Now to the latest trend that's sweeping the internet. Called NFTs. We're now selling for huge bucks. $69 million. So what's behind this latest craze? That is the question to ask. Okay, so there's some super strange stuff happening online right now. And I need to tell you about it. First, look at this tweet. The first tweet ever tweeted in the history of Twitter. The tweet was by Jack Dorsey. I'm one of the co-founders of Twitter. And this tweet was somehow just purchased for $2,915,835.47. You serious? And it's not just a tweet. Just last month, a single JPEG sold for $69 million. Oh my god. The NBA is selling little moments of basketball games for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is all sorts of digital things that people are purchasing a version of them for lots of money. There are three simple letters that you need to understand to understand what's going on here. Those letters are NFT. What the hell's an NFT? What exactly is an NFT? So-called NFT. Y'all in the chat understand what an NFT is? Like does that stand for not safe for work? What is this what is this mean? Why would you pay for an NFT when you can look at it for free? Is this a gigantic bubble just waiting to burst? I believe in this space with my whole heart. I'm just fascinated by it, all of it. This story is much bigger than a $600,000 cat GIF. Or a $3 million tweet. It's a story about human psychology and how the way we value things is shifting because of technology. A technology that some people think may revolutionize our society while at the same time accelerating the climate disaster. It's really nuts. It's all of these things together and I want to explain it to you. So let's do this. What the hell's an NFT? Lebron James! That was insane. Officially insane, Lebron James. NFT stands for non-fungible token. Okay, there it is. That's the explanation. Non-fungible token, makes sense, right? So the video's over now. No. One of my issues with this topic is that people throw around things like blockchain, crypto art, ledger, NFT, and they just expect me to understand what they're talking about and I and I didn't. But first, ad break. Okay, I'm going to talk about a Tesla for a second. Customized by Unplugged Performance to be the most unique and high-quality Tesla there is. Oh, and it's not just a Tesla, it's also $20,000. You can enter for a chance to win the Tesla and $20,000 by going to Omaze.com/johnnyharris. When you donate $10 or more, your donation goes to support two nonprofits. 501C3 is the first one. They are an organization that seeks to mobilize the next generation to fight climate change by creating a global community that embraces low-carbon culture. The other one is called Give Power, which seeks to give clean drinkable water to the 2.2 billion people around the world who do not have safe access to clean water. The nonprofit uses its deep solar expertise to power and provide clean water, food security, and light to regions around the world. So, to potentially win a Tesla and $20,000 and to support these organizations, go to Omaze.com/johnnyharris to find out more. So, fungible. Let's talk about the word fungible. It's this very specific word that economists use. It has a very precise definition. I want to use a different word for fungible for a second. Let's just use the word replaceable. Non-fungible means non-replaceable. You can't replace it. There's only one of them. It's unique. Non-fungible. Let me give you an example of something I feel very strongly about. Let's say you want to buy an orange jacket. People send these to me, okay? This is really absurd. I've actually never counted these before. Um. Stop it. Get some help. You want to buy an orange jacket from Uniqlo. You go on the internet and a jacket costs $39. If you purchase one of these jackets for $39, you don't care what specific jacket they send to you. They're going to make thousands of jackets in your size, send them to stores, send them to people, and they will send one to you. You don't care which one it is. The jacket is fungible. It's replaceable. As long as you get one that's identical to the rest, it's worth the same to you. They're interchangeable. However, let's talk about one Uniqlo orange jacket that has been with me for a very long time. This is the original. And for those of you who don't know, I sort of have a strange attachment to this jacket. I just love it. I love the color. I like feel like an identity with this thing. And it's sort of starting to disintegrate, but I love it. And I kind of fell in love. This jacket is not replaceable. If I went onto the website and paid $39 for a Uniqlo orange jacket that was this exact same model, it would not be this jacket. This jacket is non-fungible. It is the only one on the planet that exists. It has emotional value. It has significance. It is a very valuable thing because it is scarce. There is only one of them. It's valuable to me at least. And I kind of fell in love. Okay. We can put these down for a second. Everything in our economy is one or the other. Fungible or non-fungible. A sack of rice is fungible. You just want a sack of rice. You don't care which one it is. The Mona Lisa, non-fungible. There's only one. Unsurprisingly, non-fungible things are way more valuable than fungible things. So that's the NF in NFT. Non-fungible. Now let's talk about the T, which is token. This is a very internetty word. And to explain this, I have to explain something I have avoided explaining for a very long time. The blockchain. Luckily, there's a way to understand this, and I'm going to make it as painless as possible. Let's say I want to buy three slices of pizza from my friend Anna. She charges me $6 for these three slices. I don't use cash anymore. So I pull out my debit card, my bank card, and I swipe on her little terminal. As soon as I swipe this card, a message is sent to my bank. And it says, "Hey, Johnny, who has an account at your bank, wants to spend $6 on pizza, and that money needs to go to Anna's bank." This is like the bread and butter of what a bank does all day. They document every transaction that comes in from all their customers. They send out money to the other banks. And at the end of the day, they have a tally of all the money that went out of your account and into your account, and they can give you a number. They can say, "Based on all of these transactions, you have $50 in your bank account." And so when that request comes in as I swipe my card, my bank is like, "Okay, so based on all of your transactions, you have $50 in your account. I can send $6 to Anna's bank." Approved. And they approved the transaction. Once that money comes into Anna's bank, Anna's bank is doing the same thing. They're like, "Oh, cool, she had $80, and now she has $86." And they add it to her record. More and more, your money is just a number on a screen. It's the result of a bunch of transactions. You don't barter with physical things, and you don't use cash as much. So the bank keeping meticulous records of every transaction becomes really important. We trust the bank to do this correctly. So thank you, banks. Banks and other middlemen have been keeping stuff like this running smoothly for centuries. I mean, kind of smoothly. The Nasdaq, everything and more has been. Worst day on Wall Street. What in the world is happening on Wall Street? There have been a few bumps in the road. With the rise of the internet, people started to wonder, "Is there a way that we could do this same thing, coordinate this transaction of transfer of money between two people without the bank?" The result is a very clever concept called the blockchain. The blockchain fulfills the same thing the bank was doing. But instead of doing this privately on my bank account and talking to Anna's bank, all of the transactions are actually recorded publicly on the internet. So let's redo this example in a crypto world. Anna charges me six crypto coins for my three slices of pizza. I go to swipe my proverbial bank card to say, "Yes, I want to pay you six coins." Instead of the bank seeing that request for a transaction and trying to validate it, it goes onto this public record where a bunch of people's computers all around the world are keeping track of every single transaction of everyone, always. If I don't indeed have the six coins in my account to pay Anna, all of the people's computers who are keeping track of every single transaction will notice