00:05:11,850 Suddenly we found ourselves in this international client base flying around 75 00:05:11,850 --> 00:05:13,550 world and huge demand for our services. 76 00:05:13,830 --> 00:05:18,230 It was incredibly exciting and scary at the same time because there was huge 77 00:05:18,230 --> 00:05:23,050 amounts of crypto flowing through the code that we'd either written or 78 00:05:23,150 --> 00:05:27,630 often in a very compressed time period. 10 million in 30 seconds would run 79 00:05:27,630 --> 00:05:28,790 through to our client's account. 80 00:05:30,090 --> 00:05:34,490 As more and more people started to build, it became this gold rush, not too 81 00:05:34,490 --> 00:05:35,870 dissimilar to the dot -com boom. 82 00:05:36,250 --> 00:05:40,050 A lot of projects were coming out that had very little behind them, but just 83 00:05:40,050 --> 00:05:43,870 trying to raise money and capitalise on this FOMO, or fear of missing out. 84 00:05:45,950 --> 00:05:49,530 Where there's a bubble, there is a burst, and the ICO bubble burst at the 85 00:05:49,530 --> 00:05:50,530 beginning of 2018. 86 00:05:50,670 --> 00:05:54,890 A lot of projects failed, a lot of other good projects dropped in value 87 00:05:54,890 --> 00:05:57,230 significantly, and we entered the crypto winter. 88 00:05:58,570 --> 00:06:04,430 In hindsight, we got caught up in that hype wave, and so it was a wake -up call 89 00:06:04,430 --> 00:06:05,430 for us. 90 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:09,740 It was a pretty stressful time, and I'd been through this massive rollercoaster 91 00:06:09,740 --> 00:06:12,000 with both my health and also the blockchain world. 92 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,600 So I thought, I'm going to make some big changes and solve out of the company 93 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:20,840 completely, and started to reflect on what do I want to do next, what am I 94 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:25,420 passionate about, and it really came down to three areas of interest. 95 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:31,080 I'd been super interested in how we organise ourselves, trying to challenge 96 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:33,060 traditional hierarchical system. 97 00:06:33,850 --> 00:06:36,570 The other area was decentralization technologies and blockchain. 98 00:06:36,930 --> 00:06:41,610 The third area was health and well -being. Well, how can I bring those 99 00:06:41,610 --> 00:06:43,210 to do something with a bit more purpose? 100 00:06:44,170 --> 00:06:48,730 And ended up landing on this idea called the Well -Being Protocol, which is this 101 00:06:48,730 --> 00:06:53,850 project that's looking to use technology to reimagine community empowerment, 102 00:06:54,170 --> 00:06:57,570 this decentralization, this platform where you can build. 103 00:06:57,900 --> 00:07:01,360 Outside of the corporate, outside of the government system, you can create this 104 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,960 new social infrastructure that can empower people, give them more voice, 105 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:06,700 them more choice around their own destiny. 106 00:07:10,220 --> 00:07:15,480 So with the Wellbeing Protocol, we had this big, ambitious vision. But what is 107 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,600 our first step? So what we tried to do is to create a small -scale trial. 108 00:07:20,030 --> 00:07:26,290 Can we create and experiment a local currency that is only available to that 109 00:07:26,290 --> 00:07:30,010 community and they get to decide where they spend it and what it might be spent 110 00:07:30,010 --> 00:07:31,010 on? 111 00:07:31,110 --> 00:07:34,830 We're based in Cannons Creek, just north of Wellington, and we ended up 112 00:07:34,830 --> 00:07:39,430 partnering with a local charity, Antinati Tur. We created a local token. 113 00:07:39,430 --> 00:07:44,670 called it the Cannon Coin. We minted 2 ,500 Cannon Coins, and we said to 50 114 00:07:44,670 --> 00:07:49,170 people, we're going to give you 50 Cannon Coins each, and you can do four 115 00:07:49,170 --> 00:07:49,949 with that. 116 00:07:49,950 --> 00:07:55,010 You can either transact amongst yourselves, you could spend it in our 117 00:07:55,170 --> 00:07:59,210 so we partnered with the local fruit and veg co -op. They could donate it to a 118 00:07:59,210 --> 00:08:02,150 community fund, or they could cash out at the end of the trial. 119 00:08:02,410 --> 00:08:07,630 But what we also did in the app was to build a system so that people could come 120 00:08:07,630 --> 00:08:09,830 up with ideas that were good for their community. 