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Can modularization and DID make UBI accessible to everyone?

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In Silicon Valley, AI is rapidly acquiring new skills, while factories in China and Germany utilize robots for continuous assembly. Despite technological advancements intended to benefit humanity, the wealth gap is widening, with many workers losing jobs to automation, particularly in developing countries. The rise of AI, especially large language models, is reshaping the labor market, threatening millions of traditional jobs, including those in professions once deemed secure, like law and accounting. In response to potential mass unemployment, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is proposed as a solution, providing fixed income to all citizens regardless of employment status. Pilot programs in countries like Finland and Kenya show promise in enhancing social stability and encouraging entrepreneurship. However, UBI faces challenges related to funding and implementation on a global scale. At Token2049 Dubai, the Meta Earth team introduced a decentralized, self-driven global UBI model using modular blockchain technology. Web3 aims to redistribute power and control over wealth and data, but it currently faces issues like slow transaction speeds and high costs, with wealth still concentrated among early investors. Meta Earth, founded by Patrick Oerer, seeks to create a modular public blockchain and an ecosystem that includes decentralized wallets, exchanges, and identity systems. Its ME Network promises high transaction speeds, low fees, and cross-chain compatibility, supporting large-scale Web3 applications. The ME ID system allows users to verify their identity while maintaining privacy through advanced encryption techniques. Users receive a permanently staked MEC token, generating daily income, thus creating a new UBI model that eliminates reliance on central funding. Meta Earth's vision is to establish a fair digital economy, ensuring equal participation and sustainable token distribution. The success of such initiatives depends on collective efforts from policymakers, communities, and users. Ultimately, the future of technology will hinge on how it is utilized—either as a catalyst for fairness or as a driver of inequality.

In the laboratories of Silicon Valley, artificial intelligence is learning new skills at an astonishing speed; in factories in China and Germany, robots are tirelessly assembling cars and electronic products. Technological advancements should benefit all of humanity; however, the dividends of this revolution have not reached everyone. On the contrary, the global wealth gap is widening, with many ordinary workers losing their jobs due to automation, and the survival pressure in developing countries is increasingly severe.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence, especially the popularity of large language models, is reshaping the global labor market. Experts predict that within the next five years, hundreds of millions of people may lose traditional jobs due to automation. The impact is not limited to manual laborers; white-collar professions once considered "safe," such as lawyers, accountants, and data analysts, are also facing competition from intelligent systems.

Unconditional Basic Income: The Latest Path to Alleviating the Crisis

In the face of potential mass unemployment, Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) is seen as a possible solution. UBI advocates for providing a fixed income to every citizen, regardless of whether they are working. Recent small-scale pilots in Finland, Canada, and Kenya have shown that this policy can indeed improve social stability and encourage people to explore new career options. In the Kenyan experiment, those receiving UBI funding not only experienced reduced financial pressure but were also more willing to try entrepreneurship.

However, UBI still faces an unavoidable issue: it requires massive financial expenditure, and existing pilots mostly rely on government budgets or charitable funds, making it difficult to scale globally. Harvard economist Amartya Sen pointed out, "UBI is an attractive ideal, but the realities of resource allocation and political considerations make it difficult to implement on a large scale."

To address the financial sustainability issues of traditional UBI, a technical team from the modular blockchain Meta Earth proposed a new idea at the recently concluded Token2049 Dubai: a decentralized, self-driven global UBI model.

Can the Next Generation of the Internet Bring Fairness?

We often think that the transformation of Web3 is not just a technological upgrade but a rethinking of power and control. The core promise of Web3 is to break the monopoly of traditional banks and tech giants over wealth and data, allowing users to regain control.

However, this vision is not without flaws. Blockchain networks currently face issues of slow speeds and high costs. More concerning is that the early stages of Web3 seem to be replaying old inequalities: a small number of early investors hold a large amount of tokens, making it difficult for ordinary users to enter this new world, with wealth still concentrated in the hands of a few "whales." Supporters argue that Web3 is a correction to internet monopolies; critics warn that it may just be a different form of capital game. Regardless, this transformation has begun, and its success will depend on how technology is implemented and who benefits from it.

