The Role Of Move-To-Earn Apps In Democratizing Fitness and Finance

In a world where physical activity is recognized as a pivotal contributor to holistic well-being, it’s disheartening that global physical activity levels fall short of recommended standards across all age groups. The World Health Organization’s global physical activity report in 2022 shows that more than 80% of adolescents and 27% of adults do not meet the recommended activity levels.

Despite inactivity having adverse health effects on the individual over the course of their life, its effects also place a financial burden on them, and too, the health services, and society as a whole. Notwithstanding, a lack of fitness could lead to mental health issues, which may translate to unhealthy habits that make it harder to earn or manage money. This could lead to deeper financial problems and difficulty coping, which may lead to stress, making it harder to exercise – creating a vicious, destructive cycle that very few can pull themselves out of.

Luckily, the advent of move-to-earn (M2E) apps is changing this narrative by incentivizing exercise and making fitness and finance more accessible to everyday Americans.  Sweat Wallet, one of the leading M2E apps, aims to bring a revolutionary Web 3 app to American soil this September – democratizing fitness and finance for everyone.

How Sweat Economy Makes Fitness More Accessible

Move-to-Earn apps have been around for some time, and for exercise fanatics, you may have come across Sweatcoin app, which launched in 2015, and has grown into the largest health and fitness app. The idea behind launching Sweatcoin, as Oleg Fomenko, co-founder of Sweat Economy, states, is to “reward users for taking steps”. Since its launch, promoting global physical activity has always been the primary mission of Sweatcoin and its ecosystem, Sweat Economy. Last year, its Web 3 app, Sweat Wallet, launched with an aim to democratize fitness globally.

Deployed on the NEAR Protocol blockchain, the Web 3 fitness app introduced its native token, $SWEAT, bringing novel utilities to Sweat Economy. Sweat Wallet works in conjunction with the Sweatcoin app to track the number of steps walked and pays out $SWEAT tokens as rewards based on the daily steps walked.

In its quest to boost global physical activity levels, Sweat Wallet has also bolstered financial inclusion for millions worldwide, offering a range of financial access features that differentiate itself from its M2E rivals. The launch of Sweat Wallet in the U.S. could improve access to financial services for underprivileged communities, removing the barriers to access that have been prominent in the traditional finance industry.

Sweat Wallet Enabling Financial Inclusion in the U.S.

Financial inclusion, or access to affordable financial services, is vital to the overall economic growth of a society. While only 7% of U.S. adults lack a bank account, over 20% of the adult population remains underbanked, which explains the need for new financial systems and services.

Unlike its competitors, Sweat Wallet combines the power of physical activity and finance to ensure global financial inclusion. First, the app is a free-to-use app that just requires a smartphone to start earning. Users are rewarded with $SWEAT tokens for their first 5,000 steps daily, which can be redeemed for vouchers within the Wallet, staked to earn more tokens, or traded for other cryptocurrencies.

Nonetheless, as the user base grows, several M2E apps have faced the challenge of tokens dropping in value as more people sell off their rewards. Sweat Wallet differentiates itself with its community-driven ‘tokenomics’ model. The ecosystem has mainly selected two mechanisms to maintain the value of $SWEAT tokens, namely staking and burning tokens.

Upon the launch, Sweat Wallet will allow users in the U.S. to stake their rewards to earn even more $SWEAT tokens. Simply, users earn tokens by walking daily and agree to lock these rewards in a smart contract for a period of time – 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, or 15 months. By doing this, users receive interest on their deposits, to be paid out when the staking period ends. This removes part of the tokens in circulation temporarily, helping maintain the value of $SWEAT.

Recently, the SWEAT community voted on a proposal to repurpose over 2 billion $SWEAT tokens, the largest of its kind on the platform. Over 380,000 users participated in the decentralized governance vote, selecting to burn 90% of the tokens and the rest to conduct launches across the U.S., Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Ghana, Jamaica, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.

A Brighter Future With Move-to-Earn Apps?

The concept behind move-to-earn apps is refreshingly simple yet powerful: individuals are rewarded for their physical activity. By offering tangible rewards for engaging in physical activity, M2E apps not only help people burn more calories but bridge the gap to financial prosperity.

For Sweat Wallet users, the future looks brighter, as the litepaper shows. In the coming months, the app will add new movement activators, including cycling and swimming, new movement data analytics, and multi-chain integration on the wallet.

Image: Sweatcoin