that there's a discrepancy. They'll be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, you don't have six coins. We're looking at every transaction ever, and you don't have six coins. Your transaction is rejected." If I do have six coins, all of the computers looking at the public record will see that request for a transaction, and they'll be like, "Yep, approved. You have six coins, and now Anna has six coins." And they'll write that transaction into the public record. Now Anna, having those six extra coins, is now the business of everybody. Everybody now knows that. The point here is that the group verifies the legitimacy of every transaction by keeping an eye on every transaction to make sure that it adds up. Okay, I'm getting hot at this point, so I'm taking off my orange jacket. Okay. So you're wondering, "What does the blockchain and this public record have anything to do with cat GIFs that sell for $600,000?" Well, I'm about to tell you. So, in my pizza example, we talked about blockchain as a way to verify currency transaction. I pay you this much, you pay me this much, and everybody knows how much everybody has because it's all public. But this is where it starts to bend my mind a little bit. What if we apply this to something that isn't money or currency? Let's say one day you're just looking at the ledger. And the ledger's like, "Johnny wants to give Anna six coins." Okay, he's got six coins. Approved. And then a transaction comes up that's like, "A Malaysian businessman wants to give $3 million worth of coins to Jack Dorsey in exchange for a little token or digital certificate that says that the tweet is now somehow owned by the Malaysian businessman." The only thing that the blockchain cares about is, "Does the Malaysian businessman have $3 million worth of coins?" And so a bunch of computers all around the world look at the whole entire list of transactions and say like, "Yeah, this guy has more than $3 million worth of coins." Approved. They approved the transaction. And now it is written in a public record that is unalterable, that says that this Malaysian businessman owns this tweet. The token has been transferred to somebody new. Non-fungible token. NFT. And if there's anything that gets human psychology to value something, it's if an entire group validates that it's real and that there's only one of them. There are tens of thousands of NFTs of all kinds. Some music is being given tokens. Lots of art is being minted as tokens and being bought and sold. And then, of course, there's uh NBA Top Shot, who's taking advantage of this. These highlight moments, these top shot moments from your favorite NBA players have been turned into non-fungible tokens. Jesse made headlines the other day when he paid $208,000 for LeBron James Top Shot. It's the weirdest thing. As soon as humans have enough abundance and have their basic needs met, food, shelter, warmth, et cetera, the next frontier is to create value in things that have no inherent value. The value turns into psychological hype, excitement around a certain thing. We've been doing that forever. I mean, that's the whole art industry is based on the idea of a bunch of people deciding that this painting, this little bit of canvas and wood and paint is valuable, and thus it is valuable. The only difference about now is we now have the technology to do this in a non-physical way, using this very sophisticated internet technology that is maturing very quickly. The blockchain. Okay, so this is a lot of hype, and I know you're probably thinking, like, "Cool, there's a bunch of rich people online buying and trading digital art, and there's millions of dollars worth of cards. I thought you said that this was going to have the potential to change the world." And I'm getting there, but first I need to talk about the crazy flip side to the NFT fad. The reality is that the technology that is the backbone for all of this, the the blockchain stuff that we've been talking about, relies on the public ledger thing that I talked about. Like that is the sort of heart and soul conceptually. But mechanically, like physically, what it relies on is computers doing a bunch of little calculations all day and night forever. These computers aren't real computers. They don't have any memory or screens or anything. They all they do is just make little micro calculations all day, all night. Most NFTs are stored on a blockchain called Ethereum. And as of now, in early April 2021, when I'm filming this, the Ethereum blockchain is using 33 terawatt-hours of electricity. And you're like, "What's a terawatt-hour of electricity?" That's the same amount of power as the country of Serbia. A reminder that generating electricity usually comes from power plants that are burning fossil fuels that are putting carbon into the atmosphere, which is a big, freaking problem. Causing a man-made disaster on a global scale. The power consumption of the Ethereum blockchain is exploding. It is just it quadrupled in like eight months, and it is showing no sign of slowing down. It is a lot of energy. And to think that that much energy is not being used to like move people around or produce things, it's used to like crunch numbers in a weird computer warehouse somewhere so that somebody can buy a fake token of a thing that we only Oh, man, I just I can't. It's just it's mind-blowing. It's such an ironic moment where it's like, "This is all digital. It's all fake. It's not real." But it's having deeply real-world effects. Ouch. Oh my god. I just I want to finish this video now. Talking about what this might mean for our world going forward. This is definitely hype, and that's the whole point. I mean, these speculation markets are all about hype. We see this all the time with new technologies and new things that people get excited about, and they swarm it with their investments and the price goes up, and then something happens. For example, Come on, Uncle Phil, it's the 90s, man. What's a web page? Something ducks lock on. Of equal value. So cash in on today's new accounts. Man, it's the 90s. It's hammer time. In the 90s, the internet was taking off, and people were just realizing that you could like make money on the internet. You could like make big businesses on the internet. The stock market was surging, 400% in five years, mainly fueled by so much hype and excitement around these new internet companies. Break the record as America's longest boom. The new economy. Is it a boom without end? This rise peaked in March of 2000, and then the bubble burst, and a lot of these companies either went under or completely lost all of this excitement valuation that they had. Sorry, didn't you? It was down some. But did that mean that the internet went away? Did that mean that internet businesses didn't come back? No. Companies went on to reshape our world. Right now, I think we are probably in that stage of NFTs. It's hype. It's novel. It's exciting. But what it's doing is it's pushing our minds to think differently about how we validate and verify things. If I buy a house, there is a whole thick stack of paperwork and a bunch of middlemen to make sure that it is very clear who owns the house and how that money gets transferred from one person to another. It is like a nightmare of an experience. If suddenly technology existed that took away the centralized middleman and made transactions between people able to be authenticated, verifiable, and much smoother, that could change our world. I'm not here to say if the bubble's going to burst or whatever. I don't know. I just know that this is a crazy moment where we're getting our heads around a new technology and what it means. And eventually, we'll adapt. This won't be crazy. This won't be novel anymore. Prices will go down, but the technology that allowed it all to happen will probably stick around. Tom Fox made the music for this video. He's really good and can make music for your videos too. tfbeats.com
The video opens with quick cuts of various news anchors discussing NFTs and large sums of money. A man in a blue sweater sits on a couch, laughing and pressing a red button. The scene shifts back to a news anchor, then to a four-panel split screen of different individuals reacting to the NFT discussion.
"Now to the latest trend that's sweeping the internet. Called NFTs. We're now selling for huge bucks. $69 million. So what's behind this latest craze? That is the question to ask."
