Shane: Had immense pressure to do ICO (Dev Chat)

Earth 2 released its first Vlog video as Shane stepped in discord to talk about the exciting things Earth2 has been working on, to realize its ultimate vision for a 1:1 scaled digital Earth.

Shane interacted with E2 users for over 3 hours (probably the longest ever), patiently waiting for the questions to exhaust.

Key take-aways and full transcript are below. (Certain parts have been edited due to the length of the chat to make the transcript more digestible)

Key Take-aways

• Shane - 'Building a 3D interactive metaverse as a 1:1 digital twin of Earth'

• E2 gameplay will be easy to start, easy to experience but difficult to master and earn more

• More leaderboards are coming

• Essence listing in Q3

• Resources release waiting on the completion of the Player Validation System, potentially Q3

• New Essence algorithm likely to go live by Q2 (if not Q1)

• Multiple companies may have reached out to be inside the E2 Metaverse

• Physical cards first batch limited to 10k cards, and they will NOT be free

• Essence likely to be fractional

• Shane didn't comment on E2 hosting its own DEX in future, but didn't rule out anything

• Will be possible to trade non-E2 items within E2

• E2 is aware of the need to create anti-dumping measures for Essence by insiders

• Eggs will be tradeable once they are NFTs

• New devs have worked to improve over the old terrain system which had some flaws

• 'Wish to link E2 weather to E1' (sounds crazy yeah)

• Shane - 'Very happy with P3 dev team'

• Active bids filter is coming

Full Transcript

Yeah I don’t wanna seem like a downer but I didn’t learn much from the video

S: you didn't learn much about what you want to learn more about .. it's a dev vlog and if you listen to the voiceover (for 5 mins) you'll learn a LOT! This is very different from what we have shown before and we're using new proprietary tech we have developed .. the tech we're building is a massive bonus to all land Players own and should not be overlooked. We released a 40 page document less than 4 weeks ago regarding Essence and many other things. Let's just enjoy the releases as they come .. we're working on many things in parallel

It looked like google earth lol

S: if it looks like google earth then that is a massive compliment! This is all procedural .. we control it .. it's not satellite imagery

As I said later, the video isn’t for everyone and I personally didn't learn as much visually but you make the valid point that it is a vlog so the dialogue was the vital part

S: we have people who attack / laugh at us for 'being google maps with squares' .. we're proving them wrong and building a 3D interactive metaverse as a 1:1 digital twin of Earth. That's something to celebrate

Will building on a mountain or in the middle of the ocean be more expensive than building on flat land?

S: I can't answer that question yet - game design may kill me

Thanks for the proverbial peek under the hood. The tech is impressive, and visually it is beautiful. I am really looking forward to the up close rendering. If I may inquire. Have you gathered actionable feedback from the submissions asked for on the "Whitepaper"? Will some of the feedback be shared? Finally, for those of us who made submissions, will there be any circle back from development for follow up if anything was unclear or worth exploration?

S: yes our team is reviewing the feedback and preparing reports. We are under a lot of time constraints and have a lot of work on our shoulders. We really appreciate the feedback and I am not sure we have time to reply to contributors

Will we have to use logistics to transport our goods and resources to other places to commercialize them? If so, can we be attacked and looted in the way?

S: I would say very highly likely .. I cannot comment on the second question though

Will it be possible to buy Essence directly from the E2 website with white credit in dollars?

S: will be traded on exchanges. E2 is where you can earn it

I hope you can move though, Entropia universe you have to pay to get to places its a huge barrier

S: don't worry - I have some very interesting plans in this regard

Shane will there be more events like the egg hunt but something different?

S: do you want different events or a 3D world you can start to play in? The Egg Hunt causes minimal disruption to our team and this will be the last one in 2D

Will we be able to create anything we want on Droid Editor? Will it be like NFTs we can trade, like what they have on sandbox?

S: I love Player creation and I absolutely want to use our tech to support Player Creations they can mint and sell to others. And we're not talking normal NFTs, we're talking NFTs that work in a massive 3D world

Sorry if this has been answered before. I am wondering if you have any information available regarding Shards? I believe I read earlier that it would have more utility than today. But couldn't find anything in the Draft paper regarding this.

S: I'm sorry, I am not aware of those details. There may be plans for that but I am not aware of those plans

Please give us 3D gameplay

S: that's one of the things we're working on !