121 00:08:12,630 --> 00:08:16,490 It was a very small -scale trial. We learned that the technology actually 122 00:08:16,490 --> 00:08:18,470 really well, and interestingly, people... 123 00:08:18,700 --> 00:08:23,100 did quite quickly start to see paths that this is just a currency. 124 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:27,600 They began to think of the Canon coin as a kind of a share in their community 125 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,100 and they felt proud to hold some Canon coins. 126 00:08:30,340 --> 00:08:35,080 It was certainly a lot of learnings. It sowed the seeds for future trials and 127 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,640 future learnings and has opened the doors for other conversations since. 128 00:08:43,159 --> 00:08:46,660 So how else can crypto give our communities more voice? 129 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:52,360 Community currencies is one way to empower a community, but the other more 130 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,680 ambitious and more holistic approach is around DAOs. 131 00:08:56,100 --> 00:09:00,340 OK, hang on. I've never heard that word before. What is a DAO? 132 00:09:01,500 --> 00:09:06,580 A DAO stands for a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, like a 133 00:09:06,580 --> 00:09:09,140 or a company, but it is... 134 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:15,480 It allows a way for people to collaborate, which doesn't need a CEO or 135 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:16,480 or a central leadership. 136 00:09:16,620 --> 00:09:21,460 Everyone can participate as they see fit. In a way, they are similar to a 137 00:09:21,460 --> 00:09:26,720 cooperative. The idea that a group of people can genuinely co -own and co 138 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:27,720 -govern a thing. 139 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:29,400 with real value in the middle. 140 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:33,420 There are mechanisms within the DAO that enable people to take different levels 141 00:09:33,420 --> 00:09:37,680 of participation, to be rewarded, to vote on how they want that DAO to 142 00:09:37,860 --> 00:09:41,460 and to do all of that using cryptocurrency or tokens. 143 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:46,520 It allows anybody to access it and be a part of it, regardless of where you are 144 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:47,319 in the world. 145 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:51,720 What DAOs do, they start to blur the line between an organisation, a 146 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:52,720 and an economy. 147 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:55,760 It's this thing that allows people to work together towards. 148 00:09:56,270 --> 00:10:00,270 a shared purpose and we can move away from the sort of hierarchical systems in 149 00:10:00,270 --> 00:10:05,250 theory. DAOs are a true rarity. They're something that would not be possible 150 00:10:05,250 --> 00:10:09,810 without the underlying technology and that underlying technology is 151 00:10:11,950 --> 00:10:18,330 What we're playing with in the Wellbeing Protocol is how we can take this to 152 00:10:18,330 --> 00:10:19,330 real -life communities. 153 00:10:19,550 --> 00:10:25,010 How can we actually use these DAO design patterns to actually give you tools so 154 00:10:25,010 --> 00:10:30,450 you can potentially control a treasury and make decisions at a local level? And 155 00:10:30,450 --> 00:10:33,710 we're working with a government agency to... 156 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:36,380 Re -imagine grant funding. 157 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:41,760 What would happen if a government agency actually gives the community a pot of 158 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:45,200 money and says, you decide, not the funders. So that's the next trial. 159 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:47,360 Ultimately, it's about empowering communities. 160 00:10:49,420 --> 00:10:53,440 DAOs have been created all over the world for groups to work together on a 161 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:54,419 shared purpose. 162 00:10:54,420 --> 00:10:59,420 And in Christchurch, Ty and House are a collective using DAO technology to build 163 00:10:59,420 --> 00:11:01,120 projects and hold community events. 164 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:06,220 The idea of a DAO is something that we want a younger generation to really 165 00:11:06,220 --> 00:11:08,720 in the sense of don't worry about a company. 