All language subtitles for WTF.Is.Crypto.S01E06.1080p.TVNZ.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN-CEsubs

We've learnt how revolutionary crypto
is.

This is so much more than a currency.
This is a paradigm shift.

But just how can crypto be used as a
force for good? It provides us an

opportunity to remake the world that we
have today and remake it differently.

We meet one of Aotearoa's crypto
pioneers and discover how he's using it

communities a voice.

Decentralisation can create this new
social infrastructure and empower

give them more choice around their own
destiny.

We profile some of the innovative
projects in New Zealand crypto space.

It's not about making 50 million. It's
about doing things that we can all

in and all find passion in. How might
technology give us a way to create a

system that looked like a, felt like a,
spoke like a... And find out how

NFTs can allow us to own our own AI.

The avatars themselves, the players,
they're NFTs and the brains are NFTs.

I grew up in South East England.

I always had this sort of interest from
an early age in new technologies.

At school, we persuaded the head of
music to buy all these synthesizers,

newfangled devices for making music.

I had these aspirations to be a famous
pop star, but that never came to

fruition. I ended up doing a degree in
acoustical engineering and vibrations.

I was really into windsurfing, and after
uni, me and my friend decided we were

going to go travelling, and we looked
for windy places, and up popped

Wellington.

We were just here temporarily, but I was
looking through the yellow pages for

acoustic companies.

There was this one little consulting
company, and I just wandered in, and he

pretty much said, have a job.

I ended up learning some computer
languages and writing software.

That really set me on this path in the
world of software development.

In my mid -twenties, I woke up one day
and just felt a bit of crap, and that

started a whole new chapter of my life.

After many tests concluded that it was a
thing called chronic fatigue, and

there's not much you can do about it.

It was a question of learning to live
with it, and if I lived a certain way, I

could largely hide it.

I ended up creating a business, and we
grew into a reasonably big software

development company, specializing in web
and mobile app development.

Our brand was built around doing the
new, shiny, exciting stuff.

My chronic fatigue, it was very up and
down.

Probably about 15 years into it, I went
on this course and it didn't fix me

immediately, but in a few months I was
basically cured.

When you go through that sort of health
challenge, it does fundamentally change

your outlook and well -being does become
a primary driver.

A common theme of my life has been this
interest and desire to stay ahead of the

technology curve.

I was going to a lot of conferences just
to really find out what's going on in

the industry. And I came across this
advertisement for this Bitcoin South

conference in Queenstown.

I'd not heard much about Bitcoin. This
was back in 2014 and really just assumed

it was an experimental currency.

It was probably by day two or three that
the penny really dropped.

Wow, this is much bigger than a
currency. This concept of creating money

the control of state was quite
transformative.

This is something that could actually
change how we organise ourselves as a

society.

Also, a few people were saying there was
this Russian -Canadian guy who was

writing this white paper around this new
type of blockchain that could be

programmed, and that turned into
Ethereum.

So there was this undercurrent of
excitement.

I got back to Wellington and made the
decision that we were going to refocus.

think the guys at work thought I'd been
working too many drugs at the conference

or something, but that really started
this journey of transitioning into this

blockchain company.

We found ourselves at the beginning of
what now we know was this hype cycle

around all things blockchain, and
specifically this thing called an ICO,

coin offering.

The concept was that you could use it to
raise money for your startup, but you

could do it in a decentralized way.

These were a way for people who had a
cryptocurrency -based project to give

anyone the opportunity to buy their
token and use that to fundraise for them

build the project.

And we found ourselves well -positioned
to create the code that allowed an ICO

to happen. So we were writing and
reviewing other people's smart contract

Suddenly we found ourselves in this
international client base flying around

world and huge demand for our services.

It was incredibly exciting and scary at
the same time because there was huge

amounts of crypto flowing through the
code that we'd either written or

often in a very compressed time period.
10 million in 30 seconds would run

through to our client's account.

As more and more people started to
build, it became this gold rush, not too

dissimilar to the dot -com boom.

A lot of projects were coming out that
had very little behind them, but just

trying to raise money and capitalise on
this FOMO, or fear of missing out.

Where there's a bubble, there is a
burst, and the ICO bubble burst at the

beginning of 2018.

A lot of projects failed, a lot of other
good projects dropped in value

significantly, and we entered the crypto
winter.