Shane early on you talked about ease of use and being easy to understand being one of the biggest focuses. With all these complex designs and plans will they gameplay and everything still be easy for the masses (casual users with limited technical knowledge)?

S: easy to start, easy to experience, difficult to master .. earning more will be difficult - it can't be easy. You'll see

What happened with the eggs released February 22? Egg hunt rules say "Winners will be announced on our Social Media accounts over the following week", yet it has been over 3 weeks since then. We didn't even have the preliminary list of winners to be challenged. Were those eggs skipped or something (because of that mistake that was made). or what

S: Eggs 3 and 4 are being challenged now I believe? I am not up to date with all the Egg Hunt stuff, I have so many other things on my plate I am sorry. From what I understand challenges are being reviewed

Complex enough to warrant a course in University?

S: not sure - maybe one day lol

Lex Fridman had a really interesting podcast with Zuckerberg - wondering if you watched it....thoughts on what they're doing and whether E2 will interact with other Metaverses / platforms?

S: you will see. I want E2 to be a key platform that provides centralize access to .. well everywhere of .. anywhere on the web that someone finds significant enough to create a portal to ..

We could also have a Leaderboard of "Burnt Essence" by player

S: interesting idea

In case you can buy Essence on Uniswap or similar DEX, have you foreseen a Liquidity Pool mechanism to guarantee the exchange?

S: we are receiving advice on liquidity pooling and many other things. We're in good hands

Will earth 2 be a survival game, and if so do you need to eat to survive etc

S: I don't have plans to force people to eat to live .. and I am almost certain game design do not as well

Is a World of Warcraft/ Runescape levelling system planned or nah? I mean like can we expect to level up "wood cutting" / "mining" , etc.?

S: I would like a level up / badge system but we have other things to focus on first

No, ya 3 and 4's challenging period ended 2 days ago. (so I guess we are getting final winner list asap) I meant eggs 5 and 6. of the 22nth of February

S: I will ask them tomorrow, but I am not keeping across the egg hunt details sorry

Hi Shane, I think Earth 2, which is pioneering a new market, is amazing. I hope it goes well in the future. I have a question, When will the 13,14,15th jewel slots open?

S: hi @i2Earth(아이투어스) - thanks for your message. Once players can manually place their Mentars

If essence is worth money, and upgrading jewels has a chance of a lesser (luminous) or more valuable (brilliant) outcome, it could be considered "gambling" in a sense (similar to loot-boxes), which is banned in some countries (such as the Netherlands). Is this something you are keeping an eye on? Furthermore, a large part of the Netherlands is technically below sea level. Will this mean it will be submerged in E2?

S: it should not be affected by sea level. We have a legal team that keeps across those things but I will pass it onto them now to ensure they are aware

if I sell essence on the DEX, is it easy and fast to buy e2 tiles with the profits? or I'll still need a cc?

S: let's see what options are available in the future

S: damn guys .. I answered so many questions the other day and there are still more lol .. every time I think I've caught up, there are more! It is cool though ..

Shane I solved Golden plates puzzle, they are class 1 tiles

S: you'll know what to do if you solve it

Has there been any advances to when or how we will get our egg NFT from last year egg hunt?

S: they will all come together, probably a little before we start minting tiles as NFTs

If we're gonna spend years on e2 I hope we can get more perks than noobs... better skills etc.

S: we are certainly looking at these things, but designing a metaverse like E2 is complicated. We need to ensure that new players also have pathways into the global E2 system

Will our avatars in e2 be like Sims in terms of needs like at least sleep and food?

S: we don't have plans for that at present. I can't rule rest periods out but not planned right now

Once 'log in' to Earth2, it is very convenient to keep the 'log in' state even when the device is turned off and on, but sometimes I feel insecure about this. Can't you make a button to 'log out' all logged-in users on other devices after 2fa authentication?

S: I will make a note

Why are the old eggs in old announcements not getting the monetary reward associated with them. I feel as though they were the hardest to find since they were never announced. I am talking about the one in your tweet and the one in the jumio announcement. I stayed persistent and found both first and I don’t even get recognition or a prize. Please advise

S: you will receive your E$ prize - I am not working on that but I will chase it up tomorrow

How many Eggs in today's #Earth2EggHunt2022?

