Hey there 👋 ,

I’ve noticed an increasing trend of “Move-To-Earn” projects, where users can earn crypto tokens for doing things in the real world. This could be anything from exercising to hosting an internet router that passers-by can connect to.

Thought I’d write a quick primer on STEPN before highlighting other projects.

Due to catching the ‘Rona this week, I had more time this weekend to catch up on some other reading (and Netflix watching), so I’ve included a couple of articles around web3’s innovations and how to farm stablecoins.

Let’s get to it!

🤑 Do Things In The Real World & Get Paid

Imagine you’re working from home and decide it’s time for your daily Poke’ ball (or meal of your choice…but all know it’s a Poke’ ball).

Instead of using Deliveroo like you usually would, you decide to take the 20 minute walk to your local Poke’ ball vendor to bask in the London sunshine (“London sunshine” is where this story falls apart).

Now, from having walked 20 minutes there and the same time back, you’ve now clocked up 4,000 steps. BUT, imagine this time, it’s not just steps you’ve gained. By simply moving around, you’re also earning crypto tokens.

This is at the heart of the “Move To Earn” trend, whereby users receive monetary rewards for moving around by foot, bike or any other means.

Seems easy, right? That may be so, but how long can a project like this be sustainable? We’ll dive deeper into three interesting projects below and try to answer some of these questions.

Step’n onto Center Stage

STEPN is a “Web3 lifestyle app with social and game elements”. The Australian-based company started private beta testing on November 3rd and has skyrocketed in popularity and usage over the past few weeks.

STEPN NFT Sneakers

With STEPN, users basically get paid to walk and run outside. It’s a social fitness game, where you buy an NFT pair of trainers/sneakers for around 11 SOL (about $1,150) and the app (iOS, Android) tracks your steps. Everyday, you have a 100-minute window to earn points for walking/running.

How does the tokenomics work?

Users are required to mint, buy or rent NFT sneakers from the in-app marketplace. Players can also increase their earning potential by leveling up or repairing their sneakers or by upgrading their attributes with gems.

The sneakers, which are degradable, have four attributes (efficiency, luck, comfort, and resilience) and five qualities (common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary). The collection also has four different types of sneakers – walker, jogger, runner, and trainers. The price of each sneaker varies depending on its type, rarity, or level.

Since its public beta launch in December 2021, STEPN has seen its daily active users jump from 1,500 to 100k at the end of March. STEPN has gained a massive 31,000% in profits since its token sale.

But is it sustainable?

What happens when new users join? From looking at projects similar to this, I can imagine rewards will decrease unless those new users buy in at higher rates for each sneaker or existing users continue to pump money into the system.

I’m sceptical - especially as the recent pump seems to be down to artwork posted by a Twitter account teasing partnerships with the likes of Nike and Adidas.

Other Projects that look interesting:

1. Helium 

Helium is another interesting project I’ve come across - The project lets you earn money by putting an internet router in your house that others can connect to. You buy a mini-hotspot and you get paid in helium tokens when others connect to it.

They’ve accumulated over 500k users and are aiming to cross the million mark in the next six months.

2. Hivemapper 

Hivemapper is building Google Maps by having users install a dashcam in their car and earning tokens for simply driving around and going about their business. They just raised $18m from Multicoin Capital to accelerate their plans.

3. Superlocal

Foursquare but you’re actually earning money while checking in. Get paid to ‘check-in’ to your favourite locations. Simply take a picture with a caption and submit it on the app to earn your tokens.

Conclusion:

Move-To-Earn is the current ‘in’ trend - this relies on a mixture of deep pockets, smart tokenomics and a sustainable path to profitability - not to mention a whole lot of luck.

While I’m sceptical about its long-term prospects, I can guarantee new economic models will flourish through projects like this.

📚 Things I read this week:

1. Big Blockchain Games List

Came across this list of 380+ (and counting!) games in the Blockchain space - interested to see the breakdown of genre’s and funding amounts (so far).

2. How to Farm Stablecoins

Nat is a writer I’m a fan of - he breaks down his process for tracking down high yields across chains and strategies to asess the risks inherent in each strategy.

3. Four Fundamental Innovations of Web3 that Will upend Web2 Incumbents

Four key areas of the innovations of Web3:

• An interoperable permanent ownership record

• Paying customers in ‘equity”

• Regulatory arbitrage

• DAO/Foundations

Until next time

I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition - I'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two. Got feedback? Reply to this email or tweet at me and let’s chat.

Fahim