Earth 2: E$ credits, a new digital currency?
Earth 2 is an increasingly popular platform that is essentially a second, virtual version of the world we live in. In the last couple of weeks, the investments in Phase 1 („buy land“) have soared. In many countries, the value of new property has increased by 50–100%. All currency in the game are in US Dollars. But is this about to change? A recent update to the credit system, used to buy and sell land, has changed the credit value from a mere $ sign, to E$.
What is behind the mysterious change to E$-credits? Do the developers want to transition away from USD altogether?
One plausible reason for the change could be that the makers are looking to launch their own digital coin. A cryptocurrency could make the platform interesting, but also more difficult to compare/trade.
Are E$ a crypto currency
On the guest homepage of Earth 2 (www.eart2.io) there is a small, yet distinct notification: „The Earth 2 in game credit is represented by E$, nothing else has changed.“ When you log in to your user account, you will see that the value of your credits has been changed to E$, as well. That is the only noticeable change that I have been able to find so far.
Investments in dollars are still valued as dollars, but with the simple addition of a capital E in front. As it stands today, the E$s in Earth 2 are not a crypto currency. However, as the platform is moving over to a digital credit system, instead of a dollar system, this could soon be the case.
E$s in Earth 2 are not a crypto currency
The rational behind a move towards a crypto currency setup, would make sense. Credits are granted to players who own land; land taxes are one way to gain more credits over time. These credits could be seen as a 1–1 dollar value, but in fact, they are not.
Will USD disappear from the game
I doubt that the USD will disappear entirely from the game. Dollars are a way to clarify the worth of tiles and the investment makes it easy to compare to other „investments“, in the real world that is. When an increase in tile-value is directly correlated to an increase in the dollar value, the user feels that he is holding on to a sizable portfolio of…