In hindsight, we got caught up in that
hype wave, and so it was a wake -up call

for us.

It was a pretty stressful time, and I'd
been through this massive rollercoaster

with both my health and also the
blockchain world.

So I thought, I'm going to make some big
changes and solve out of the company

completely, and started to reflect on
what do I want to do next, what am I

passionate about, and it really came
down to three areas of interest.

I'd been super interested in how we
organise ourselves, trying to challenge

traditional hierarchical system.

The other area was decentralization
technologies and blockchain.

The third area was health and well
-being. Well, how can I bring those

to do something with a bit more purpose?

And ended up landing on this idea called
the Well -Being Protocol, which is this

project that's looking to use technology
to reimagine community empowerment,

this decentralization, this platform
where you can build.

Outside of the corporate, outside of the
government system, you can create this

new social infrastructure that can
empower people, give them more voice,

them more choice around their own
destiny.

So with the Wellbeing Protocol, we had
this big, ambitious vision. But what is

our first step? So what we tried to do
is to create a small -scale trial.

Can we create and experiment a local
currency that is only available to that

community and they get to decide where
they spend it and what it might be spent

on?

We're based in Cannons Creek, just north
of Wellington, and we ended up

partnering with a local charity,
Antinati Tur. We created a local token.

called it the Cannon Coin. We minted 2
,500 Cannon Coins, and we said to 50

people, we're going to give you 50
Cannon Coins each, and you can do four

with that.

You can either transact amongst
yourselves, you could spend it in our

so we partnered with the local fruit and
veg co -op. They could donate it to a

community fund, or they could cash out
at the end of the trial.

But what we also did in the app was to
build a system so that people could come

up with ideas that were good for their
community.

It was a very small -scale trial. We
learned that the technology actually

really well, and interestingly,
people...

did quite quickly start to see paths
that this is just a currency.

They began to think of the Canon coin as
a kind of a share in their community

and they felt proud to hold some Canon
coins.

It was certainly a lot of learnings. It
sowed the seeds for future trials and

future learnings and has opened the
doors for other conversations since.

So how else can crypto give our
communities more voice?

Community currencies is one way to
empower a community, but the other more

ambitious and more holistic approach is
around DAOs.

OK, hang on. I've never heard that word
before. What is a DAO?

A DAO stands for a Decentralised
Autonomous Organisation, like a

or a company, but it is...

It allows a way for people to
collaborate, which doesn't need a CEO or

or a central leadership.

Everyone can participate as they see
fit. In a way, they are similar to a

cooperative. The idea that a group of
people can genuinely co -own and co

-govern a thing.

with real value in the middle.

There are mechanisms within the DAO that
enable people to take different levels

of participation, to be rewarded, to
vote on how they want that DAO to

and to do all of that using
cryptocurrency or tokens.

It allows anybody to access it and be a
part of it, regardless of where you are

in the world.

What DAOs do, they start to blur the
line between an organisation, a

and an economy.

It's this thing that allows people to
work together towards.

a shared purpose and we can move away
from the sort of hierarchical systems in

theory. DAOs are a true rarity. They're
something that would not be possible

without the underlying technology and
that underlying technology is

What we're playing with in the Wellbeing
Protocol is how we can take this to

real -life communities.

How can we actually use these DAO design
patterns to actually give you tools so

you can potentially control a treasury
and make decisions at a local level? And

we're working with a government agency
to...

Re -imagine grant funding.

What would happen if a government agency
actually gives the community a pot of

money and says, you decide, not the
funders. So that's the next trial.

Ultimately, it's about empowering
communities.

DAOs have been created all over the
world for groups to work together on a

shared purpose.

And in Christchurch, Ty and House are a
collective using DAO technology to build

projects and hold community events.

The idea of a DAO is something that we
want a younger generation to really

in the sense of don't worry about a
company.

Let's just think about how we can make
many cool DAOs and creative DAOs that

doing things that we're all passionate
about.

Myself and Callum and Will, we were
doing a lot of crypto stuff globally,

we've never done work in New Zealand.

So tie -in hustles would be the first
real -life experiment of a DAO and the

for us to give back to Christchurch and
New Zealand as a whole.

We rented out a warehouse for a couple
year lease and then we transformed that

space from what was basically like a
wood shed, furniture shed, to a pretty

amazing space.

Every week everyone puts in $0 to $40
depending on their financial position.

