You want a well thought out answer? I've only been playing 2 months but I don't see this working.
It appears as though Illy's market has infinite supply and not enough demand. Resources are basically traded because they can (or so i've been repeatedly told, in another thread, that the market isn't profit based).
As such, there are no tradeable resources that are 'worth' prestige. Prestige is valued because of the time it shaves off of building enhancements, except for a handful of temporary cases (like trying to reach the pop requirement for your 10th city)
EvE was rare in a lot of ways. It had a lot of mechanics that 'shouldn't' work in MMOs, yet somehow did all together. That's why it cannot be copied, because the mechanics by themselves can wreck a game, but eve somehow made it all work.