This NFT pays you to exercise
GM, we take the latest Web3 news and translate it into plain old English - so you can stay up to date, without your eyes glazing over.
In today’s edition:
This NFT pays you to exercise...and the payout token just went from .01c to $3.45
Robinhood breaks in to the UK market and brings easy access to crypto with it
RESOURCE: What is MetaMask? (and why you should know) ~6min
Coinbase throws shade at The SEC's new definitions, saying it 'just doesn’t work'.
This NFT pays you to exercise...and the payout token just went from .01c to $3.45
End total: .66 km/.4 miles walked -> 10.86 GST earned (~$48 USD)
Web3 shifts user incentive structures in weird and wonderful ways.
'Use this because it's cool' turns into 'use this because it's cool AND you get paid for it'.
The Step'n app (available on Android and iOS) is the perfect example of this new incentive structure in action.
The app pays you to exercise (!) Here's how it works:
You download the app and get an activation code from the Discord (heads up: it's a slug to get the code!)
Buy a Step'n sneaker NFT (they're not cheap, about $1100 USD)
Exercise each day to earn Step'n tokens
(each walk/jog/run, from our experience, earns you ~$20 at the start and increases as you level up)
The Step'n tokens (GST & GMT, more on them later) can be converted into USDC stablecoins or Solana's SOL token in app.
Step'n donates its own reserves of GMT token to buy carbon offsets.
The app is gamified to incentivize users to spend their GST in app, on things like higher earning capacities, instead of cashing out (cheeeky).
So what's the difference between GST & GMT?
GST is the token you earn in the beginning - it's the in-app version of cash.
GMT is the token you can earn once your NFT sneaker reaches level 30.
For context, the cheapest sneakers will start at level 5. To level up, you need to spend about a days worth of earnings.
(that's how they get ya!)
The GMT token acts as an in app version of cash and a governance token for carbon offsetting.
Meaning, the more GMT you hold, the more voting power you get when deciding how much money Step'n should put towards buying carbon offsets.
The cool part of the earnings system is that you pretty much get the same amount of GST / GMT each day, regardless of its price. So if you're earning 10 GST per day and it's price goes from $1 to $10 - your earnings just 10x'd without you doing anything.
Speaking of...what's this chatter in the title about the GMT token going from .01c to $3.45?
Yeah, well, that happened! And it happened fast, in just over a month and a half.
(Pity our sneaker is only at Level 14 and can only earn GST).
Our armchair analysis of why this might have happened (beyond Step'n's positive earnings report) is a combination of:
Hype - just try and get one of the 1000 activation codes released per day and you'll see what we're talking about.
Utility - the crypto community loves a project with real world use cases.
Community - if you want to predict a projects longevity, start by looking at its community.
Robinhood breaks in to the UK market and brings easy access to crypto with it
If you can't beat em', buy em'.
Robinhood just bought the UK crypto trading platform 'Ziglu'.
They were planning to enter the UK market on their own two years ago, but the pandemic had them (and every other company in the world) scrambling to cut potentially risky ventures.
So why buy Ziglu? Especially when they have a quarter million names on their UK waiting list.
To put it simply: buying Ziglu is the path of least resistance. The UK has some pretty stringent anti-money laundering regulations around crypto. By purchasing Ziglu, Robinhood can skip all of that.
So yes, on the surface, this article isn't as sugary and exciting as our last...but it is an important one.
Say what you will about Robinhood, but their app is super user friendly - and the easier the point of entry into Web3 / crypto, the quicker the adoption.
Resource of the day
What is MetaMask?
(and why you should know)
~6min
Coinbase throws shade at The SEC's new definitions, saying it 'just doesn’t work'.
Have you ever tried out a new look and had a partner / friend / family member look at it and tell you it 'just doesn’t work'.
No? Just us? Cool cool cool...
Well, Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, just threw the exact same shade at The SEC's new outfit (aka their new regulatory definitions).
He pretty much said: Look, there're all of these new definitions that could impact crypto, but you haven't told us if/how they will impact it. Tell us the rules, so we can play by them dangnabbit!
Obviously that's not a direct quote, but our own interpretation of what Grewal is saying.
We worried that if we were to use direct quotes about "non-firm trading interest and communications protocols", we might bore you to death - and we care about your health!
All of this adds to the growing demand from the crypto community, for clear and fair regulatory guidelines on blockchain technology.
Let's hope we get them soon, because the moment they exist, the blockchain industry gets the 'green light' to go mainstream.
Your Daily Dose of Web3
Jack Dorsey says Ethereum has ‘many single points of failure’
North Korean hackers are targeting blockchain companies with malicious crypto-stealing apps
Alright, that’s it for this Hump Day!
Love to the people,