S: you know I can't answer that

When are you going to release the e2 Mastercard? It will be free?

S: the physical cards will have perks but will not be free .. we have to pay quite a lot for each card. MasterCard don't just give them away for free

When NFT and we can play or do things

S: keep following us - we are showing progress and we want to provide 3D game play and NFT minting as soon as possible too. Check out our roadmap to get a better idea and for now, keep collecting Essence daily ..

Todays update shows that Mentars are Active, but when will they don't be active? Will we have PVP attacks that can disable our Mentars??

S: we're showing a status for now ..

Will brilliant jewels be able to provide benefits on an account wide basis for holders, or only the stated benefits for resources? For instance, holders get a benefit for something like less essence required for T2 to T1 upgrades. Please have them with additional utility!!!

S: do you happen to have one?

Shane you know some of us just want to make business here and don't have time to play PVP.. so please keep a safe area where we can work inside the platform

S: we are considering all of this

S: every time I answer a question I need to scroll up and find where I was previously viewing

Was there any reason you removed the tile IDs that used to sit on the tiles?

S: they are still there - you just might not be able to see them

Could we buy Essence directly in E2 or just earn it? @Shane

S: earn it !

Sorry for the many questions, this is the last question - Maybe I couldn't find it, but the roadmap doesn't show the content of the API release. When will the API be released?

S: I think it's displayed there, maybe under disguise

Shane why choose luminous jewels and brilliant Jewels for the leaderboard? Any reason behind this?

S: there may be reasons .. but like any game, leaderboards are fun and for those who are doing special things. There will be many more leaderboards coming and they will be based around many different elements of the game. Sometimes a leaderboard will be displayed for reasons though .. yes

How minimal can resource production get? Like I have a small spring in my back yard, could I in the future, document it and use it to claim fresh water so it’ll produce a-little more freshwater than default?

S: yikes. .. we might have our work cut out for us... I am not sure what would occur under those circumstances to be honest

So Mentars wont be for free forever?

S: cannot comment

Plot twist ... we use essence to buy tiles?

S: those damn plot twists ..

So can you tell us if it has anything to do with buying tiles in E2 ? I think i know the answer but had to ask

S: well, surely you can see the importance so far ..

Are you gonna give us some clue before opening Saudi Arabia ? cause you have mentioned you were gonna tweet soomething before opening blocked countries

S: I can't promise anything

Shane will the minting of tiles bring any additional costs for property owner?

S: it depends how we do it. We want that cost, if anything, to be minimal

Nice to see you stepping by more often @Shane ! Hope you and family are well. How are the things going internally? How’s the general mood within the company? How would you describe the current E2 team in just a few words?

S: we're really pumped these days to be honest. Making a lot of progress and finally getting the right team members in place. Some people are just born to be part of a start up and others not. I also decided I needed to be a bit harder and ensure people are pulling their weight .. so much easier when you have team members who want to build things and be successful I tell you

S: oh and yes, my family and I are all well thank you. Though my youngest daughter came into my home office earlier today and said "you shouldn't do the T pose in your videos Dad.." which saddened me because I knew she said the Youtube video of those YTers ridiculing me. I had to ask her not to search things about me on YT .. very sad.

Since a lot of time has passed, I presume it's safer to tell if there were eggs or not in the draft, just to put those who searched and found something at a peace of mind lol, Please I don't think it'll advantage anyone at this point

S- I don't believe there are any in the Draft doc

The owners of Earth 2 own a lot of land, so I wish there was a statistical dashboard screen where you could check the revenue, visit rate, advertising revenue, etc. on their land in real time

S- it will come - we have many things to build

What are your plans to attract more females into earth2?

S- I have 2 daughters and I am constantly talking to our design team about this. We will be building more things to this extent

Is it possible that the essence is listed even a little before q3?

S- there is a slim chance but I will wait to Q3 if we have to .. in order to get it right. Trust me, I want it trading asap as well and the only reason I may push it forward is to allow it to ease in .. but let's see. Probably Q3

Are the resources ready?

S- yes of course, but we're going to release just before the Player Validation System is ready for production

I realize E2 is in its infancy but is there or have you been reached out to by companies who are or who have shown an interest to be inside this metaverse? And are you willing to disclose any of those?

