earth.tattoo is a live 3D globe divided into roughly 1 km² geographic tiles; you draw 16×16 pixel art on a tile and can be outbid by the next person at a doubling price ($1, $2, $4, $8…), paid in crypto. Square Town (square.pov.town) is a live 3D favicon wall where every square is free, holds one website's icon, and can be evicted for double ($1 minimum), paid by card. The difference: earth.tattoo sells art on real places to wallets; Square Town gives one square per website to anyone with a URL and an email address.
Square Town vs earth.tattoo at a glance
| earth.tattoo | Square Town | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | First tile free hourly; extra tiles $1; outbid the owner at $1 → $2 → $4 → $8 (as of August 2026) | Free (evict for $1+); Throne starts at $100 |
| What you place | 16×16 pixel art you draw, on a ~1 km² geographic tile | Your website's favicon, fetched from the URL you paste |
| How you pick a spot | Choose a real place on the globe | Click any empty cell in the unlocked area, or evict an occupied one |
| Ownership model | Hold the tile until someone outbids you; your art is archived | Hold the square until someone pays double; the evicted site is announced in the live feed |
| Can you lose your spot? | Yes — outbid at double; evicted owner is emailed | Yes — evicted for double, $1 minimum; the evictor's price doubles again |
| Game mechanics | Doubling outbid, repaint anytime, leaderboard, free hourly tile | Evictions, the Throne, free public kisses, ring unlocks at 75 % fill, Hall of Clowns |
| Live? | Yes (live globe) | Yes — WebSockets push every claim, eviction, kiss and unlock |
| 3D? | Yes — a globe | Yes — a three.js wall; tilt to see towers whose height = clicks + kisses |
| Analytics | Leaderboard | Views, clicks and kisses per deed; $5 unlocks per-day charts |
| Accounts | Wallet, plus email for eviction notices | None — an email address for the deed and optional eviction warnings; a secret deed URL is the only proof |
| Payment | Crypto only | None to claim; Stripe (card) for evictions, the Throne and analytics |
| Audience | Crypto users who like pixel art and maps | Indie developers, small sites, anyone with a URL and an email address |
| Launched | 2026 (Show HN July 2026) | August 2026 |
| Status as of Aug 2026 | Active | Active, central 16×16 live at launch, grows to 1024×1024 |
What earth.tattoo does well
The map is real. A tile is a square kilometre of actual Earth. Owning the tile over your home town, your office, or a landmark means something a grid coordinate never will. Square Town's coordinates are just coordinates; the only place with built-in meaning is the centre.
You draw the thing. 16×16 pixel art per tile is enough for a small logo, a flag or a joke, and you can repaint anytime. Square Town gives you no canvas: your square shows whatever favicon your site serves at 16 px.
Free tile every hour. As of August 2026 you can claim a first tile free once an hour, so the globe fills without anyone paying. Square Town goes further: every square is free, not just the first one per hour. Nothing is paid until someone evicts you.
Prior art is archived and the evicted are told. When you are outbid, earth.tattoo keeps your art in the tile's history and emails you. Square Town announces the eviction in the live feed and in town, and emails you too, at the address you claimed with. There is still no account.
Same doubling logic. earth.tattoo's $1/$2/$4/$8 outbid is the closest thing in the 2026 field to Square Town's evict-at-2× rule. If you like the mechanic, both sites run it honestly.
What Square Town does differently
Card, not crypto — and nothing at all to claim. A square is free; evictions, the Throne and analytics go through Stripe. There is no wallet, no chain, no gas, no seed phrase. This alone decides it for most people with a website to promote: earth.tattoo sells to wallets, Square Town sells to site owners. See pricing.
A URL, not a drawing. Paste a URL, Square Town fetches the favicon, done. There is nothing to design and every square is a link: click it and you go to the site, and the click is counted. earth.tattoo tiles are art, not links.
One centre. The Throne is Square Town's 4×4 dead centre — one owner, intro price $100, doubling on every eviction, with a ring of unbuildable cells around it. A globe has no centre, so earth.tattoo has no throne; scarcity there is about which places are famous.
Kisses. Anyone can kiss any Square Town icon, free — public, counted, and each kiss adds a storey to the icon's tower. earth.tattoo has nothing like it — art either stays or gets outbid.
A wall that grows. Only the central 16×16 of square.pov.town is live at launch; every time it is 75 % full it grows by 4 cells in every direction, up to 1024×1024. The globe is all there from day one.
Analytics per square. Every deed shows views, clicks and kisses; $5 unlocks per-day charts. earth.tattoo has a leaderboard, not per-tile visitor stats.
Height means something. In Square Town's 3D view, every favicon is a tower whose height is its clicks plus kisses. earth.tattoo's 3D is the globe itself; tiles are flat art on it.
Who should pick earth.tattoo
- You already hold crypto and don't mind paying with it.
- You want a place, not a position: your town, your school, a mountain you like.
- You want to draw, repaint, and see your art in the tile's history even after you're outbid.
- You want a free tile to play with before spending anything.
Who should pick Square Town
- You have a website and want it on a wall people click, without designing anything.
- You want a free square, and to pay by card only if you ever evict someone — never touch a wallet.
- You want per-square analytics: views, clicks, kisses, optional per-day charts for $5.
- You like the extra game — the Throne, kissing icons to grow their towers, rings unlocking as the wall fills. How it works is the whole rulebook.
Can you use both?
Easily. They don't compete for the same dollar: one is crypto and art on a map, the other is a free favicon on a wall with card-paid evictions. A project with a physical home could tattoo its tile on earth.tattoo and hold a square on Square Town for its URL. Square Town has no accounts, so the cost of "also" is an email address and a deed URL to keep.
For the wider set of pay-to-hold options, see pixel advertising alternatives.
FAQ
How does earth.tattoo's outbid pricing work?
As of August 2026, the first tile is free once an hour, extra tiles are $1, and taking a tile from its current owner costs double the last price — $1, then $2, $4, $8 and so on. The previous owner's art is archived and they are emailed.
How does Square Town's eviction pricing work?
Any square can be taken by paying double what its current owner paid, with a $1 minimum. A free square costs $1 to evict, then $2 for the next evictor, then $4. The Throne starts at $100 and doubles the same way.
Does earth.tattoo accept cards?
No — as of August 2026 it is crypto only. Square Town squares are free; evictions, the Throne and analytics are paid by card via Stripe, and it does not accept crypto.
Can I put my logo on earth.tattoo?
You can draw a 16×16 pixel version of it on a tile, and repaint whenever you like. Square Town instead fetches your site's favicon automatically from the URL; you don't draw anything.
Do both sites tell me when I lose my spot?
earth.tattoo emails the evicted owner. Square Town has no accounts, but it asks for an email address when you claim, and it emails you there when you're evicted. Evictions are always announced publicly in the live feed and shown on your deed page.
Is Square Town 3D like earth.tattoo?
Yes, differently. earth.tattoo is a globe. Square Town is a flat wall by default that you can tilt (ctrl+drag, or two-finger drag on touch) into a 3D scene where each favicon is a tower as tall as its clicks plus kisses.
Which is closer to Square Town overall?
Of the walls that copy the doubling takeover, earth.tattoo is the closest, but its unit is pixel art on real geography paid in crypto, while Square Town's unit is a website's favicon, free to claim and evicted by card. Milliboard is a closer rival for the same buyer — see Square Town vs Milliboard.