Setting: news studio — bright, even
People (6):
• sitting upright, wearing black blazer over white top and black pants, dark brown, shoulder-length hair — serious, focused
• sitting, leaning forward, wearing light blue collared shirt with gray sweater and dark gray trousers, short, light brown hair — laughing, mouth open
• sitting, leaning slightly forward, wearing black t-shirt with red 'H' logo and not visible, short, dark, curly hair — smiling
• sitting, leaning slightly forward, wearing pink blazer over black t-shirt and not visible, bald hair — smiling, looking up
• sitting, leaning slightly forward, wearing black jacket with white trim and not visible, short, dark hair — smiling
• sitting, leaning slightly forward, wearing purple hoodie and not visible, long, light brown, styled in a bun hair — smiling, beard
Text: "ABC NEWS PRIME", "IMMIGRATION CRISIS", "UNACCOMPANIED MINORS ARRIVE AT TEXAS CONVENTION CENTER", "NEWS LIVE", "Christie's Images/Beeple", "NFT: THE DIGITAL COLLECTABLE CRAZE", "LIVE", "DIGITAL ARTWORK SELLS FOR A STAGGERING $69M"
Johnny Harris sits at a wooden counter, looking directly at the camera, speaking with a serious expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points.
"Okay, so there's some super strange stuff happening online right now. And I need to tell you about it."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
The screen transitions to a white background with a Twitter tweet displayed. The Twitter bird logo appears above the tweet.
"First, look at this tweet. The first tweet ever tweeted in the history of Twitter."
Setting: digital space — bright, even
Text: "jack @jack Mar 22, 2006", "just setting up my twttr", "9.1K", "136.8K", "164.8K"
The screen rapidly cuts between images of Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter. First, a close-up of his face, then him sitting at a desk with Twitter-themed graphics.
"The tweet was by Jack Dorsey. I'm one of the co-founders of Twitter."
Setting: studio — bright, even
People (1):
• sitting upright, wearing black hoodie and not visible, dark brown, short, full beard hair — neutral, serious
Text: "JACK DORSEY", "CEO OF TWITTER INC."
Johnny Harris returns to the screen, speaking directly to the camera. The scene then cuts to the tweet again, with a 'SOLD' stamp and the exact purchase price appearing on screen.
"And this tweet was somehow just purchased for $2,915,835.47."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — surprised, wide eyes
Text: "jack @jack Mar 22, 2006", "just setting up my twttr", "9.1K", "136.8K", "164.8K", "SOLD", "$2,915,835.47"
A man in a suit is shown laughing hysterically, then another man approaches him, and the first man continues laughing.
Setting: office — natural light, some artificial overhead
People (2):
• sitting, leaning back, wearing brown suit jacket over white shirt and not visible, graying, combed back hair — laughing, eyes crinkled
• standing, wearing dark jacket and dark pants, dark brown, short hair — neutral, looking at the laughing man
The man in the suit stops laughing and looks seriously at the camera, then the scene cuts back to Johnny Harris.
"You serious?"
Setting: office to home office — natural light, some artificial overhead
People (2):
• sitting, leaning back, wearing brown suit jacket over white shirt and not visible, graying, combed back hair — serious, questioning
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Johnny Harris speaks, then the screen transitions to a white background with a digital artwork composed of many small images. Text appears below the artwork.
"And it's not just a tweet."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• sitting upright, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS", "BEEPLE (B. 1981)"
The digital artwork remains on screen, and text indicating the current bid and realized price appears, showing the JPEG sold for $69,346,250.
"Just last month, a single JPEG sold for $69 million."
Setting: digital space — bright, even
Text: "Current Bid(353 Bids) USD 60,250,000", "Extended: 0m 0s", "Price Realised USD 69,346,250", "Closed: 11 Mar 2021"
The screen transitions to a white background, then the NBA Top Shot logo appears. The scene then cuts to a basketball highlight video with accompanying text.
"Oh my God."
Setting: basketball arena — bright, artificial
People (1):
• jumping, mid-dunk, wearing red jersey and red shorts, short, dark hair — focused
Text: "TOP SHOT", "PASCAL SIAKAM, DUNK, Jan 29 2021", "Toronto Raptors", "Sacramento Kings"
The screen rapidly cuts between a news article headline about LeBron James's NFT selling for $208,000, and Johnny Harris speaking. Then, a collage of the previously shown NFTs appears with their prices.
"The NBA is selling little moments of basketball games for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is all sorts of digital things that people are purchasing a version of them for lots of money."
Setting: digital space to home office — bright, even to natural light, soft ambient light
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "LeBron James Lakers Highlight Sells for Record $208K on NBA Top Shot", "TIMOTHY RAPP", "FEBRUARY 23, 2021", "$69,346,250", "$631,875", "$208,000", "$2,915,835"
A black and white clip shows a man operating a cash register, then counting money.
Setting: store counter — artificial, direct
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing suit jacket and tie and not visible, short, dark hair — smiling
Johnny Harris speaks, then the screen cuts to a black background where the letters 'N', 'F', and 'T' appear one by one, with glitch effects and images of news anchors and Johnny Harris filling the letters.
"There are three simple letters that you need to understand to understand what's going on here. Those letters are NFT."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to dark
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "N", "F", "T"
The video rapidly cuts between various news anchors and individuals asking what an NFT is, interspersed with quick flashes of digital art, financial charts, and a man in a Robin costume from SNL. The scene then returns to Johnny Harris.
"What the hell's an NFT? What exactly is an NFT? So-called NFT. Y'all in the chat understand what an NFT is? Like does that stand for not safe for work? What is this what is this mean? Why would you pay for an NFT when you can look at it for free? Is this a gigantic bubble just waiting to burst? I believe in this space with my whole heart. I'm just fascinated by it, all of it."
Setting: news studio to home office — bright, even to natural light, soft ambient light
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "ABC NEWS PRIME", "IMMIGRATION CRISIS", "UNACCOMPANIED MINORS ARRIVE AT TEXAS CONVENTION CENTER", "NEWS LIVE", "HOOP STREAMS", "WHAT IS AN NFT?", "BUSINESS", "NFT: THE DIGITAL COLLECTABLE CRAZE", "LIVE", "DIGITAL ARTWORK SELLS FOR A STAGGERING $69M", "NEW THIS MORNING", "BREAKING DOWN NFTS", "UNDERSTANDING NEWEST POP CULTURE PHENOMENON", "TECH", "CNBC", "FEWOCIOUS", "Digital artist"
Johnny Harris speaks, then the screen cuts to a Nyan Cat GIF with its price, followed by Jack Dorsey's tweet with its price. The scene then transitions to a series of black and white and color clips depicting human brains, cash registers, old computers, data centers, melting glaciers, hurricanes, and crashing waves, illustrating the impact of technology and climate change.