We have these 30 people and they all
have different skills.

The sign outside was built by Liam who's
an amazing welder.

The copy shop was all built by the DAO
members and painted by the DAO members.

It's an awesome opportunity to be able
to have a group of friends come

use the aspects of cryptocurrency and
DAO structures to be able to build

something that we wouldn't have
otherwise been able to build ourselves.

Throughout the week we have five to ten
people working here, working for their

own jobs, working on new ideas and
things that we want to do as a

And then on the weekends and in the
evenings we've had exhibitions, skate

music events.

It's all about a group of friends
working together to do things we all

achieve. One of the most important
things about a DAO removes a lot of that

hierarchy. You can never screw over the
DAO because you've all been on this

mission together.

You work with people to make that goal
better. And so it creates this really

unique thing, which I think we haven't
seen since like tribes, where you're

of kept accountable by the DAO. It's not
about making $50 million and then

sharing that amongst shareholders. It's
about doing things that we can all

profit in and all find passion in.

The underlying technology of crypto and
blockchain is being used across Aotearoa

to empower communities.

And Kaymarie Dunn is an innovator who
has seen its potential to open up the

playing field for indigenous
communities.

I was lucky enough to be part of a
fellowship that is a collective of

entrepreneurs, change makers, and I was
actually in a spa pool with other

fellows, and Mark Pascal was in that spa
pool, and he talked about this thing

called blockchain.

I was overhearing things like blockchain
is going to revolutionise the way that

our information is shared, the way that
we could take greater control over our

data.

A lot of our identity is controlled by
big companies from Silicon Valley.

Blockchain, Web3, it allows self
-sovereign ownership of data identity,

we didn't really have before.

That's a really interesting space,
especially from an indigenous culture

Self -sovereign ownership means we own
our personal digital data instead of big

tech organizations.

And it's all thanks to blockchain.

What got me excited about it was, for
the first time, we'd actually have the

ability to provide our consent over the
information that belongs to us.

How might this technology really help
activate indigenous data sovereignty,

which is to ensure that we maintain the
tapu, or the sacredness of data.

Alongside Mark, it was also Aaron
McDonald from Centrality that really

accelerated my growth.

Erin is Ngai Tahu. We both recognised
that the monopoly that banks had on our

finances and information was no longer
OK for us.

Erin said, look, Kay, I'll create space
for you at Centrality, bring a crew in,

and then we'll just see where your ideas
land.

Together with her crew, Kay's initial
idea was for an indigenous -designed and

owned community currency.

Indigicoin was born from an idea that
the...

economic system was never designed for
indigenous peoples.

So how might technology give us a way to
be able to create a system that looked

like us, felt like us, spoke like us?

What if indigenous -led cryptocurrency
and banking systems really resided

our communities?

The technology four or five years ago
was still very new and try as we may,

idea didn't really grow any further.

Our group, Semi -disbanded. And then I
got a phone call from Centrality, said,

OK, we're running a hackathon for grabs
of $100 ,000. And I thought, I'm totally

going to win that competition, and
that's it.

A hackathon is like a really intense
collaboration session over a set period

time where different groups work to
develop a new project or idea.

And then they all pitch their creations
at the end.

One of the ideas that we started to talk
about was whakapapa, genealogy. The

element that connects all of humanity is
genealogy.

And when we look at it, that is all
decentralised, interconnected, and not

to each other, but also to our
environment, to the stars, to the earth

everything around us.

And so that was the area that we wanted
to start with. We wanted to create a

genealogy platform so that whānau had
full control, communities had full

over their data. And that's where we
really dug deep. And we won. Thank you,

Centrality. And we just really worked
hard on exploring how might we use

decentralised technologies to create a
decentralised archival system.

Just like whakapapa, this immutable
thing that's passed down from generation

generation, you could use that
technology to provide a way for

own the infrastructure and to extend
that important piece of culture into the

technology domain.

With Aho, the system had to be
accessible and be easy to navigate so

a place that felt safe.

Because safety is critical.

Our whakapapa, our genealogy, is one of
our greatest taonga, our greatest

treasures. You download the app to your
computer and then you would look at how

might I load up my information about my
parents, grandparents.

You can go all the way back 10, 15
generations and load up all your

Then you would basically invite your
whānau into your genealogy tree or into

your archival system.