S- I can't disclose anything. We're just focused on building the tools first but we have had a number of companies reach out to us

Please ask the crypto team to enable the coin to be transferred to a cold wallet if we want to, like ledger

S- I think that they are already aware of this

Anyone will be able to have a physical card this time? if they just pay.. or just 10.000

S- first batch will be limited to 10,000

Will virtual card holders get the physical cards first?

S- no, will not work like that sorry

When upgrading from T2 to T1, there are areas where T2 is currently more expensive than T1. In this case, is the upgrade free?

S- maybe we will be paying them? jk .. I am not sure what would happen in those cases but I imagine they would get the upgrade for next to nothing in the original cases until the value started moving for T1 land

It seems to me the only reason there is a jewel leaderboard is to get people to burn more essence. is there any other reason why its important to know how many luminous or brilliant jewels someone has? I recall you said once "make sure you share your brilliants"

S- Incorrect

Will we start to see in our properties: This property produced 0.002 essence today

S- we are working on updates

Will we be able to use the Physical cards at ATM's without fees or will every transaction used on the card have a fee. It cost me over $40 in fees between the E2 Card and PayPal to move money from that card to my bank account and that's just crazy.

S- can use at ATMs but there will be fees - we're not making money (or very little just for support) from those fees. I don't know the full specs

When showcase your biomes?

S- I cant give you a date

Will E1 foot traffic still be beneficial? Can you say any about AR?

S- I want it to be. But I can't promise for sure and I can't say when. I have ideas .. I would like e2.me to go live first

Hi Shane, any chance we'll be able to help stress test the server or go on some closed beta this year for bug finding?

S- it's a good idea but I am not sure what we have planned

Essence will be fractioned like a normal crypto coin right? For example we could buy something for 0.52 essence

S- We are working on this

Will it be possible to directly create a Drone arena on earth2? or will it be an external thing?

S- we are working on tech that will allow Player created droids to follow you around on a global scale inside of the Earth 2 metaverse

You mean.... Drones lol

S- I mean Droids

That’s so sick - like a bodyguard

S- and more

Shane - with your EA out on maternity leave ... how lost are you right now!??!

S- where am I ? I have accountants and lawyers keeping my schedule right now lol

When higher tiered jewels pawn for T1 tiles

S- the team is aware, I am not sure when it is planned for release

Will Earth2 have its own crypto exchange? (someday)

S- No comment

Will it be possible to buy non-Earth2 items on E2?

S- yes

I’ve talked it over with some community members and we think it would be cool if each different egg hatched into different animals with utility. Is this a possibility?

S- well, they are eggs

Shane, your videos are sincere and filled with exciting information about the Earth2 platform - informative. Many crypto projects these days are typically super flashy and void of any real progress/information.

S- thank you - I try to just keep it real and be myself

Do you plan to add natural occurring wildlife in earth2?

S- I can say I want NPCs .. with a twist

Will there be anti dumping mechanism from insiders esp. since more than a billion tokens will be with the E2 team/staff

S- I am very aware of this and I am making decisions accordingly

What's the process of becoming a sponsor to have scholarships and people playing on your account? S- we're building it. Please wait for more details

Do You, Omar and the team still think it’s best to list Essence on a DEX first … then on CEX’s afterwards? I’d love to hear any thoughts you’re able to share surrounding this. Thank you

S- we have different options and we're not fully committed to one or the other yet. I can't comment further

The profile loading error occurred again in new account which has properties of 1,000 over. It seems like that the installation capacity of Mentars creation mission is too small !!!!!! Please check the error!!!!!!!

S- I have passed that directly to our COO, I am sure he will action it as soon as he becomes available. QA may have missed something

I have a question related to this. If T2 are converted to T1, will new land T2 price drop according to the algorithm?

S- No

Hi Shane, would the first 10k e2 Mastercard be metal? what kind of possible benefits would there be and would the first 10k cards be special limited edition ones or just generic?

S- sorry you'll need to wait for those details

No worries man, you have 2000X the amount of support from this community than a few "what can we talk negatively about this time?" videos on YT. It's good to see Youtube Search results for E2 are returning back to normal --- They were heavily saturated with negativity for a while. Looking forward to more developments that will keep popular social content on the positive side of things. Any plans to maintain this path?