"This story is much bigger than a $600,000 cat GIF. Or a $3 million tweet. It's a story about human psychology and how the way we value things is shifting because of technology. A technology that some people think may revolutionize our society while at the same time accelerating the climate disaster."
Setting: home office to digital space to data center to ocean and mountains — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even to artificial to natural
People (2):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
• standing, looking at machine, wearing white shirt and not visible, dark, short hair — neutral
Text: "$631,875", "NYAN CAT", "$2,915,835", "ORIGINAL TWEET", "CASH", "Dollars Cents", "GMA"
Johnny Harris speaks directly to the camera, gesturing with his hands. He looks serious and engaged.
"It's really nuts. It's all of these things together and I want to explain it to you. So let's do this."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
A series of quick cuts showing different people asking about NFTs, including a man in a Robin costume from SNL, a financial news anchor, the Nyan Cat GIF, a basketball highlight, and a man in a car. The phrase 'WTF IS AN NFT' appears on a black screen, composed of various digital artworks.
"What the hell's an NFT? What exactly is an NFT? So-called NFT. Y'all in the chat understand what an NFT is? Like does that stand for not safe for work? What is this what is this mean? Why would you pay for an NFT when you can look at it for free? Is this a gigantic bubble just waiting to burst? I believe in this space with my whole heart. I'm just fascinated by it, all of it."
Setting: studio to financial newsroom to digital space to city street — bright, artificial to bright, artificial to dark to city lights
People (3):
• dancing, gesturing, wearing red and green Robin costume and red shorts, bald hair — smiling, energetic
• sitting at a desk, wearing suit jacket and white shirt and not visible, bald hair — serious, looking at papers
• sitting in a car, wearing red and green Robin costume and not visible, bald hair — energetic, talking
Text: ""SNL"/Mar. 27, 2021", "coindesk.tv", "NFT", "BITCOIN/USD COINBASE", "47,660.50 +2,837.25 [+6.33%]", "S&P, NASDAQ HIT RECORD HIGHS WEDNESDAY BEFORE CLOSING LOWER", "MARKET ALERT", "WTF IS AN NFT"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The words 'NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN' appear on screen, then disappear, and Johnny Harris looks around, then back at the camera.
"NFT stands for non-fungible token. Okay, there it is. That's the explanation. Non-fungible token, makes sense, right? So the video's over now."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN"
Johnny Harris shakes his head and explains his frustration with the jargon surrounding NFTs, gesturing with his hands. The screen then transitions to a black background with text.
"No. One of my issues with this topic is that people throw around things like blockchain, crypto art, ledger, NFT, and they just expect me to understand what they're talking about and I and I didn't."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to dark
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — frustrated, shaking head
Text: "BUT FIRST", "AD BREAK"
The words 'AD BREAK' expand and move towards the viewer, then fade to black.
Setting: digital space — dark
Text: "AD BREAK"
Johnny Harris reappears, looking directly at the camera. The scene then cuts to a sleek gray Tesla car.
"Okay, I'm going to talk about a Tesla for a second."
Setting: home office to garage — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, artificial
People (1):
• sitting upright, wearing striped button-up shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
The video shows close-ups of the Tesla's customized wheels, the tan leather interior, and the infotainment screen displaying a fireplace animation.
"Customized by Unplugged Performance to be the most unique and high-quality Tesla there is."
Setting: car interior — artificial, warm
Text: "Omaze"
Johnny Harris reappears, speaking with wide eyes. The scene then cuts to a black and white clip of a man operating a cash register and counting money.
"Oh, and it's not just a Tesla, it's also $20,000."
Setting: home office to store counter — natural light, soft ambient light to artificial, direct
People (2):
• sitting upright, wearing striped button-up shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — wide-eyed, surprised
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing suit jacket and tie and not visible, short, dark hair — smiling
Johnny Harris speaks directly to the camera. The Omaze logo appears on a black background, with the website address below it. The Tesla car is subtly visible in the background.
"You can enter for a chance to win the Tesla and $20,000 by going to Omaze.com/johnnyharris."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to dark
People (1):
• sitting upright, wearing striped button-up shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "Omaze", "OMAZE.COM/JOHNNYHARRIS"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to a series of clips showing children and adults involved in various community and environmental activities, including a group huddle, a recycling machine, and solar panel installation.
"When you donate $10 or more, your donation goes to support two nonprofits. 501C3 is the first one. They are an organization that seeks to mobilize the next generation to fight climate change by creating a global community that embraces low-carbon culture."
Setting: home office to community center to rural village — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, artificial to bright, artificial to natural, sunny
People (3):
• sitting upright, wearing striped button-up shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
• huddled together, wearing various t-shirts and not visible, short, dark hair — smiling, engaged
• standing, working, wearing t-shirt with vest and not visible, dark, styled up hair — focused
Text: "kindhumans"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The Give Power logo appears, then the screen cuts to clips of hands catching clean water, a Give Power facility, people drinking water, and solar panels being installed in various global locations.
"The other one is called Give Power, which seeks to give clean drinkable water to the 2.2 billion people around the world who do not have safe access to clean water. The nonprofit uses its deep solar expertise to power and provide clean water, food security, and light to regions around the world."
Setting: home office to rural village to outdoor market — natural light, soft ambient light to natural, sunny
People (3):
• sitting upright, wearing striped button-up shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
• drinking, thumbs up, wearing green t-shirt and not visible, dark, short hair — smiling, drinking
• standing, smiling, wearing green t-shirt and not visible, dark, short hair — smiling
Text: "givepower", "CLEAN WATER FOR 15,780 PEOPLE EVERY DAY", "CLEAN WATER FOR 35,000 PEOPLE EVERY DAY"
Johnny Harris speaks directly to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The Omaze website address appears on screen.
"So, to potentially win a Tesla and $20,000 and to support these organizations, go to Omaze.com/johnnyharris to find out more."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing striped button-up shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "OMAZE.COM/JOHNNYHARRIS"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The word 'FUNGIBLE' appears on a white background, then its definition is displayed below.
"So, fungible. Let's talk about the word fungible. It's this very specific word that economists use. It has a very precise definition."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "FUNGIBLE", "(OF GOODS CONTRACTED FOR WITHOUT AN INDIVIDUAL SPECIMEN BEING SPECIFIED) REPLACEABLE BY ANOTHER IDENTICAL ITEM; MUTUALLY INTERCHANGEABLE."