166 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,900 Let's just think about how we can make many cool DAOs and creative DAOs that 167 00:11:12,900 --> 00:11:14,180 doing things that we're all passionate about. 168 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,960 Myself and Callum and Will, we were doing a lot of crypto stuff globally, 169 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:20,500 we've never done work in New Zealand. 170 00:11:20,820 --> 00:11:25,000 So tie -in hustles would be the first real -life experiment of a DAO and the 171 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:27,560 for us to give back to Christchurch and New Zealand as a whole. 172 00:11:28,170 --> 00:11:32,390 We rented out a warehouse for a couple year lease and then we transformed that 173 00:11:32,390 --> 00:11:36,230 space from what was basically like a wood shed, furniture shed, to a pretty 174 00:11:36,230 --> 00:11:37,089 amazing space. 175 00:11:37,090 --> 00:11:41,490 Every week everyone puts in $0 to $40 depending on their financial position. 176 00:11:41,730 --> 00:11:44,070 We have these 30 people and they all have different skills. 177 00:11:44,290 --> 00:11:47,250 The sign outside was built by Liam who's an amazing welder. 178 00:11:48,270 --> 00:11:52,330 The copy shop was all built by the DAO members and painted by the DAO members. 179 00:11:52,590 --> 00:11:55,010 It's an awesome opportunity to be able to have a group of friends come 180 00:11:55,190 --> 00:11:59,830 use the aspects of cryptocurrency and DAO structures to be able to build 181 00:11:59,830 --> 00:12:02,190 something that we wouldn't have otherwise been able to build ourselves. 182 00:12:02,910 --> 00:12:07,610 Throughout the week we have five to ten people working here, working for their 183 00:12:07,610 --> 00:12:11,490 own jobs, working on new ideas and things that we want to do as a 184 00:12:11,750 --> 00:12:15,790 And then on the weekends and in the evenings we've had exhibitions, skate 185 00:12:16,330 --> 00:12:17,330 music events. 186 00:12:17,580 --> 00:12:21,900 It's all about a group of friends working together to do things we all 187 00:12:21,900 --> 00:12:25,520 achieve. One of the most important things about a DAO removes a lot of that 188 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,680 hierarchy. You can never screw over the DAO because you've all been on this 189 00:12:28,680 --> 00:12:29,379 mission together. 190 00:12:29,380 --> 00:12:33,100 You work with people to make that goal better. And so it creates this really 191 00:12:33,100 --> 00:12:36,060 unique thing, which I think we haven't seen since like tribes, where you're 192 00:12:36,060 --> 00:12:40,760 of kept accountable by the DAO. It's not about making $50 million and then 193 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:43,760 sharing that amongst shareholders. It's about doing things that we can all 194 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:45,880 profit in and all find passion in. 195 00:12:49,230 --> 00:12:53,410 The underlying technology of crypto and blockchain is being used across Aotearoa 196 00:12:53,410 --> 00:12:54,530 to empower communities. 197 00:12:54,930 --> 00:12:59,590 And Kaymarie Dunn is an innovator who has seen its potential to open up the 198 00:12:59,590 --> 00:13:01,190 playing field for indigenous communities. 199 00:13:03,630 --> 00:13:09,230 I was lucky enough to be part of a fellowship that is a collective of 200 00:13:09,230 --> 00:13:13,970 entrepreneurs, change makers, and I was actually in a spa pool with other 201 00:13:13,970 --> 00:13:18,930 fellows, and Mark Pascal was in that spa pool, and he talked about this thing 202 00:13:18,930 --> 00:13:19,669 called blockchain. 203 00:13:19,670 --> 00:13:24,510 I was overhearing things like blockchain is going to revolutionise the way that 204 00:13:24,510 --> 00:13:30,590 our information is shared, the way that we could take greater control over our 205 00:13:30,590 --> 00:13:31,590 data. 206 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:36,560 A lot of our identity is controlled by big companies from Silicon Valley. 207 00:13:36,780 --> 00:13:43,660 Blockchain, Web3, it allows self -sovereign ownership of data identity, 208 00:13:43,660 --> 00:13:44,700 we didn't really have before. 209 00:13:45,540 --> 00:13:49,980 That's a really interesting space, especially from an indigenous culture 210 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:56,000 Self -sovereign ownership means we own our personal digital data instead of big 211 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:57,000 tech organizations. 