StepN

Exercising has been heavily emphasized by medical practitioners as one of the major ways to get healthy and physically fit. Apart from having this as a common knowledge, we know how difficult it can be for some people to stay faithful to this routine continuously. 

One of the easiest ways to motivate people is to offer them money ????????. Honestly, this tactic works wonders as long as the reward is high enough to keep people engaged.

Imagine getting paid money to stay in shape! As crazy as it sounds, this concept has emerged in the Solana world. In this article, we are going to do a deep dive into the hottest “walk-to-earn” app on the market right now. Let’s jump into our StepN review.

Introducing STEPN 

In August of 2021, Jerry Huang and Yawn Rong started the little web3 project known as StepN, and the rest is history. Since it’s inception, the project has gained over half a million followers on the official twitter page and has become the most popular pay to earn app on Solana.

STEPN is the first GPS-based Web3 NFT application (or game) that requires you to literally move around in order to play.

Players earn tokens by choosing to walk, Jog or by run outdoors. The rewards are calculated by how much energy is consumed during the activity!

By partaking in the StepN ecosystem and exercising, you earn tokens based on the what activities you have participated in within the allocated time frame per day. Rewards are divided up to all the users who are using the app.

Let’s take a look at what it takes to get started earning money with StepN. We will go over the different StepN shoes attributes, show you how to buy StepN, what minting sneakers means, and look at the tokens ($GST + $GMT)

How to Download StepN

Go to the official application store on your mobile phone.

1. Search for Stepn app (IOS, Android) and download 

2. Sign-up with your email address

Activation Codes

You will need a StepN activation code to start using the app and play the game. Unfortunately, finding one can be difficult if you do not know where to look.

Luckily, you have a few options. If you have a friend who has spent 10 Energy on their account, they will earn an activation code, for example. Have your friends check inside the app to see their available codes.

Another option is getting it from the StepN official discord and telegram channels. You can also join the Soladex Discord Server. Staking over 1 SOL with our validator unlocks the whitelist-drops channel where you can regularly find activation codes.

Once you have an activation code, it’s easy to start using StepN. Here are the three steps to earning crypto with StepN:

1. Create your Wallet
2. Buy the NFT Sneakers available on the marketplace.
3. Start using the app (i.e., exercising and earning)

Let’s explore all the features included in the StepN app and then we will show you how to start earning GST on StepN!

StepN Game Modes

Players can play the StepN game by assuming different roles as they deem fit. These are:

Solo Mode

In this mode, you will need to acquire Sneakers NFT and start moving (i.e., exercising actively) to start earning GST/GMT tokens. Factors needed to earn maximally are Energy available, Sneaker type, it’s efficiency etc. 

Marathon Mode

This is a category that is more like a competition. You sign with a small registration fee for it and you pledge to run a certain kilometer during this period of the competition. Failure to complete the tasks means your initial registration fee is forfeited and the funds combined for the leaderboard rewards.

Background Mode

In this mode, users do not need to actively use the STEPN app, so far they have a Sneaker in the app, their steps are recorded using the mobile phone’s Health Data application. This data on how their activity will be used to send them rewards. 

StepN NFT Store

The StepN NFT store consists of their collectible Sneakers. It is currently trading at a little above 13 SOL floor on Magic Eden, an NFT marketplace on Solana. 

Types of Shoes

There are different StepN shoes for different purposes. The main reason why you are using Stepn should be specific because it will determine some of the things you need to make use of. An example is the type of shoes to buy. The following are the StepN shoes category: 

Walker

A walker is one does the Walking exercise. This category has a minimum speed that fluctuates between 1-6 Km/h per energy expended. This means the walker has to move a distance of 0.16 – 1 km in 10 minutes or 0.48 km in 30 minutes.

Jogger

A Jogger moves with a speed that is faster than that of the Walking crew. This category has a minimum speed that fluctuates between 4-6 Km/h per energy expended. This means the Jogger has to move a distance of 0.66 – 1 km in 10 minutes or 1.98 – 3km.

Runner

A Runner moves with 8 – 20km per energy used in this category. This category has a minimum speed that fluctuates between 1-6 Km/h per energy expended. This means the  has to move a distance of 1.33 – 3.33 km in 10 minutes.

Trainer

For the final category, the Trainer has a minimum speed of 1 – 20 km/h to cover in 1 energy. For example, in 20 minutes, the trainer must cover about 0.33 – 6.66 km.

StepN Gems

Gems are used to grant new attributes for users’ sneakers. Once your Sneakers reach a certain level in the game, you will have a Gem Socket unlocked for you. This Gem Sockets allows you to insert the Gems that grants you access to enhance your Sneakers. 

Sneaker Attributes Explained

The following are some attributes of the Sneaker NFTs found in the game: 

Efficiency 

In the Solo Mode, the higher the Efficiency attribute of your NFT, the higher the GST earnings you will be receiving with respect to the Energy spent. 

In the Marathon Mode, the higher the Efficiency, the faster you are able to earn more points to rank higher in the leaderboard category.

Luck

Luck is the rate at which a user receives a Mystery Box drop. This Luck also determines the quality of the drop received. 

Resilience

The higher the Resilience attribute of a Sneaker, the slower its decay rate. This makes the Sneaker more durable and allows you to continue earning for longer before needing to repair your shoes.

