An Intro to STEPN: The NFT Mobile Game That Pays You to Exercise

STEPN, a web 3.0 NFT lifestyle game based on the Solana network, holds that users must own a pair of its sneakers to play the game. So its token tracks various attributes of sneakers used by players to run a specific distance and speed at any point. The team released 99,999 of these sneakers as NFTs to the community in December 2021. And it has gathered a volume of 47,500 SOL so far, all thanks to the team’s goals.

Like the Okay Bears, there are essential lessons you’ll learn from STEPN. So let’s peep at this decentralized game community and what it stands for.

STEPN has a Consistent Market and Social Stat

STEPN market and social community have grown consistently since its 2021 launch. Of course, this consistency shows that its Game-Fi elements commemorate its Social goals. Its traded volume isn’t nearly close to Okay Bears’, though. But STEPN has a whopping Twitter community of well over 600,000 members, and 480,400 members are on Discord as of writing — -far more than the Okay Bears community.

Looking at these market stats from Moonly, STEPN’s performance has increased steadily since the team launched it:

Although STEPN appears to some as a mere game, it adds more benefits to human health than meets the eye. The platform brings social interaction and physical exercise into gaming by grooming a community of users who will play a real-life web 3.0 game and earn some SOL.

What Is STEPN All About?

STEPN is a web 3.0 application that offers a physical exercise utility NFT. Its NFTs work in a way that rewards its holders for walking, jogging, or running a certain distance. So it’s right to refer to it as a move and earn web 3.0 utility. STEPN’s official governance token or coin, GMT, worth $1.39 as of writing, was launched in March 2022. And it’s one of the reward currencies on the platform.

We’ve seen many gaming NFTs come on the radar, but STEPN is unique for integrating the actual act into web 3.0.

STEPN’s NFT is beyond the art. Indeed, it’s gained popularity for delivering value to its teeming community. STEPN holds that the earth will benefit from the project via its donation towards carbon offsetting.

Although you must hold at least one of their sneakers before you can play, the project values are clear. First, you earn rewards in GST or GMT coins for playing STEPN’s game — so you can be a holder and still get decent returns on investment. Secondly, you’ll participate in physical exercise. If you’re consistent, you might burn calories and stay healthy. Notably, you can also put your NFTs for sale as you would any other and earn royalty — it’s all up to you.

How STEPN Deals With Cheating

It’s normal to think that cheating is unavoidable in the STEPN’s movement game since there are no spectators. But STEPN has put some work into the system to check cheating folks.

For instance, moonwalking, a pretense to be walking, where you glide back and forth in a position, isn’t achievable while playing the game. STEPN uses your device’s GPS and motion sensor to grab your geolocation and monitor location changes to combat this. It combines these with machine learning to prevent holders from cheating the system via jailbroken devices or sneakers transfer. Hence, there’s hardly a way to cheat the system without moving and changing positions.

Why Does STEPN Have a Large Community?

While players will earn incentives for moving, STEPN doesn’t make this the sole benefit of the game. Indeed, it prioritizes community building over gameplay. The team has plans. And this is glaring with how it handles the gaming utility, blending social interaction into the game to ignite fun and give players a sense of belonging.

Further, this action means people will keep joining the train and are unlikely to dump the game even if ROI drops. We’ve seen rugs and profit-motivated NFT projects in the crypto-verse, but STEPN isn’t one of them, as members’ long-term commitment and growth are more prime to the project.

These are evident in its impressive community and market growth trend; this result is consistent with a statement released on its Twitter handle on the 29th of December, 2021.

STEPN is a sustainable project, and for what it’s worth, the community isn’t only huge but also solid.

Wrapping Up: Is a STEPN Worth It?

Considering the trends from the stats and the project’s goals and whitepaper, it’s safe to say getting a STEPN now is worth it. Although we can’t dispute that the gain behind a project is one of its attractive factors, STEPN offers more than the profit. So while you might flip STEPN sneakers, health benefits, social interaction, and fun are among the few other perks you get.