212 00:13:57,610 --> 00:13:58,870 And it's all thanks to blockchain. 213 00:13:59,210 --> 00:14:04,210 What got me excited about it was, for the first time, we'd actually have the 214 00:14:04,210 --> 00:14:08,330 ability to provide our consent over the information that belongs to us. 215 00:14:08,910 --> 00:14:13,050 How might this technology really help activate indigenous data sovereignty, 216 00:14:13,310 --> 00:14:18,770 which is to ensure that we maintain the tapu, or the sacredness of data. 217 00:14:19,530 --> 00:14:23,710 Alongside Mark, it was also Aaron McDonald from Centrality that really 218 00:14:23,710 --> 00:14:25,730 accelerated my growth. 219 00:14:26,860 --> 00:14:33,060 Erin is Ngai Tahu. We both recognised that the monopoly that banks had on our 220 00:14:33,060 --> 00:14:36,880 finances and information was no longer OK for us. 221 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:41,740 Erin said, look, Kay, I'll create space for you at Centrality, bring a crew in, 222 00:14:41,860 --> 00:14:44,200 and then we'll just see where your ideas land. 223 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:49,580 Together with her crew, Kay's initial idea was for an indigenous -designed and 224 00:14:49,580 --> 00:14:50,760 owned community currency. 225 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:56,020 Indigicoin was born from an idea that the... 226 00:14:56,250 --> 00:14:59,990 economic system was never designed for indigenous peoples. 227 00:15:00,290 --> 00:15:05,630 So how might technology give us a way to be able to create a system that looked 228 00:15:05,630 --> 00:15:08,370 like us, felt like us, spoke like us? 229 00:15:08,790 --> 00:15:15,210 What if indigenous -led cryptocurrency and banking systems really resided 230 00:15:15,210 --> 00:15:16,210 our communities? 231 00:15:16,750 --> 00:15:22,350 The technology four or five years ago was still very new and try as we may, 232 00:15:22,350 --> 00:15:24,970 idea didn't really grow any further. 233 00:15:25,230 --> 00:15:29,670 Our group, Semi -disbanded. And then I got a phone call from Centrality, said, 234 00:15:29,770 --> 00:15:35,090 OK, we're running a hackathon for grabs of $100 ,000. And I thought, I'm totally 235 00:15:35,090 --> 00:15:37,010 going to win that competition, and that's it. 236 00:15:37,350 --> 00:15:42,530 A hackathon is like a really intense collaboration session over a set period 237 00:15:42,530 --> 00:15:46,130 time where different groups work to develop a new project or idea. 238 00:15:46,450 --> 00:15:49,210 And then they all pitch their creations at the end. 239 00:15:49,790 --> 00:15:53,790 One of the ideas that we started to talk about was whakapapa, genealogy. The 240 00:15:53,790 --> 00:15:56,410 element that connects all of humanity is genealogy. 241 00:15:57,030 --> 00:16:01,930 And when we look at it, that is all decentralised, interconnected, and not 242 00:16:01,930 --> 00:16:06,450 to each other, but also to our environment, to the stars, to the earth 243 00:16:06,450 --> 00:16:07,450 everything around us. 244 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:11,780 And so that was the area that we wanted to start with. We wanted to create a 245 00:16:11,780 --> 00:16:16,660 genealogy platform so that whānau had full control, communities had full 246 00:16:16,660 --> 00:16:20,700 over their data. And that's where we really dug deep. And we won. Thank you, 247 00:16:20,700 --> 00:16:25,500 Centrality. And we just really worked hard on exploring how might we use 248 00:16:25,500 --> 00:16:29,080 decentralised technologies to create a decentralised archival system. 249 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:33,500 Just like whakapapa, this immutable thing that's passed down from generation 250 00:16:33,500 --> 00:16:37,940 generation, you could use that technology to provide a way for 251 00:16:37,940 --> 00:16:44,760 own the infrastructure and to extend that important piece of culture into the 252 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:45,760 technology domain. 253 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:51,420 With Aho, the system had to be accessible and be easy to navigate so 254 00:16:51,420 --> 00:16:52,840 a place that felt safe. 255 00:16:53,450 --> 00:16:54,650 Because safety is critical. 256 00:16:55,090 --> 00:16:59,250 Our whakapapa, our genealogy, is one of our greatest taonga, our greatest 257 00:16:59,250 --> 00:17:03,750 treasures. You download the app to your computer and then you would look at how 258 00:17:03,750 --> 00:17:07,130 might I load up my information about my parents, grandparents. 