While many people associate exercise with high-intensity cardio, weight-lifting, or sweaty sessions in the gym, it turns out there is a more straightforward, more impactful way to exercise – walking. We all walk to some extent – whether it is a few steps within the house or outside to catch a breath of fresh air. Walking has been shown to be an essential workout for maintaining overall health.
While it may not seem as tough or intensive as other gym workouts, walking has been shown to have a significant impact on improving both your physical and mental health. Walking has been linked to many positive health benefits, including reducing cholesterol levels, decreased levels of markers of inflammation, and decreased blood pressure. Notwithstanding, medical experts suggest walking could also help to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, as well as prevent several types of cancer.
In addition, walking has been linked to better memory and attention tests, better neuro connections, and regeneration of brain cells. A new study published in The Times UK shows that regular walks strengthen connections in the brain, enhancing memory and cognitive powers. According to a New Yorker journalist, Ferris Jabr, walking can also help us pace our thoughts, assisting in creating new ideas, improving sleep cycles, and reducing cases of anxiety and depression.
However, with today’s busy schedules and work-from-home structures, most people do not get the recommended steps to keep fit. People need extra motivation to put down the TV remote and switch off Netflix and take a walk outside to increase their daily steps. And what better motivation than money?
The significant benefits of walking should be enough to push me out of my couch every day for at least 30 minutes, but rarely will I be motivated to go outside and take the daily walk. However, if you ask me to take a 30-minute daily walk to earn money, I would find the energy to do so.
This is precisely what the Sweatcoin app is aiming for — to boost physical activity worldwide by incentivizing users to walk. The move-to-earn Web 3 app rewards users with their native $SWEAT tokens for every 1,000 steps walked daily. To start earning, users simply need to download the mobile app from Google Play Store or Apple Store and start walking.
While in the past, most walk-to-earn apps have offered rewards to motivate physical activity amongst their users, Sweatcoin, brings in valuable rewards that can be traded for other cryptocurrencies or help users gain discounts on products and services within the Sweat Wallet app. As such, Sweat Economy encourages millions of users to exercise by paying them to walk daily, positively impacting their physical and mental health.
Critically, the Sweatcoin app creates value for its users by offering instant rewards (you are paid as you walk), building a solid community that motivates the user to keep walking, built-in competitions and rewards, and a marketplace that allows users to spend or donate their $SWEAT tokens.
As the popularity of the Sweatcoin app grew, the creators at Sweat Economy recognized the potential of combining fitness incentives with gamification elements. This led to the birth of Sweat Hero, an NFT-powered game that revolutionizes the move-to-earn industry by infusing fun and excitement into exercise routines. It allows players to wager and compete in a head-to-head battle, whereby the player with the most steps wins the wager.
By gamifying fitness through Sweat Hero, Sweat Economy aims to tackle the issue of maintaining motivation for regular exercise. The competitive nature of the game encourages users to push their limits and strive for higher step counts. As a result, this gamification approach fosters a sense of achievement and community engagement among users as they bond over shared fitness goals and friendly competitions.
As the world continues to grapple with health challenges stemming from sedentary lifestyles, the Sweatcoin app and Sweat Hero exemplify how technological innovations can promote physical activity and positively impact people’s lives. By harnessing the power of blockchain, gamification, and financial rewards, these initiatives have the potential to revolutionize how we approach fitness and well-being in the digital age.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.