Home » How Earth 2 works, the copy of the Earth for sale pixel by pixel

How Earth 2 works, the copy of the Earth for sale pixel by pixel

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In one of his most famous films, Totò scam 62, the prince of laughter sells the Trevi Fountain to a naive Italian-American tourist. Sixty years later, we can do as Totò and buy and resell the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Vittoriano and other monuments, in blocks of ten by ten meters. Buy and sell them seriously and with real money, but in a virtual way, on Earth 2, the “digital double” of our planet, created by an Anglo-Australian start-up with the aim of creating what is called a “metaverse”.

What is Earth 2
Metaverses are virtual worlds shared via the Internet, like those in which gamers face each other online. The term metaverse was coined in 1992 by an American science fiction author who is also very popular in our country, Neal Stephenson, in the book Snow Crash. That of Earth 2 it is a parallel world that replicates the Earth in blocks of 100 square meters. It is a virtual map of the planet, on a one-to-one scale, which includes everything that is present in the real world. Each block is assigned a price.

Earth 2 it therefore has a very clear business model: to sell the ownership of plots of virtual land that uniquely correspond to the real one. In the beginning for a few cents of dollars, then slowly raising prices when (and if) the game becomes more popular and more and more people will invest money, aiming to resell virtual land at higher prices or to make it profitable by inserting commercial sponsorships.

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How does it work
It is necessary to register and associate a payment method to the account: Visa or Mastercard credit card, or ApplePay or bank transfer (currently PayPal does not work); then land purchases can be made, if they are free, or you can make an economic proposal to those who have already bought one. The occupied plots are marked with red cells, with a flag above, and if for sale they can be found on the marketplace. The latter is useful for understanding how the value of the cells is changing in the various parts of the virtual world: USA and South Korea, for example, are the areas where prices are rising fastest. All transactions between individuals go through Earth 2, which retains a percentage and records the change of ownership.

If for example it was decided to buy the Trevi Fountain, which in the game covers an area of ​​9 cells currently quoted at $ 16.72 each, you have to pay the managers of the game just over $ 150. If, on the other hand, the monument was already owned by someone else, an offer should be made.

What are the risks
Earth 2 it looks like a form of speculation: on the Net it has been compared to the Bitcoin phenomenon, when valuations were initially very low. And in some ways, the comparison holds up: the total of Bitcoins is a finite number, as well as the number of cells present on our planet. Precisely for this, however, we must be very careful.

There are various risks: first of all, whoever sells his virtual land must have a current account in the US to collect the money, with all the bureaucratic and fiscal complications that this entails; then, as with all speculative activities on the Net, there is absolutely no guarantee that, once the initial enthusiasm has passed, there is someone really interested in buying the land already owned by the people. If this were not the case, the money spent to buy the Trevi Fountain would not be able to generate any income.

Furthermore, it should be emphasized that that of Earth 2 it is not a regulated market (such as the stock exchanges) or protected (such as banking or insurance services) and is therefore comparable to a form of digital gambling or rather unsustainable pyramid marketing: only the former earn, while most small investors register a net loss, trivially because there are no more buyers.

There is also a risk of fraud on the part of those who manage Earth 2, if the company were to collect the initial transactions and then close the service by dissolving the company; there is no guarantee of return or otherwise protection of the “investments” made. Finally, there is a risk that Earth 2 refuses to honor the debts by not paying the money into the player’s real checking account.

The dream in the face of speculation
There is a utopian “dream” that acts as a fig leaf to the idea of ​​the great digital speculation: it is to create another world that is the mirror of ours, a digital universe in which to realize dreams and desires, projects and aspirations. A virtual world in which, in the future, not only to invest, but also to transfer life and sensations. Earth 2 in fact, he declares that he wants to face 2 phases: the first is the launch of the site, with the platform for online trading of virtual portions of the Earth and is the part currently active, which allows you to explore, sell and above all buy with real money.

The second phase will begin later, with the creation of the actual metaverse and the apps. The developers have not yet clarified whether they will be applications for computers and smartphones or real ones virtual reality environments for use with headsets such as Oculus and HoloLens. In any case, this “promised virtual land” intends to offer users the possibility of moving around, interacting with others and wanting to modify the spaces purchased. And so the Trevi Fountain could become a multi-storey car park, or even an oak forest.

Bottom line: it is very dangerous
As mentioned, the developers of Earth 2 for now they have only worked on the Web version, graphically very poor: it seems to be navigating on Google Maps. If it were a board game, this would be there phase in which the pieces are arranged on the map, paying for the right to do so. But the game only makes sense if there is really a phase 2, in which to interact and assign a utility or a form of pleasure to the economic value, that is, to the price paid for the cells of the virtual Earth. For now there is no idea how and when this will ever happen.

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