In the current contentious Web3 world, Meta Earth is trying to take a different path. Its founder, Patrick Oerer, has held senior management positions at several top investment banks, such as UBS, and served as the European Managing Director at Boston Merchant Financial Network (BMFN), with 21 years of experience in traditional finance, well-versed in its rules and limitations. Now, he is turning his attention to blockchain, hoping to use technology to break down barriers to wealth distribution. Meta Earth's goal is to build a modular public chain, along with a complete set of infrastructure and ecosystem, including blockchain wallets, decentralized communities, decentralized exchanges, decentralized identities, and cryptocurrency-based payment systems, even including a brand new virtual world capable of supporting various application scenarios such as social media, entertainment, consumption, and financial services in the migration to Web 3.

Meta Earth: Achieving Sustainable Global UBI Through Modularity and DID

Meta Earth aims to inject fairness and sustainability into Web3 through innovative technologies and economic models. The ME Network is the core infrastructure of Meta Earth, designed with modularity, decoupling blockchain functions into independent modules to achieve high scalability and flexibility. Compared to traditional public chains like Ethereum, the ME Network has significant advantages:

  • High TPS: Through parallel processing and optimized consensus mechanisms, the ME Network achieves TPS far exceeding that of Ethereum, sufficient to meet large-scale application demands.

  • Low gas fees: The modular design optimizes resource allocation, significantly reducing transaction costs, allowing users to participate in network interactions at very low fees.

  • Cross-chain compatibility: Supports seamless interoperability with other mainstream public chains, providing users with a broader range of application scenarios and liquidity.

These features make the ME Network an ideal platform for supporting large-scale Web3 applications, laying the technical foundation for Meta Earth's decentralized, self-driven global UBI vision.

Another unique aspect of Meta Earth is its ME ID system. Users complete KYC verification through the ME Pass application, obtaining a unique digital identity using Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) and Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZK) technologies:

  • FHE: Allows computation on encrypted data without decryption, achieving efficient data utilization while protecting privacy.

  • ZK: Users can prove their identity or transaction validity without revealing specific information, enhancing security, preventing fraud, and improving efficiency.

With ME ID, everyone has an equal opportunity to participate. After certification through ME ID, users receive 1 permanently staked MEC token, which cannot be withdrawn but will generate daily income for the holder, becoming a new model of UBI. This design is referred to by Oerer as "on-chain permanent basic income." This design ensures equal participation for global users, freeing them from traditional UBI's reliance on centralized funding.

The total supply of MEC tokens is 20 billion, with half permanently staked in global regional nodes (Zones) and the other half gradually produced through a staking mechanism, with the output halving each year to ensure long-term sustainability of the system. Users can also earn additional rewards by participating in ecological interactions and share in the benefits as the ecosystem gradually thrives. Oerer stated in an interview, "We hope to create a fair global economic system that allows all users to enjoy the economic dividends brought by Web3 and the current technological revolution, not just a few investors."

Meta Earth's vision is not merely to distribute tokens to everyone. It aims to establish a fair digital economy, requiring real applications and genuine participants to drive it. In this regard, their core advantages lie in modular design, fair participation, and economic self-circulation. The high performance and seamless scalability of the modular public chain support the implementation of large-scale Web3 applications. Meanwhile, ME ID ensures that every user has a unique digital identity, allowing everyone globally to participate in the economic system on equal terms, truly achieving inclusivity. Most importantly, the issuance and distribution mechanism of MEC tokens is designed for long-term sustainability, with users earning rewards through participation in ecological interactions, while the prosperity of the ecosystem in turn enhances token value and user income, forming a self-sustaining circular economy. Only when a sufficient number of real applications run on Meta Earth will MEC tokens have actual value, and the income users receive can be converted into real income.

The Future of Technology: A Catalyst for Fairness or an Accelerator of Inequality?

Technological progress is always accompanied by hope and concern. On one hand, it brings productivity improvements, creating unprecedented wealth for humanity; on the other hand, it is reshaping the global economic structure and exacerbating imbalances in wealth distribution. Attempts like Meta Earth may bring new possibilities for fair distribution, but their success depends not only on the technology itself but also on the collaborative efforts of policymakers, communities, and users.

At this critical moment, we need to ponder a question: Is technology a driving force for social progress or an amplifier of wealth disparity? The answer does not depend on technology itself but on how we choose to use it.

This leads us to hope that Meta Earth can truly provide unconditional basic income for all users globally. When more ordinary people can automatically receive income every day, they will experience a higher sense of happiness.

The next few years will be a crucial period for testing this question. It is time for us to pay attention to and participate in this dialogue together.

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