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, then the screen cuts to the word 'REPLACEABLE' appearing, then 'NON-REPLACEABLE' below 'NON-FUNGIBLE'. Finally, a picture of the Mona Lisa appears with 'NON-REPLACEABLE' below it.
"I want to use a different word for fungible for a second. Let's just use the word replaceable. Non-fungible means non-replaceable. You can't replace it. There's only one of them. It's unique. Non-fungible."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• sitting upright, leaning slightly forward, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "REPLACEABLE", "NON-FUNGIBLE", "NON-REPLACEABLE"
Johnny Harris speaks, then leans down and retrieves a pile of orange jackets from below the counter. He then stands up holding one of the jackets.
"Let me give you an example of something I feel very strongly about."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• sitting, then standing, then leaning over counter, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — smiling, enthusiastic
Johnny Harris holds up an orange jacket, then places it on the counter with others. He then picks up another jacket, and then two more, showing a pile of identical orange jackets.
"Let's say you want to buy an orange jacket."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, focused
Johnny Harris holds up two identical orange jackets, then places them back on the pile. He looks slightly amused.
"People send these to me, okay? This is really absurd. I've actually never counted these before. Um."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing light gray jacket over white t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — smiling, amused
Text: "PEOPLE SEND THESE TO ME OK?"
A black and white clip shows Michael Jordan looking serious. The screen then cuts to an orange Uniqlo jacket with a '$39' price tag. Three identical jackets are then shown, and Johnny Harris returns to the screen, gesturing with his hands over the pile of jackets.
"Stop it. Get some help. You want to buy an orange jacket from Uniqlo. You go on the internet and a jacket costs $39. If you purchase one of these jackets for $39, you don't care what specific jacket they send to you. They're going to make thousands of jackets in your size, send them to stores, send them to people, and they will send one to you. You don't care which one it is. The jacket is fungible. It's replaceable. As long as you get one that's identical to the rest, it's worth the same to you. They're interchangeable."
Setting: studio to digital space to home office — dark to bright, even to natural light, soft ambient light
People (2):
• sitting, wearing light suit jacket and not visible, short, dark hair — serious
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "UNIQLO", "$39", "FUNGIBLE"
Johnny Harris speaks, then picks up one of the orange jackets from the pile, holding it up and looking at it with affection. The scene then cuts to a montage of him wearing the jacket in various outdoor and travel settings.
"However, let's talk about one Uniqlo orange jacket that has been with me for a very long time."
Setting: home office to various outdoor and indoor locations — natural light, soft ambient light to natural, sunny to artificial to natural, sunny to overcast
People (2):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — smiling, affectionate
• walking, looking at scenery, wearing orange puffer jacket and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — looking around, smiling
Johnny Harris puts on the orange jacket, then speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The screen cuts to a close-up of his face, then back to him. The Uniqlo jacket with a '$39' price tag and three identical jackets are shown again, then a picture of the Mona Lisa with 'NON-REPLACEABLE' below it. Johnny Harris continues to speak, emphasizing his points with hand gestures.
"This is the original. And for those of you who don't know, I sort of have a strange attachment to this jacket. I just love it. I love the color. I like feel like an identity with this thing. And it's sort of starting to disintegrate, but I love it. And I kind of fell in love. This jacket is not replaceable. If I went onto the website and paid $39 for a Uniqlo orange jacket that was this exact same model, it would not be this jacket. This jacket is non-fungible. It is the only one on the planet that exists. It has emotional value. It has significance. It is a very valuable thing because it is scarce. There is only one of them. It's valuable to me at least. And I kind of fell in love."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — smiling, passionate
Text: "UNIQLO", "$39", "NON-REPLACEABLE"
Johnny Harris takes off the orange jacket, then speaks to the camera. The screen cuts to a white background with 'NON-FUNGIBLE' above 'FUNGIBLE'. A sack of rice appears below 'FUNGIBLE', then the Mona Lisa painting appears below 'NON-FUNGIBLE'. Money bills fall from the top of the screen.
"Okay. We can put these down for a second. Everything in our economy is one or the other. Fungible or non-fungible. A sack of rice is fungible. You just want a sack of rice. You don't care which one it is. The Mona Lisa, non-fungible. There's only one. Unsurprisingly, non-fungible things are way more valuable than fungible things."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "NON-FUNGIBLE", "FUNGIBLE"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The words 'NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN' appear on screen, then 'TOKEN' is highlighted. Johnny Harris continues to speak, looking serious.
"So that's the NF in NFT. Non-fungible. Now let's talk about the T, which is token. This is a very internetty word."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN", "TOKEN"
Johnny Harris speaks, looking serious. He then sighs dramatically. The word 'BLOCKCHAIN' appears on screen, then disappears, and Johnny Harris looks at the camera again.
"And to explain this, I have to explain something I have avoided explaining for a very long time. The blockchain."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to dark
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, sighing
Text: "THE BLOCKCHAIN"
Johnny Harris speaks directly to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The screen then cuts to a cartoon head of Johnny Harris and three slices of pizza, representing a transaction with Anna Wintour.
"Luckily, there's a way to understand this, and I'm going to make it as painless as possible."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, light brown, short beard hair — neutral
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, short, blonde bob hair — neutral
Text: "PIZZA"
The screen shows Johnny Harris's and Anna Wintour's heads, with pizza and a price. A debit card appears, then the Bank of America logo. Johnny Harris's account details are displayed, showing a $6 transaction.
"Anna charges me $6 for my three slices of pizza. I don't use cash anymore. So I pull out my debit card, my bank card, and I swipe on her little terminal. As soon as I swipe this card, a message is sent to my bank. And it says, "Hey, Johnny, who has an account at your bank, wants to spend $6 on pizza, and that money needs to go to Anna's bank.""
Setting: digital space — bright, even
People (2):
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, light brown, short beard hair — neutral
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, short, blonde bob hair — neutral
Text: "$6", "PIZZA", "BANK OF AMERICA", "ACCOUNT NAME JOHNNY HARRIS", "$6?"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to Johnny Harris's account details, showing a balance of $50, then a green checkmark appears as $6 is deducted, leaving $44. Anna Wintour's account details are then shown, with $6 added to her balance of $80, making it $86, with a green checkmark.