S- thank you - means a lot to me. We plan to continue releasing details on what we're working on and more features that build toward our end goal

Seeing the leaderboard of essence claimed by continent there is a total of 34.375.565 claimed until now.. is that all??? It's not counting the essence dropped on EDC right?

S- it's still updating into something else - ignore those values for now

I like VLOG, tech looks very interesting, I can't wait to experience it myself

S- it is very interesting proprietary tech we have developed as a team

Love Shane being here with us - its like as we were part of the team

S- you are... in a sense

Any idea when we will be able to buy/sell eggs? Is that on your radar?

S- you could when they become NFTs I guess .. if that's really what you wanted to do with one

Shane will we be able to trade properties for essence?

S- no comment right now

Earth 2 is it's own DEX isn't it?

S- when have I ever thought that something was impossible. Ok that might have been interpreted the wrong way .. I mean I have many plans for the future. We're building the foundation first

I see your website has gone down 1400 positions, crypto in a bear market what are you going to do? Aggressive ad campaign? You would also see that your website stats are turning down here, it topped in early February

S- I am not bothered - we know what we're doing

Would you describe E2 as user-centered? The most successful companies in the world are like that e.g. Amazon, Google. What I am thinking is that you plan to take over all these companies with E2 in the long run since the finished platform can funge as a literal second earth on a digital perspective

S- I am very focused on building a metaverse for the Players .. the People's Metaverse .. if that wasn't noticeable yet.

Have you bought a yacht yet?

S- no lol

Also NFT search trend on Google search has dropped by 70% the metaverse hype is dying because people don't have money to speculate like they did with all this Covid handouts

S- we are in this for the long run .. not worried about these trends

Will there be E2 radio stations and if you turn it up loud in your drone will other players be able to hear it when you ride by

S- that is too cool not to implement

When will the new essence algorithm be introduced? few days left?

S- it is the only thing taking a little longer than expected. Most others will be finished in Q2 on time. We are implementing the Essence update in parts and I am not sure all will be completed by Q1

Shane when PvP ? Do we have a certain month for launch ?

S- No date yet

Maybe the longest Shane discord chat ever?

S- feels like it.. I have never caught up before and I want to do it at least once lol

Is the new terrain engine the same Nathaniel developed or there has been something built on top of it to improve it? And will it be improved in its core too? Nathaniel said it is like the nanite engine in Unreal, how would you feel the two of them compare? Nathaniel said they were pretty similar.

S- this is something our new devs are developing and they are extremely talented ! We had to make improvements to the old system .. it had flaws

Always nice to have options - solid. Thanks Shane .. and thanks again for always putting the players first. No ICO and no Pre-sale keeps the value with the players. We thank you for those decisions. You’re the real deal

S- I'm glad you guys noticed that. I was under immense pressure not to do that .. but I made my choice and stuck with it

What is your thoughts about the concept of walls? They feel obligatory to help people defending a region, but also seem impossible to implement because of grieving/abusing possibilities?

S- I know there are many things to consider but wait until we release more details

You said you partnered with a Canadian company and Singapore whats happening with those firms

S- well they are taking up a lot of my time that's what's happening lol .. work completed with the Canadian firm now though

I think it will be worth it - no other projects are going for such hyper realistic Earth1 to Earth2 geolocational data. Quality sets Earth2 apart

S- exactly

In the white paper draft there is a billboard showing a FPS (1st Person Shooter) Game "War On Mars" any comment on that

S- man you guys look at the details

I don't think anyone asked this yet but have you guys setup a trust and safety team yet? if so, what would be e2's approach towards content moderation in general and NSFW content in particular?

S- for our social media platform or .. ?

Could we incorporate a bidding system for Jewels (ie. Brilliants), similar to that of land?

S- it's all coming (not right away though!)

The vlog is super cool! It seems like the mechanics of the terrain would be perfect to study climate changes. Is there a way the platform might have a key role in this field too?

S- I thought so too .. I actually though E2 Science Day once a year might be fun. Teach people about things that may happen to the world without human intervention and raise awareness .. plus a lot of fun. I guess this idea will also appear on someone else's road map like most of the other ideas I throw out to the public from time to time #copycats

Can you PLEASE fix the marketplace and get all these .01c sellers selling locked countries

S- I have already requested it with the dev team the other day

Will there be any system to harness resources daily without needing to pay essence?

