Move-to-Earn: New Strategy Enters the Metaverse

During the pandemic, the play-to-earn (P2E) games pioneered by Axie Infinity dominated the crypto space and gaming world, showing us that video games can be a source of income for gamers.

While these P2E games continue to develop in the crypto industry, a new strategy has come into play. The P2E system inspired other web3 applications to attach a similar earning model to lifestyle and fitness. Thus began the move-to-earn mechanism.

But what is move-to-earn, and how does it work?

Move-to-earn

Under a move-to-earn mechanism, users are paid for the data they generate from daily movement and exercise. Users have the power to decide who has access to their data.

Businesses will often offer discounts and rewards to users who share their data, which could include rewards for reaching certain fitness goals or discounts on brand products.

Users can also compete with each other to win prizes, and these incentives provide a gamification for fitness, similar to what we see in step-tracking technology, but with real-world rewards beyond fitness.

STEPN move-to-earn (M2E)

Stepn is a move-to-earn lifestyle application built on the Solana blockchain.

It is designed with SocialFi and GameFi features. According to Find Satoshi Labs, the game’s founding company, users can earn between $25 to $4,500 a day. The game aims to help users attain a healthy lifestyle while also helping to offset carbon emissions.

Stepn rewards users for simple physical activities like outdoor walking, running or jogging with NFTs. However, the users are required to own NFT sneakers. Interestingly, the Solana-based Web3 lifestyle app is a form of P2E since it has gamified fitness through a digital asset, the NFT sneakers.

How Stepn Move-to-Earn works

After downloading the app, users must connect it with their crypto wallet. Next, they need to buy NFT sneakers by transferring SOL to the wallet, which is the main currency STEPN uses. Thus, users need to have it in their wallets.

After signing up, users can buy NFT sneakers via the app's marketplace. Users can then link their NFT sneakers with the STEPN app and start walking, running, or jogging outdoors. Users earn points from these activities. The points can be used as in-game currency and can be utilized as rewards to upgrade their NFT sneakers, level up, or cash out as fiat. Hence, the more points a user has, the more money they have.

Stepn move-to-earn players can also lease or sell their NFT sneakers on the in-app marketplace. The earnings from the sale or lease are stored in the app's built-in wallet.

Stepn M2E is a dual economy token. It incorporates two tokens: Green Metaverse Token (GMT) and Green Satoshi Token (GST). These tokens have advanced functions beneficial to the user. Users can administer NFT sneakers in the game's solo mode using GST. The number of steps in the application is used to compute users' energy expended, where:

1 unit of energy = 5 min of activity(movement gain)

Energy may only be replenished if the user purchases an NFT shoe; otherwise, the procedure will not start.

GMT and its use cases

Green Metaverse Token (GMT) is the ecosystem's governance token. Users can earn GMT through minting in Token Generation Event (TGE), running, and game activities. Owners can also use them to level up and modify sneaker names.

Additionally, they can be utilized in distributing premium content, including high-level activities and game revenues. Gamers may also consider exchanging the token for USDC, but only when their NFT sneakers attain level 30+.

GST and its use cases

GST is used as the utility token for in-game purchases. They are minted every time a user moves; hence, their supply is unlimited.

Users can utilize GST for sneaker repairs and level-ups. Through the GST tokens, customers may personalize their sneakers and improve gem goods. Like GMT, it can be used to trade USDC.

WIRTUAL - Exercise to earn game

WIRTUAL is a social network for fitness enthusiasts launched in April 2020 as a testing ground for virtual fitness competitions. WIRTUAL implemented version 2.0 earlier this year, which added cryptocurrencies, NFT avatars, and a tracking system linked to smartwatches like Strava, Garmin, and Fitbit.

Through WIRTUAL, Users are rewarded for tracking and reporting physical activity data. The physical activities include running, walking, swimming, dancing, and cycling. NFT avatar characters represent users, and users can customize their avatars by upgrading them.

Customized avatars allow users to access special features and virtual limited-edition apparel. In addition, users can sell their avatars on the NFT marketplace for revenue.

The game is set to award 20 million WIRTUAL coins every year. A portion of that amount goes to users based on their physical activity results. By default, new users are awarded up to 0.1 WIRTUAL, and qualify for more coins as they scale up through seven different holder levels. In addition, the NFT clothes enable users to submit more than one report daily. This enables them to earn more lucrative maximum payouts.

Genopets Move-to-Earn

Another popular move-to-earn game is Genopets. Genopets is a role-playing game that blends Tamagotchi digital pet features with Pokémon Go fighting games alongside fitness and social bonuses. It gathers a player's real-world physical movement data using a wearable or mobile device and tracks their progress in the Genoverse, a virtual metaverse.

Genopets are NFT digital pets that players can customize and upgrade in the Genoverse. Players accumulate steps to unlock in-game features and special powers. The in-game governance and staking token is called GENE, which can be used for in-game NFTs and gives stakeholders unique privileges and input into the game's development.

Bottom line

While Stepn has received significant attention in the move-to-earn movement, other web3 fitness apps are also available. For instance, WIRTUAL, DEFY, Dotmoovs, and OliveX have their own in-app reward tokens built on different blockchains.

The move-to-earn model is an innovation for the fitness industry, and another way to motivate individuals for their health and wellness goals.