259 00:17:07,410 --> 00:17:12,109 You can go all the way back 10, 15 generations and load up all your 260 00:17:12,510 --> 00:17:17,310 Then you would basically invite your whānau into your genealogy tree or into 261 00:17:17,310 --> 00:17:18,369 your archival system. 262 00:17:18,930 --> 00:17:22,690 The beautiful part of it is it's completely controlled by whānau. 263 00:17:23,069 --> 00:17:27,050 It's completely free, and even though Aho have created the app, we will never 264 00:17:27,050 --> 00:17:29,850 see a copy of what it is that whānau input into it. 265 00:17:31,350 --> 00:17:35,910 I think with indigenous developers, when you have developers that design code 266 00:17:35,910 --> 00:17:41,990 and create opportunities based on an ethos that holds Mother Earth and 267 00:17:41,990 --> 00:17:46,150 at the core, you get completely different types of technologies. 268 00:17:46,430 --> 00:17:50,310 And I think that that's the beauty of what we've been able to create with Aho. 269 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:57,120 And that also means that we're there to serve community and not take from them. 270 00:18:01,380 --> 00:18:05,440 So we've learned about community currencies, DAOs and data sovereignty. 271 00:18:05,740 --> 00:18:08,500 But how else can crypto empower us in the future? 272 00:18:10,900 --> 00:18:15,720 We all know AI will become a major deal in all of our lives. And the team at 273 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:20,300 Altered State Machine are using NFT technology to allow us to own our own 274 00:18:20,300 --> 00:18:21,380 artificial intelligence. 275 00:18:22,170 --> 00:18:23,270 Now brace yourself. 276 00:18:23,510 --> 00:18:26,850 This is going to hurt your brain, but we'll take it nice and slow. 277 00:18:28,110 --> 00:18:32,250 The question of AI is a really important one, and it's actually the same 278 00:18:32,250 --> 00:18:37,610 question as the question of crypto at the heart, which is how can society at 279 00:18:37,610 --> 00:18:40,230 large own our digital future? 280 00:18:40,650 --> 00:18:45,390 I don't think I'm overstating it when I say artificial intelligence is the most 281 00:18:45,390 --> 00:18:48,070 powerful technology humanity has ever created. 282 00:18:50,090 --> 00:18:55,550 It interacts with us in our daily lives, from simple things like the 283 00:18:55,550 --> 00:19:01,110 advertisements they get served to you on your social media page to figuring out 284 00:19:01,110 --> 00:19:03,130 how to cure complex diseases. 285 00:19:03,390 --> 00:19:06,330 And it's only getting more and more powerful. 286 00:19:08,350 --> 00:19:13,510 At the moment, there's an artificial intelligence out there that is a digital 287 00:19:13,510 --> 00:19:14,570 persona of you. 288 00:19:15,130 --> 00:19:19,590 The problem with AI being centralised is that you have no control over that 289 00:19:19,590 --> 00:19:20,590 digital persona. 290 00:19:20,970 --> 00:19:27,550 And the majority of ownership of AI is in the hands of a very small 291 00:19:27,550 --> 00:19:29,550 amount of tech billionaires. 292 00:19:29,810 --> 00:19:34,350 As the digital world builds out, there'll be more and more intelligences 293 00:19:34,350 --> 00:19:36,690 interact with us as humans in society. 294 00:19:36,930 --> 00:19:42,590 And we wanted a way to empower people to take a bit more control and ownership 295 00:19:42,590 --> 00:19:43,590 of AIs. 296 00:19:46,010 --> 00:19:50,850 Altered State Machine have created living, evolving digital AI brains that 297 00:19:50,850 --> 00:19:54,590 can own. And the reason you can own them is because they are NFTs. 298 00:19:55,050 --> 00:19:56,350 Pretty mind -blowing, huh? 299 00:19:56,550 --> 00:20:00,310 You can then take those brains and put them into characters in their game. 300 00:20:03,770 --> 00:20:09,410 By using game mechanics, we can start people on a journey of discovering why 301 00:20:09,410 --> 00:20:13,150 is important, how they can interact with it and what they can do with it that is 302 00:20:13,150 --> 00:20:14,150 less confronting. 303 00:20:14,700 --> 00:20:19,260 You're also learning something like reinforcement because you've been given 304 00:20:19,260 --> 00:20:23,860 tools to start influencing and tweaking how this AI thinks about the world. 305 00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:31,580 Once you're done, say you've trained a champion boxer or a champion football 306 00:20:31,580 --> 00:20:36,500 player in the AI metaverse world, you can then trade that on the open market. 307 00:20:37,140 --> 00:20:42,040 The avatars themselves, the players, they're NFTs and the brains are NFTs. 308 00:20:43,660 --> 00:20:48,100 Crypto is a transformative technology because it allows us to shift ownership 309 00:20:48,100 --> 00:20:50,800 into the hands of the general population. 