"This is like the bread and butter of what a bank does all day. They document every transaction that comes in from all their customers. They send out money to the other banks. And at the end of the day, they have a tally of all the money that went out of your account and into your account, and they can give you a number. They can say, "Based on all of these transactions, you have $50 in your bank account." And so when that request comes in as I swipe my card, my bank is like, "Okay, so based on all of your transactions, you have $50 in your account. I can send $6 to Anna's bank." Approved. And they approved the transaction."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, light brown, short beard hair — neutral
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, short, blonde bob hair — neutral
Text: "ACCOUNT NAME JOHNNY HARRIS", "SALARY +$1200", "RENT -$800", "FOOD -$200", "TRANSPORT -$50", "ORANGE JACKETS -$100", "BALANCE $50", "$6?", "BALANCE $44", "TD Bank", "ACCOUNT NAME ANNA WINTOUR", "PIZZA SALE +$6", "BALANCE $80"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to a black and white clip of a woman typing on an old computer, then a shot of a data center, then hands sifting through leaves, then counting money.
"Once that money comes into Anna's bank, Anna's bank is doing the same thing. They're like, "Oh, cool, she had $80, and now she has $86." And they add it to her record. More and more, your money is just a number on a screen. It's the result of a bunch of transactions. You don't barter with physical things, and you don't use cash as much."
Setting: home office to office to data center to forest — natural light, soft ambient light to artificial to dark to natural
People (2):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• sitting, typing, wearing patterned shirt and not visible, dark, short hair — focused
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to Johnny Harris's account details, then a Wall Street sign, then a stock exchange floor with traders looking worried, then news headlines about financial crises, and finally a news reporter talking about Wall Street turmoil.
"So, the bank keeping meticulous records of every transaction becomes really important. We trust the bank to do this correctly. So thank you, banks. Banks and other middlemen have been keeping stuff like this running smoothly for centuries. I mean, kind of smoothly. The Nasdaq, everything and more has been. Worst day on Wall Street. What in the world is happening on Wall Street?"
Setting: home office to Wall Street to stock exchange to news studio — natural light, soft ambient light to natural to artificial to artificial
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• standing, wearing suit and tie and not visible, short, dark hair — worried, hand over mouth
• standing, wearing suit jacket and blouse and not visible, dark brown, shoulder-length hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "ACCOUNT NAME JOHNNY HARRIS", "SALARY +$1200", "RENT -$800", "FOOD -$200", "TRANSPORT -$50", "ORANGE JACKETS -$100", "BALANCE $50", "WALL ST", "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL", "Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill Is Sold, AIG Seeks to Raise Cash", "The New York Times", "DEFIANT HOUSE REJECTS HUGE BAILOUT; STOCKS PLUNGE; NEXT STEP IS UNCERTAIN", "AT THE CLOSE", "Market Turmoil", "New Rules", "Dynegy CEO"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The screen then cuts to Johnny Harris's and Anna Wintour's heads, with pizza and a price, representing a transaction without a bank.
"There've been a few bumps in the road. With the rise of the internet, people started to wonder, "Is there a way that we could do this same thing, coordinate this transaction of transfer of money between two people without the bank?""
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, light brown, short beard hair — neutral
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, short, blonde bob hair — neutral
Text: "$6?", "PIZZA"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The words 'THE BLOCKCHAIN' appear on screen, then disappear. The screen then cuts to Johnny Harris's and Anna Wintour's heads, with pizza and a price, representing a transaction. A public ledger appears, showing a list of encrypted transactions, with Johnny Harris's transaction highlighted.
"The result is a very clever concept called the blockchain. The blockchain fulfills the same thing the bank was doing. But instead of doing this privately on my bank account and talking to Anna's bank, all of the transactions are actually recorded publicly on the internet."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, light brown, short beard hair — neutral
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, short, blonde bob hair — neutral
Text: "THE BLOCKCHAIN", "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B6 ANNA WINTOUR (ENCRYPTED)"
A black and white clip shows a young boy happily typing on a computer, then giving a thumbs up. The scene cuts back to Johnny Harris speaking.
"on the internet. So let's redo this example in a crypto world."
Setting: office to home office — artificial to natural light, soft ambient light
People (2):
• sitting, typing, wearing light blue polo shirt and not visible, blonde, short hair — smiling, giving thumbs up
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
The screen shows Johnny Harris's and Anna Wintour's heads, with pizza and a price in crypto coins. A crypto card appears. Johnny Harris speaks, then the public ledger with encrypted transactions appears, highlighting Johnny Harris's transaction.
"Anna charges me six crypto coins for my three slices of pizza. I go to swipe my proverbial bank card to say, "Yes, I want to pay you six coins." Instead of the bank seeing that request for a transaction and trying to validate it, it goes onto this public record where a bunch of people's computers all around the world are keeping track of every single transaction of everyone, always."
Setting: digital space — bright, even
People (2):
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, light brown, short beard hair — neutral
• static head, wearing not visible and not visible, short, blonde bob hair — neutral
Text: "B6", "PIZZA", "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B6 ANNA WINTOUR (ENCRYPTED)"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The public ledger is shown again, with Johnny Harris's transaction highlighted in red and marked as rejected. The scene then cuts to Johnny Harris again, speaking with a confident expression.
"If I don't indeed have the six coins in my account to pay Anna, all of the people's computers who are keeping track of every single transaction will notice that there's a discrepancy. They'll be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, you don't have six coins. We're looking at every transaction ever, and you don't have six coins. Your transaction is rejected.""
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) BALANCE B10", "ANONYMOUS MALAYSIAN (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B62 JACK DORSEY (ENCRYPTED)", "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B6 ANNA WINTOUR (ENCRYPTED)"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The public ledger is shown again, with Johnny Harris's transaction highlighted in green and marked as approved. The scene then cuts to Johnny Harris taking off his orange jacket, looking hot.
"If I do have six coins, all of the computers looking at the public record will see that request for a transaction and they'll be like, "Yep, approved. You have six coins, and now Anna has six coins." And they'll write that transaction into the public record. Now Anna, having those six extra coins, is now the business of everybody. Everybody now knows that. The point here is that the group verifies the legitimacy of every transaction by keeping an eye on every transaction to make sure that it adds up."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing orange puffer jacket over white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B6 ANNA WINTOUR (ENCRYPTED)"
Johnny Harris takes off his orange puffer jacket, then runs his hands through his hair, looking a bit flustered.
"Okay, I'm getting hot at this point, so I'm taking off my orange jacket."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — flustered, running hands through hair
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The screen then cuts to the Nyan Cat GIF, which is animated and flying across a starry blue background.
"Okay. So you're wondering, what does the blockchain and this public record have anything to do with cat GIFs that sell for $600,000?"
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, artificial
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The public ledger is shown again, with various transactions highlighted in green. Johnny Harris continues to speak, gesturing with his hands.
"Well, I'm about to tell you. So, in my pizza example, we talked about blockchain as a way to verify currency transaction. I pay you this much, you pay me this much, and everybody knows how much everybody has because it's all public."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B6 ANNA WINTOUR (ENCRYPTED)"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, looking thoughtful. He then gestures with his hands, emphasizing his point.
