Transparency in the Metaverse

Watching Automated Mining in Real-Time and Retrospectively

8 min readAug 2, 2021

Forging New Space Is Not Easy

When the members of the Federation went through the Wormhole, they knew it would not be easy. It could not be easy.

World-class Bitcoin Miners, they were refugees from Earth in 2055, looking for pathways to new worlds, along which many would follow. Along the way, members of the Federation were designing and implementing new and innovative technologies that would help future Explorers. But this time, the technology could serve the people. This time, more equitable rewards could be shared among those engaged.

With the new economy of the Metaverse, a simulation based on Earth’s economy, any person could engage. Any person could seek and find success.

In the Metaverse, an Explorer can be found defining one’s own values, ideals and activities within a system that reinforces engagement with rewards.

For the most part, travel for new Explorers has been smooth. Ships have gone through the Wormhole, entered Alien Worlds, found solace and mining rewards on Planets and met aliens from everywhere through NFT drops and Explorer Communities. After seven months of travel, nearly 3 million Explorer ships were seen joining the Metaverse. On any given day, typically 230,000 or so Explorers can be seen mining.

It is interesting to be in uncharted blockchain territory at this scale. At times, there have been traffic jams logging in, impeding allow smooth travels throughout the Metaverse at all times. Metal creatures have appeared. Lore has been discussed around the firepits of Magor, describing the tales of these bots that have begun to outmine biological creatures on some lands. Spaceships have sometimes encountered Meteors, providing errors on their displays.

Some of these issues have caused Federation members and Explorers alike to pause and consider what is happening and what it means to the Metaverse and Explorers.

Although it is a bit nerve wracking to consider implications of technological advancements and automated tools, the Federation believes that it is important to share these concepts and related thought processes with Explorers and encourages Explorer Communities to engage in discussions about the evolution of technologies considering these concepts.

That being said, the Federation believes there is a bright future for the Metaverse, which is addressed below, after we review some of the issues for contemplation.

The More We Know, the More We Can Choose

The Alien World Discord Colony was among the first of the Explorer Communities in the Metaverse to signal concern. Some Explorer accounts were exhibiting signs of automated mining, a violation of the Terms of Service of the agreement to enter and Mine in the Alien Worlds Metaverse. This was very concerning.

Why was this a concern? If automated miners didn’t have to do the same things biological miners did, there is a chance that they could Mine and secure more than their fair share of Trilium and NFT game cards.

In fact, this is what was happening. Good Vibes Mining had been sending signals that the Federation needed to look here and there, rallying community members to submit what they could find.

How could the community find this information? The Alien Worlds Metaverse is based on the blockchain and transactions are recorded on the blockchain. Each time an Explorer account mines, stakes, or transfers WAX, Trilium, NFT game cards or other assets, it is recorded. Although some spots along the transfer paths can be disguised, for the most part, the paths of the automated Miners can be traced. NFT game cards mined by alleged bot accounts, will have always been mined from those accounts. It is available for all to see.

Although this type of automated mining violates the agreement each Explorer makes as they go through the Alien Worlds Wormhole to the Metaverse, it is very difficult to prevent. Explorer accounts can be flagged and their mining amounts dramatically reduced, but such automated and manual systems can often result in falsely flagging individual Explorers, as well. Automated miners tend not to mind creating and using different accounts to appear as individual miners, going to great lengths to disguise their patterns.

Some Explorers may fancy themselves sophisticated programmers, able to direct and guide ships and their fleets from one Outpost. But, Explorers everywhere know that this sort of cheating defeats the purpose of our shared values of helping each other, those around us literally and virtually. The Federation understands that the biological creatures, creating and actively managing these metal creatures, may be feeding their families, neighbors and friends, too. However, in the interest of fairness, they are encouraged to stop unfair mining and join the effort to create better worlds for everyone.

Some argue that creating technology to combat and battle such creatures makes the ecosystem stronger. This may be true. However, community members working together may have greater effect.

Biological creatures with talents for supervising fleets of metal creatures are encouraged to contact the Federation about working together to create a better Metaverse, and join in the rewards of the innovators. Surely working together will result in greater rewards for all.

The Federations Actions Toward Fairness

As Explorers know, the Federation and the Explorer Communities are committed to actions resulting in fairness. Accordingly, several actions have been taken.

Time — The Federation has allowed a period of time for automated miners to display their actions for all to see. This has been studied by data scientists in Alien Worlds’ communities. Explorers and Explorer Communities are reviewing and studying this data, creating new technologies to understand what happens and the implications. The Federation understands that this time has been frustrating for many Miners, but thanks everyone for their patience while these paths have been exposed and studied.
Pause — NFT game card mining has been paused. As some NFTs are nearing their maximum supply, Explorers requested that the Federation pause NFT mining until automated mining levels have been studied and reduced.
Replacement — Maximum supplies reached recently have left some Miners without the ability to claim NFT game cards earned. These will be replaced, so that individual Miners can claim similar NFT game cards in the future.
Dialogue — The Federation has been in dialogue with many Explorers and Explorer Communities skilled at data science, blockchain development and forensics and decentralised communities. Explorers willing to join with the Federation to study and analyze metal creatures are encouraged to stop by the Support Station with their ideas. Some communities have been sending tools to known bot accounts to cause them to become flagged, taking matters into their own hands.
Flagging — The Federation has developed a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional system for identifying and flagging potential automated miners, violating the Terms of Service of the Alien Worlds Metaverse. This includes several types of automated reviews, as well as several types of manual reviews. New approaches are being tested often and are changed on variable schedules. This time of study has been helpful for learning best practices, which can be deployed and tightened, or loosened, as needed.
Unflagging Requests — Explorers who find they are mining very low amounts are encouraged to submit a ticket at the Support Station in the lower right corner of alienworlds.io to have their account reviewed to ensure that it was not falsely flagged. It is possible that unflagging requests may be needed a few times during this time of study, but please submit only one per issue at a time, to prevent your issue losing its place in the queue. Federation Operations team members have come together to research issues of false flagging and are on standby to help. Please note that requests can often take several days to process, but thank you for your patience.
Resources for Explorer Communities — The Federation is working with data systems provider EOSUSA to provide a list of accounts believed to be automated mining related accounts to suppress from community reward drops of NFTs. Also provided will be a list of known individual Miners, who are entitled to qualify for such drops. Any activity that appears as automated mining may put someone into these categories. Disputes or inquiries (if mining low amounts of TLM) can be submitted at the Support Station at alienworlds.io.

As the time of pause continues, the Federation looks forward to sharing more information with Explorers, during these historic times. Thank you for your patience and joining with us as we field Meteors and forge better worlds.

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