310 00:20:51,180 --> 00:20:54,060 You can own your own neural network model. 311 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:58,780 The intelligence of the future, we want it to reflect society as a whole. So the 312 00:20:58,780 --> 00:21:02,280 more people we can get involved with it, the better, so that we can create a 313 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:06,680 world where communities own this stuff, understand it, engage with it, control 314 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:07,680 it. 315 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:11,180 Told you it was going to hurt. 316 00:21:11,630 --> 00:21:14,130 But this is a huge innovation, so get on board. 317 00:21:14,730 --> 00:21:18,690 As we look into the future, just how big a deal is crypto for humanity? 318 00:21:19,470 --> 00:21:24,850 If we can put tools in the hands of people that allow them to be in control 319 00:21:24,850 --> 00:21:26,950 their digital self, then we can change everything. 320 00:21:27,210 --> 00:21:28,910 And that's the power of this technology. 321 00:21:29,450 --> 00:21:34,250 It's really becoming more and more apparent that today's planetary 322 00:21:34,830 --> 00:21:39,030 cannot be solved using the current hierarchical -based systems. The sort of 323 00:21:39,030 --> 00:21:43,110 hyper -capitalist world we're now in, you have this gravitational pull that is 324 00:21:43,110 --> 00:21:44,710 causing increased inequality. 325 00:21:45,030 --> 00:21:50,290 We need to move power away from centralised mega -organisations to 326 00:21:50,290 --> 00:21:52,730 controlled by citizens of planet Earth. 327 00:21:52,930 --> 00:21:56,790 We have this wonderful opportunity in New Zealand in that many of the concepts 328 00:21:56,790 --> 00:21:59,950 around collective ownership, connection to nature... 329 00:22:00,460 --> 00:22:04,880 are actually intrinsically part of our indigenous culture and their values. So 330 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:11,400 let's use that wisdom to potentially recreate new systems that are better 331 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:12,400 the old ones. 332 00:22:12,500 --> 00:22:17,860 Crypto and blockchain decentralization has given us the foundation, the 333 00:22:17,860 --> 00:22:21,820 technology and the design patterns to potentially create this new world. 334 00:22:27,050 --> 00:22:32,490 We are influencing the fundamentals of the way that technology has been 335 00:22:32,490 --> 00:22:38,090 to serve the few and not the many, and also the creation of technologies that 336 00:22:38,090 --> 00:22:41,050 reflect and support indigenous aspirations. 337 00:22:41,550 --> 00:22:47,170 And I'm very excited about what the future, not only of crypto, blockchain, 338 00:22:47,170 --> 00:22:53,190 going to bring and offer Aotearoa and our people, but also humanity as a 339 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:58,260 I'm pretty biased when it comes to how transformative the technology will be. I 340 00:22:58,260 --> 00:22:59,900 think it will shift everything. 341 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:04,600 When you look at what blockchain enables, it gives us a way to transfer 342 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:07,640 And data can be value, it can be identity, it can be all sorts of 343 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:11,780 things. And when you think about what that can enable, I think the 344 00:23:11,780 --> 00:23:12,900 are genuinely endless. 345 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:17,800 Personally, I think within the next 10 years or so, there will be very few 346 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:22,440 industries that aren't touched in some way by blockchain or NFTs or the 347 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:23,440 metaverse as a whole. 348 00:23:24,750 --> 00:23:29,130 There is this true belief that more of the benefits are to come, that there is 349 00:23:29,130 --> 00:23:31,110 more positive future that can come out of this. 350 00:23:32,650 --> 00:23:36,510 I don't even think we can begin to conceptualise what this might look like 351 00:23:36,550 --> 00:23:41,450 10, 20 years, but there will be amazing changes in how these technologies enable 352 00:23:41,450 --> 00:23:43,010 our world to improve. 353 00:23:44,430 --> 00:23:48,410 It provides us an opportunity to remake the world that we have today and remake 354 00:23:48,410 --> 00:23:49,410 it differently.