S- Essence is key to almost everything

Will we be able to forecast weather conditions on E2? -SUPER IMPORTANT

S- we're looking at linking weather from E1 to E2 for different reasons but I can't confirm it will make it to prod

All of this is giving me good insight on what it’s like to lead a company, While obviously this is his project it’s crazy that Shane can keep up to date on most things that’s happening and the processes like that has to be time consuming

S- yeah, I am kind of everything .. too much in my head lol .. I just don't know a lot about Jewels

Do you think E2 will create thousands of not hundreds of thousands of millionaires?

S- I can't comment on that but I would love to be responsible for achieving something along those lines. I work hard for everyone here and I make sure my team does the same thing. As a team we're all committed to creating E2 for you guys and we all appreciate the ongoing support

Can we choose to enable PVP on certain properties and not others? Or must the decision be made account wide?

S- we are looking at opt in for this but cannot confirm yet

When a next vlog will be exposed? does it have period? if it does, how long?

S- it will come soon. Looking at the first EcoSim building and the proprietary tech we're building to ensure millions of them can stream world wide in real time

On every Instagram post you guys add a link to click in the description, but none of those links can be accessed unless copy and pasted. Please forward this to social media team

S- done

For both the social media platform and for the earth2 3d world, how would content moderation direction be in terms of NSFW content?

S- we're trying to build that foundation first! Initially it won't be a problem but long term we will adapt systems from our social media platform into the E2 3D world as they mix

Will we be able to import creations from Blender into E2?

S- maybe into the holodecks at first

What is the average experience in years of the web DEVs in the team? Also, are the 3D DEVs well experienced with Nathaniel's engine? Be as sincere as you can be

S- each web dev generally has min 3 years experience. Most are 10-15 years. Our Unity devs kick arse .. pardon the language.. I am not going to comment on the tech Nathaniel previously built for E2 but I can say we're very happy with our P3 dev team

Will individual resources be individual tokens?

S- cannot comment yet

Are the E2 employees above 100 now?

S- not yet

Will there be T3 tiles? Also will T2 tiles be as valuable as T1 tiles?

S- cannot comment

What’s about the red and yellow energy mentioned in the draft paper? When can we expect we get first in touch with it ?

S- when those play loops come out. But it's not 100% yet

When next Essence drop?

S- you know I couldn't even say whether there is one

If you get a chance tomorrow, please let the Sydney office know that the #3 and #4 egg challenge period of 5 days has passed by 3 days already and it still says "open" on the site

S- already sent them a text

Can we get an active bids filter? It’s difficult keeping track of my active bids on properties

S- its coming

Will oracle system be implemented for upgrading t2 to t1?

S- we use different dbs - not sure whether that is what you're referring to

EPLs market will come Q4?

S- I hope so by then

Does Earth2 have any hardware partner ?

S- I know where this Q is coming from

Have you ever reached out to Daymond John, Logan Paul, Or Keemstar? I'm sure you have seen Daymond, Logan And Keemstar mention Earth2 multiple times on podcasts and social media

S- we've never spoken with them

Shane, I would highly suggest at least discussing it with the team, they would do wonders for the company from a PR standpoint

S- we have too many other things to handle right now. I'd prefer to have a 3D world working and cool stuff to show before reaching out

Can Earth2 keep Tier 1 property open for countries that didn’t sell many tiles or went straight into Tier 2? USA is way oversold Tier 1 and Saudi Arabia will have zero Tier 1

S- T2 to T1 upgrades will solve this

Do u know if huge companies are looking forward to investing in tiles on E2? Are they waiting for their turn to get involved? Have u been contacted by any of them?

S- no comment. I know many are watching and we're focused on building tools first

Could you please give us a little peek about the EPL flagging system? what kind of EPLs are your guys looking to weed out and what would constitute as being going over the line?

S- I don't know enough about it, but I know it's more or less on track with the RoadMap (very close)

How would you deal with the cost upgrading t2 to t1??? would it be less amount of essence to pay when the essence price is high and vise versa

S- others might be able to answer that. I have alluded to a solution before in chat

S- I am here, finally caught up! and if E2 News intend on publishing my chat today .. please accept my most sincere apologies (the pleasure is ours Shane) ok - I am off guys! Keep safe and have a great day! Thanks for your support and kind messages! finally the E2 community is full for one night .. information overload

Shane leaves