"But this is where it starts to bend my mind a little bit. What if we apply this to something that isn't money or currency?"
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — thoughtful, direct gaze
The public ledger is shown again, with various transactions highlighted in green. A new transaction is highlighted in yellow, showing an 'ANONYMOUS MALAYSIAN' transferring coins to 'JACK DORSEY'. The Twitter logo appears next to Jack Dorsey's name.
"Let's say one day you're just looking at the ledger. And the ledger's like, "Johnny wants to give Anna six coins." Okay, he's got six coins. Approved. And then a transaction comes up that's like, "A Malaysian businessman wants to give $3 million worth of coins to Jack Dorsey in exchange for a little token or digital certificate that says that the tweet is now somehow owned by the Malaysian businessman.""
Setting: digital space — bright, even
Text: "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) BALANCE B10", "ANONYMOUS MALAYSIAN (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B62 JACK DORSEY (ENCRYPTED)"
The screen shows the public ledger, highlighting the Malaysian businessman's balance and then his transaction with Jack Dorsey, which is approved. The Twitter logo appears next to Jack Dorsey's name. The words 'NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN' and 'NFT' appear on screen, then Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, looking thoughtful.
"The only thing that the blockchain cares about is, "Does the Malaysian businessman have $3 million worth of coins?" And so a bunch of computers all around the world look at the whole entire list of transactions and say like, "Yeah, this guy has more than $3 million worth of coins." Approved. They approved the transaction. And now it is written in a public record that is unalterable, that says that this Malaysian businessman owns this tweet. The token has been transferred to somebody new. Non-fungible token. NFT. And if there's anything that gets human psychology to value something, it's if an entire group validates that it's real and that there's only one of them."
Setting: digital space to home office — bright, even to natural light, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "ANONYMOUS MALAYSIAN (ENCRYPTED) BALANCE B1000", "ANONYMOUS MALAYSIAN (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B62 JACK DORSEY (ENCRYPTED)", "NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN", "NFT"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to a series of news articles about NFTs, including music releases, digital art sales, and NBA Top Shot highlights. A basketball highlight video is shown, followed by a split screen of news anchors discussing NFTs.
"There are tens of thousands of NFTs of all kinds. Some music is being given tokens. Lots of art is being minted as tokens and being bought and sold. And then, of course, there's uh NBA Top Shot, who's taking advantage of this. These highlight moments, these top shot moments from your favorite NBA players have been turned into non-fungible tokens. Jesse made headlines the other day when he paid $208,000 for LeBron James Top Shot."
Setting: home office to digital space to basketball arena to news studio — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even to artificial to artificial
People (4):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• sitting, leaning slightly forward, wearing black t-shirt with red 'H' logo and not visible, short, dark, curly hair — smiling
• sitting, leaning slightly forward, wearing pink blazer over black t-shirt and not visible, bald hair — smiling, looking up
• sitting, leaning slightly forward, wearing black jacket with white trim and not visible, short, dark hair — smiling
Text: "RollingStone", "Kings of Leon Will Be the First Band to Release an Album as an NFT", "VULTURE", "Dispatches From the NFT Art Boom", "Single pixel of digital-only art sold for more than $1.7 million at Sotheby's", "What Are NFTs, Anyway? One Just Sold for $69 Million.", "DEANDRE JORDAN, DUNK, FEB 10 2021", "Brooklyn Nets", "Indiana Pacers", "JESSE SCHWARZ", "LeBron James Lakers Highlight Sells for Record $208K on NBA Top Shot"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to a series of black and white clips depicting basic human needs being met, such as a nurse serving food, a man getting dressed, and a woman buying shoes. Finally, a man is shown receiving a baseball glove, highlighting the psychological value of objects.
"It's the weirdest thing. As soon as humans have enough abundance and have their basic needs met, food, shelter, warmth, et cetera, the next frontier is to create value in things that have no inherent value. The value turns into psychological hype, excitement around a certain thing."
Setting: home office to hospital room to bedroom to store — natural light, soft ambient light to artificial to artificial to artificial
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• standing, serving, wearing nurse uniform and not visible, dark, short hair — smiling
• sitting, receiving, wearing sweater and not visible, dark, short hair — smiling
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to a series of black and white clips depicting artists and art galleries, including a painter working on a canvas and people admiring artworks.
"We've been doing that forever. I mean, that's the whole art industry is based on the idea of a bunch of people deciding that this painting, this little bit of canvas and wood and paint is valuable, and thus it is valuable."
Setting: home office to art studio to art gallery — natural light, soft ambient light to artificial, dramatic to bright, artificial
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• standing, painting, wearing shirtless and not visible, bald hair — focused
• standing, looking at art, wearing suit and tie and not visible, dark, short hair — admiring
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. He looks serious and engaged.
"The only difference about now is we now have the technology to do this in a non-physical way, using this very sophisticated internet technology that is maturing very quickly."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. He looks serious and engaged.
"Okay, so this is a lot of hype, and I know you're probably thinking, like, "Cool, there's a bunch of rich people online buying and trading digital art, and there's millions of dollars worth of cards. I thought you said that this was going to have the potential to change the world.""
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The public ledger is shown again, with various transactions highlighted in green. The Twitter logo appears next to Jack Dorsey's name, and the Malaysian businessman's balance is displayed.
"And I'm getting there, but first I need to talk about the crazy flip side to the NFT fad. The reality is that the technology that is the backbone for all of this, the the blockchain stuff that we've been talking about, relies on the public ledger thing that I talked about. Like that is the sort of heart and soul conceptually."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "ANONYMOUS MALAYSIAN (ENCRYPTED) BALANCE B938", "JOHNNY HARRIS (ENCRYPTED) TRANSFER B6 ANNA WINTOUR (ENCRYPTED)"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The screen then cuts to a series of clips showing data centers and people working on computer servers, emphasizing the physical infrastructure behind blockchain.
"But mechanically, like physically, what it relies on is computers doing a bunch of little calculations all day and night forever."
Setting: home office to data center — natural light, soft ambient light to artificial, bright
People (2):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• standing, working, wearing blue hoodie and not visible, dark, short hair — focused
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The Ethereum logo appears on screen, then text stating its electricity consumption. A map of Serbia is then shown, highlighting the country's outline.
"Most NFTs are stored on a blockchain called Ethereum. And as of now, in early April 2021, when I'm filming this, the Ethereum blockchain is using 33 terawatt-hours of electricity. And you're like, "What's a terawatt-hour of electricity?" That's the same amount of power as the country of Serbia."
