00:00The metaverse is now recognized as a multi-trillion dollar economic, industrial and societal revolution
00:06that will impact almost every aspect of our lives.
00:10But it didn't start out that way.
00:12In fact, it was the subject of a lot of derision.
00:15And just as all other emerging technologies before it,
00:19there were more than a few detractors willing to tell you it was impossible,
00:24just a buzzword or one big scam.
00:30Not accepted as a means of payment. There's no store value because of the volatility in price.
00:33It has no intrinsic value.
00:35Is it possible, though, Bill, that perhaps Bitcoin has not yet found its use as a cryptocurrency yet?
00:42So the moral of the story is don't buy Bitcoin. Don't buy Bitcoin. Don't buy Bitcoin.
00:47Although condemned as a scam for many years,
00:50Bitcoin would evolve to become a store of value for 0.1% of total global wealth.
00:56That's about $1.2 trillion.
00:58These days, we talk about Bitcoin as the gold standard of cryptocurrencies.
01:08There are definitely some bad actors and scams out there looking to dupe you out of your money.
01:14So if you're investing in any kind of new project or paradigm,
01:17you should absolutely be doing your due diligence first.
01:21Some of the more notorious ones over the past few decades include
01:24Bitcoin X cryptocurrency exchange program.
01:27The Bernie Madoff scandal, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange,
01:33who through an elaborate Ponzi scheme, managed to con over $65 billion from his clients.
01:40He did, however, familiarize a generally unknowing public with what a Ponzi scheme is
01:45and what it means to be caught up in one.
01:47More recently, we saw the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange
01:53and Bitforex recently disappeared with $59 million of customers' deposits.
01:58All of these events have culminated in much greater public awareness of scams
02:07and have brought an intense amount of scrutiny from the financial authorities
02:11who have established much more stringent regulations to protect customers
02:16and to penalize companies.
02:18But there have always been two camps.
02:20Those who can think inside the box
02:22and those who can think outside the box
02:25and see what's coming.
02:31There were plenty of doubters at the dawn of the internet, too.
02:34Most people couldn't even see themselves using the web.
02:38It's easy to criticize something you don't fully understand,
02:41which is my position here.
02:43Go ahead.
02:43But I can remember a couple of months ago,
02:45there was like a big breakthrough announcement
02:47that on the internet or on some computer deal,
02:49they were going to broadcast a baseball game.
02:53You could listen to a baseball game on your computer.
02:56And I just thought to myself,
02:58does radio ring a bell?
03:04There was a definite tipping point for mass adoption of PCs in the 80s,
03:08mobile phones in the 90s,
03:10the internet in the 2000s,
03:12and mobile internet in 2010.
03:15The Metaverse, too, will have its moment of mass adoption.
03:18In fact, the party is just beginning.
03:21I think we're actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.
03:27It's just a tool, though, isn't it?
03:29No, it's not.
03:30No, it's an alien life form.
03:34Just as all emerging paradigm shifts and projects before it,
03:38Earth 2 also received more than its fair share of naysayers and criticism,
03:44people who just couldn't see what was coming.
03:48My advice to anyone who is invested in this is to pull out immediately.
03:57I don't think it's going to work.
03:59It's not going to capture the general public.
04:02It's painfully obvious that this entire thing is off the rails,
04:05and if it should manage to somehow improve in the future,
04:08great, awesome for you, oh, I'm so happy.
04:10But dear Lord, do not put money into this.
04:13I think there's a lot of people out there who don't want a Metaverse.
04:18They don't want to deal with the Metaverse.
04:20They don't want to see this kind of stuff.
04:22They want to be able to play the game, and they want to just have a game.
04:26That's it.
04:27And so, yeah, fuck the Metaverse.
04:28We have definitely been conditioned to accept the current gaming paradigm or business model
04:37that sees the majority of profits flowing back to the venture capitalists or big conglomerates
04:43like the Chinese-owned Tencent Corporation,
04:46who have controlling shares in many of the platforms, programs, and games that we use on a daily basis.
04:52Discord, Activision, Blizzard, Riot Games, Fortnite, and Epic Games are all under Tencent's control.
05:00As one of the biggest corporations in the world, you would think that everyone has heard of them,
05:05but Tencent like to operate in the shadows.
05:07But wherever they go, they are followed by ethical, legal, and copyright violations,
05:13making me think of Tencent as the Monsanto of video games.
05:18Yet we seem more than eager to continue giving them our money.
05:25This year, gaming revenue will exceed $294 billion.
05:30That's a staggering amount of money,
05:32but only a tiny percentage of this wealth is headed in the player's direction.
05:37The current economic model sees the majority of it going to the corporations and conglomerates.
05:43But there's more than enough money to go around and still be hugely successful.
05:48What if a gamer set up a company and developed a product
05:52that would enable players to supplement or earn a living completely from within the game,
05:58allowing things like creativity or engagement to be rewarded,
06:02allowing items to be resold by players for profit,
06:06and only taking a small percentage of that?
06:09In a sense, I get why people don't understand the E2 model.
06:13It's not what they're used to.
06:15It doesn't fit conveniently into any of their boxes.
06:19People have made very flimsy allegations that E2 is a Ponzi, Pyramid, or MLM scheme,
06:25but in reality, it fits none of those models either.
06:28It's something entirely new,
06:31with a decentralized model that rewards players' creativity,
06:35ingenuity, and engagement with the platform.
06:38There are multiple marketplaces where players can sell items they've crafted or leveled up,
06:44with E2 only taking a small percentage of any profit made.
06:48This is in direct contradiction to the traditional way of doing things,
06:53where all the money goes to the developer and the players actually own nothing.
06:59Most metaverse projects have some kind of crypto gaming token,
07:03but almost all of them have released an initial coin offering to raise revenue.
07:07Earth 2 stands apart in this regard,
07:09avoiding the usual manipulation of the market by whales.
07:13Earth 2's unique approach to raising revenue by selling parcels of land ahead of the platform's release
07:20received a huge amount of backlash from uninformed commentators,
07:24but enabled them to fully fund the project without having to do an ICO or sell out to venture capitalists.
07:30This makes it essentially a crowdfunded venture,
07:34and because of this, it's the players who funded the project who will share in the profits.
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