The beautiful part of it is it's
completely controlled by whānau.

It's completely free, and even though
Aho have created the app, we will never

see a copy of what it is that whānau
input into it.

I think with indigenous developers, when
you have developers that design code

and create opportunities based on an
ethos that holds Mother Earth and

at the core, you get completely
different types of technologies.

And I think that that's the beauty of
what we've been able to create with Aho.

And that also means that we're there to
serve community and not take from them.

So we've learned about community
currencies, DAOs and data sovereignty.

But how else can crypto empower us in
the future?

We all know AI will become a major deal
in all of our lives. And the team at

Altered State Machine are using NFT
technology to allow us to own our own

artificial intelligence.

Now brace yourself.

This is going to hurt your brain, but
we'll take it nice and slow.

The question of AI is a really important
one, and it's actually the same

question as the question of crypto at
the heart, which is how can society at

large own our digital future?

I don't think I'm overstating it when I
say artificial intelligence is the most

powerful technology humanity has ever
created.

It interacts with us in our daily lives,
from simple things like the

advertisements they get served to you on
your social media page to figuring out

how to cure complex diseases.

And it's only getting more and more
powerful.

At the moment, there's an artificial
intelligence out there that is a digital

persona of you.

The problem with AI being centralised is
that you have no control over that

digital persona.

And the majority of ownership of AI is
in the hands of a very small

amount of tech billionaires.

As the digital world builds out,
there'll be more and more intelligences

interact with us as humans in society.

And we wanted a way to empower people to
take a bit more control and ownership

of AIs.

Altered State Machine have created
living, evolving digital AI brains that

can own. And the reason you can own them
is because they are NFTs.

Pretty mind -blowing, huh?

You can then take those brains and put
them into characters in their game.

By using game mechanics, we can start
people on a journey of discovering why

is important, how they can interact with
it and what they can do with it that is

less confronting.

You're also learning something like
reinforcement because you've been given

tools to start influencing and tweaking
how this AI thinks about the world.

Once you're done, say you've trained a
champion boxer or a champion football

player in the AI metaverse world, you
can then trade that on the open market.

The avatars themselves, the players,
they're NFTs and the brains are NFTs.

Crypto is a transformative technology
because it allows us to shift ownership

into the hands of the general
population.

You can own your own neural network
model.

The intelligence of the future, we want
it to reflect society as a whole. So the

more people we can get involved with it,
the better, so that we can create a

world where communities own this stuff,
understand it, engage with it, control

it.

Told you it was going to hurt.

But this is a huge innovation, so get on
board.

As we look into the future, just how big
a deal is crypto for humanity?

If we can put tools in the hands of
people that allow them to be in control

their digital self, then we can change
everything.

And that's the power of this technology.

It's really becoming more and more
apparent that today's planetary

cannot be solved using the current
hierarchical -based systems. The sort of

hyper -capitalist world we're now in,
you have this gravitational pull that is

causing increased inequality.

We need to move power away from
centralised mega -organisations to

controlled by citizens of planet Earth.

We have this wonderful opportunity in
New Zealand in that many of the concepts

around collective ownership, connection
to nature...

are actually intrinsically part of our
indigenous culture and their values. So

let's use that wisdom to potentially
recreate new systems that are better

the old ones.

Crypto and blockchain decentralization
has given us the foundation, the

technology and the design patterns to
potentially create this new world.

We are influencing the fundamentals of
the way that technology has been

to serve the few and not the many, and
also the creation of technologies that

reflect and support indigenous
aspirations.

And I'm very excited about what the
future, not only of crypto, blockchain,

going to bring and offer Aotearoa and
our people, but also humanity as a

I'm pretty biased when it comes to how
transformative the technology will be. I

think it will shift everything.

When you look at what blockchain
enables, it gives us a way to transfer

And data can be value, it can be
identity, it can be all sorts of

things. And when you think about what
that can enable, I think the

are genuinely endless.

Personally, I think within the next 10
years or so, there will be very few

industries that aren't touched in some
way by blockchain or NFTs or the

metaverse as a whole.

There is this true belief that more of
the benefits are to come, that there is

more positive future that can come out
of this.

I don't even think we can begin to
conceptualise what this might look like

10, 20 years, but there will be amazing
changes in how these technologies enable

our world to improve.

It provides us an opportunity to remake
the world that we have today and remake

it differently.