Setting: home office to digital space — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
Text: "ethereum", "33 TWH OF ELECTRICITY"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera. The screen then cuts to a power plant emitting smoke, then a global map showing carbon emissions over time, then a glacier calving, and finally large waves crashing on a shore.
"A reminder that generating electricity usually comes from power plants that are burning fossil fuels that are putting carbon into the atmosphere, which is a big, freaking problem. Causing a man-made disaster on a global scale."
Setting: home office to power plant to global view to ocean — natural light, soft ambient light to natural, sunny to dark to overcast
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Text: "Mar 2013", "Aug 2013", "Jan 2014"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, looking serious. The Ethereum logo appears, then a graph showing the exponential increase in Ethereum's energy consumption. The screen then cuts to a series of clips showing data centers and people working on computer servers, emphasizing the physical infrastructure behind blockchain. A black and white clip shows a young boy happily typing on a computer, then giving a thumbs up. Johnny Harris looks frustrated, running his hands through his hair, then gestures with his hands. The scene then cuts to a glacier calving.
"The power consumption of the Ethereum blockchain is exploding. It is just it quadrupled in like eight months, and it is showing no sign of slowing down. It is a lot of energy. And to think that that much energy is not being used to like move people around or produce things, it's used to like crunch numbers in a weird computer warehouse somewhere so that somebody can buy a fake token of a thing that we only Oh, man, I just I can't. It's just it's mind-blowing. It's such an ironic moment where it's like, "This is all digital. It's all fake. It's not real." But it's having deeply real-world effects."
Setting: home office to digital space to data center to office to ocean — natural light, soft ambient light to bright, even to artificial, bright to artificial to natural
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
• standing, working, wearing blue hoodie and not visible, dark, short hair — focused
• sitting, typing, wearing light blue polo shirt and not visible, blonde, short hair — smiling, giving thumbs up
Text: "ethereum", "Ethereum Energy Consumption Index Chart", "Click and drag in the plot area to zoom in", "2019", "2020", "2021"
A glacier calves into the ocean, creating a large splash. Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands.
"Ouch. Oh my God. I just I want to finish this video now. Talking about what this might mean for our world going forward."
Setting: ocean to home office — natural, sunny to natural light, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The screen then cuts to a series of black and white clips depicting people interacting with early computer technology and stock market displays, illustrating the excitement and speculation around new technologies.
"This is definitely hype, and that's the whole point. I mean, these speculation markets are all about hype. We see this all the time with new technologies and new things that people get excited about, and they swarm it with their investments and the price goes up, and then something happens. For example,"
Setting: home office to exhibition hall to stock exchange — natural light, soft ambient light to artificial, bright to artificial, dim
People (3):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• standing, interacting with display, wearing light shirt and not visible, dark, short hair — smiling
• standing, wearing suit and tie and not visible, dark, short hair — neutral
A montage of clips from the 1990s and early 2000s, including scenes from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Seinfeld," old Yahoo! commercials, and news reports about the dot-com bubble. The stock market is shown surging, then crashing, with headlines about the bubble bursting.
"Come on, Uncle Phil, it's the 90s, man. What's a web page? Something ducks lock on. Of equal value. So cash in on today's new accounts. Man, it's the 90s. It's hammer time. In the 90s, the internet was taking off, and people were just realizing that you could like make money on the internet. You could like make big businesses on the internet. The stock market was surging, 400% in five years, mainly fueled by so much hype and excitement around these new internet companies. Break the record as America's longest boom. The new economy. Is it a boom without end? This rise peaked in March of 2000, and then the bubble burst, and a lot of these companies either went under or completely lost all of this excitement valuation that they had. Sorry, didn't you? It was down some."
Setting: kitchen to digital space to office to kitchen — natural to dark to natural to artificial
People (5):
• standing, talking, wearing white and red striped shirt and not visible, short, dark hair — animated, talking
• walking, wearing dark suit and tie and not visible, bald hair — serious, walking away
• sitting, looking at computer, wearing striped t-shirt and not visible, short, dark hair — smiling
• standing, talking, wearing green t-shirt with stripes and not visible, short, dark hair — smiling, talking
• standing, talking, wearing patterned shirt and not visible, dark, styled up hair — animated, talking
Text: "Yahoo!", "www.yahoo.com", "Web Page", "NEWCOM", "Dow's Dazzling Decade", "CNN", "THE NEW ECONOMY", "BOOM WITH NO BUST", "THE NEW ECONOMY: BOOM WITHOUT END?", "The Dot-Com Bubble Bursts"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. He looks serious and engaged. He then explains how NFTs are changing the way we validate and verify things.
"But did that mean that the internet went away? Did that mean that internet businesses didn't come back? No. Companies went on to reshape our world. Right now, I think we are probably in that stage of NFTs. It's hype, it's novel, it's exciting. But what it's doing is it's pushing our minds to think differently about how we validate and verify things."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — serious, direct gaze
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. The screen then cuts to a series of black and white clips depicting the process of buying a house, including a 'Model Home' sign, financial statements, a handshake between two men, and paperwork being exchanged.
"If I buy a house, there is a whole thick stack of paperwork and a bunch of middlemen to make sure that it is very clear who owns the house and how that money gets transferred from one person to another. It is like a nightmare of an experience. If suddenly technology existed that took away the centralized middleman and made transactions between people able to be authenticated, verifiable, and much smoother, that could change our world."
Setting: home office to suburban street to office — natural light, soft ambient light to natural, sunny to artificial
People (2):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — neutral, direct gaze
• standing, shaking hands, wearing suit and tie and not visible, dark, short hair — smiling
Text: "Model Home", "FINANCIAL STATEMENT", "LOAN DEPARTMENT"
Johnny Harris speaks to the camera, gesturing with his hands. He looks thoughtful and engaged.
"I'm not here to say if the bubble's going to burst or whatever. I don't know. I just know that this is a crazy moment where we're getting our heads around a new technology and what it means. And eventually, we'll adapt. This won't be crazy. This won't be novel anymore. Prices will go down, but the technology that allowed it all to happen will probably stick around."
Setting: home office — natural light from windows, soft ambient light
People (1):
• standing, leaning over counter, wearing white long-sleeve t-shirt and not visible, light brown, styled up, short beard hair — thoughtful, direct gaze
The screen fades to black, and text appears crediting Tom Fox for the music in the video.
Setting: digital space — dark
Text: "TOM FOX MADE THE MUSIC FOR THIS VIDEO", "HE'S REALLY GOOD AND CAN MAKE MUSIC FOR YOUR VIDEOS TOO", "TFBEATS.COM"