StepN Energy Explained

Just as you need gas fees to process transactions on Solana, Energy in StepN is the gas needed for you to earn with the activities you are performing. So far you have Energy, all your walking, jogging and running will culminate to earnings but if you do not have, these activities won’t translate into the tokens to be earned. 

How fast does StepN energy recharge?

Energy is replenished after at a 25% rate for every 6 hours. So, in a 24-hour cycle, your Energy is back to 100% and ready to be used maximally. To get more Energy in StepN, you can buy more trainers. Another way to increase your chances of getting more Energy, you can acquire a rare sneaker – Uncommon: +1 Energy, Rare Sneaker: +2 Energy, Epic Sneaker: +3 Energy, Legendary Sneaker +4 Energy. (Please note that Sneakers are NFTs used to play in-game).

Minting New StepN Shoes

An alternative to buying new StepN shoes is to mint them by combining two sneakers together to create a third one. This will cost you some of your GST/GMT tokens to mint.

After minting, the sneakers enter into a cooling mode whereby you can’t mint with them again until after 48 hours. You might think, why not just be minting more sneakers one after the other once the cooling period is over? The cost of minting increases on sneakers that has been used to mint before. It is better to not mint with the sneakers again once they have been used for minting more than one time. Just buy another one. 

Repairing Shoes

Since there is a rate at which your sneakers wear out with respect to its durability, you will be needing periodic repairs. To repair, just click on the Sneaker you want to get fixed and slide the bar to get the sneaker health to 100% if you like… or 95%. Some prefer to wait till it’s a little above 50% before repairing it. 

Spending $GMT

The governance token $GMT is earned from the activities performed (such as running, jogging, walking etc.). After earning these tokens, a user can convert them to SOL keep them or they can use it to buy Sneakers and other useful in-game assets. 

StepN Tokenomics

STEPN uses a dual-token model. Users earn GST by moving around the city. The more you move, the more you earn. You can also spend your GST to repair shoes. Levelling up your shoes earns you GMT tokens. These tokens can be used to upgrade the sneakers. The total amount of GMT token supply is halved every 3 years. Team and private sales are subject to vesting.

GST Token

This is the Utility Token earned by players. The token is unlimited. 

GMT Token

This is the Governance token of StepN. They following are ways in which they have allocated the tokens:

1. Move and Earn: 30%
2. Ecosystem/Treasury: 30%
3. Private Sale: 16.3%
4. Launchpad Sale: 7%
5. Team Allocation: 14.2%
6. Advisors: 2.5%

Team

StepN was founded by Yawn Rong who previously founded Crypto SA, a crypto fund and auditor. Yawn Rong has also been appointed as an ambassador for AlgoRand and as an industry representative for the South Australian Blockchain Association (SABA). The team also consists of Jessica Duan as the chief strategy officer and Ryan Turner as the lead designer.

StepN Earnings Log: Our Experience

Our veteran degen, Hanko, purchased a pair of StepN walking sneakers to see what all the hype was about. We thought it would be a good idea to keep track of our earnings over time.

To start, we purchased a pair of walking sneakers from inside the StepN app for 12.9 SOL. When doing these types of earnings logs, it’s helpful to minimize how often you swap from token to token. To simplify things and to DCA as much as possible, we are only swapping GST to USD once at the end of each week.

With SOL at $53 at the time we purchased the sneakers NFT, our total cost out the gate to get started with StepN is $683.70

Week 1 Earnings: $115.91

GST price at time of swap: $2.65

Date	Steps	Distance (km)	$GST Earned
May 15, 2022	1440	1.02	0.00
May 16, 2022	1162	0.88	8.34
May 18, 2022	1451	0.78	6.01
May 19, 2022	1244	0.94	8.23
May 20, 2022	723	0.49	4.99
May 21, 2022	1377	1.00	8.36
May 22, 2022	1676	1.63	8.01

Week 2 Earnings: $62.97

GST price at time of swap: $1.14

Date	Steps	Distance (km)	$GST Earned
May 23, 2022	1330	1.01	8.36
May 24, 2022	2258	1.93	7.73
May 25, 2022	2119	1.38	5.51
May 26, 2022	1709	1.34	7.78
May 27, 2022	1091	0.77	6.73
May 28, 2022	1317	1.03	8.65
May 29, 2022	1669	1.33	7.58
May 30, 2022	370	0.27	2.90

One week later and the price of GST has fallen over 50% since we started! This batch of earnings came out to $62.97, which brings the total earnings to $178.88 since the journey began.

Week 3 Earnings: $20.94

GST price at time of swap: $0.38

Date	Steps	Distance (km)	$GST Earned
May 31, 2022	1259	1.05	6.35
June 1, 2022	1228	1	9.76
June 2, 2022	1410	1.06	7.45
June 3, 2022	1103	0.77	9.09
June 5, 2022	1781	1.43	12.77
June 6, 2022	1299	1.05	9.70

During the third week of walking with StepN, I puled in a total of 55.12 GST. Unfortunately the USD price for GST has dropped again. This marks the third week in a row that the price has fallen by more than 50%. If we had to guess, this trend will continue. Will we ever ROI on our investment? We’re going to find out!