What is The Space?

Begin:Reddit r/place

On April Fool’s Day, 2017, Reddit launched the collaborative art project Reddit Place. On a whiteboard of 1000*1000 pixels, each resgistered user of Reddit could edit the color of any pixel every 5 to 20 minutes. The project lasted for 72 hours, and the co-creation process was recorded as a time-lapse video.

In this 72-hour pop-up project, users quickly filled in the blank canvas with national flags, LGBT flags, Internet memes, cartoon characters, game characters, Mona Lisa, The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, the Linux logo, and even just a dark void. Millions of users made free decisions on whether to collaborate or confront each other in this space. Different patterns emerged, reflecting the dynamic culture of the Reddit community and even the ideology of the Internet itself like a mirror.

Reddit Place was taken offline after 72 hours of operation. All the works became inaccessible and disappeared in the information cemetery of the Internet. Just like any centralized content publishing platform, even though millions of users participated in the co-creation of Reddit Place, Reddit had the absolute control over the project’s life span. It is ironic that a decentralized collaborative project was halted by a centralized decision.

time-lapse video in 2017

time-lapse video in 2017

This is but the norm of the Web2 world, while the technology of Web3 will make a fundamental difference.

(In 2022, Reddit re-launched r/place 👉2022 Video review

The Space: An everlasting digital graffiti wall

The Space Website | Twitter | Discord

In The Space, we reproduced the game of Reddit Place, still, a collaborative pixel canvas, but here we adopt NFT to secure the rights for each pixel, governing the public space with the Harberger tax, and using the Universal Basic Income(UBI) system to ensure that every participant can receive benefits. With a smart contract, the mechanism can be stored in blockchain publicly, transparently, and permanently, and can be checked or confirmed by everyone. Anyone with a Blockchain wallet address can participate in The Space, and no permission is needed.

Because all the data and mechanisms are stored on the blockchain, The Space will never be closed. After 10 years, 20 years, or even 100 years, future web historians will see how the Internet or even the cultural symbol in the real world evolve by looking back at the evolution of The Space canvas.

<aside> ❤️ That’s why The Space is amazing, it will become the museum of Web3 culture.

</aside>

Game Mechanism

In The Space, every pixel is a tradable NFT(Non-Fungible Token). Pixel owners can edit the colors of their pixels to create artwork.

We will also adopt the Harberger Tax to achieve the most effective allocation of limited public resources and to maximize the liquidity of the “pixel market”:

Under the conditions of the Harberger tax, all NFT pixels in The Space are “on-sale” at all times. If a pixel owner would like to keep a pixel, he/she will need to set a high price for this pixel, as well as pay a high tax. No one can really “own” a pixel since all the “properties” are public and flow. However, public ownership does not lead to a “planned economy”. Instead, it maximizes the use of the market.