STEPN (GMT): Move to Earn with Incentivized Fitness

What Is STEPN?

STEPN is a Solana-based move-to-earn (M2E) game developed by the Australian financial technology (FinTech) firm Find Satoshi Lab. After winning the Solana Ignition hackathon (Gaming Track), the team behind STEPN secured a USD 5 million seed round with which the platform was built. STEPN is the first web3 fitness application to achieve widespread usage and notoriety, in addition to introducing a new way to interact with the crypto ecosystem.

The platform — the first web3 fitness app of its kind — incentivizes movement by rewarding users for walking, jogging, or running outdoors via interactions with non-fungible token (NFT) sneakers. Here’s how it works: STEPN tracks your footsteps (much like a pedometer) and rewards users with tokens based on your steps. These STEPN tokens can then be exchanged, or used to purchase and mint NFT sneakers — all of which can provide rarity-dependant benefits to users.

To participate, you need to download the STEPN move-to-earn app and deposit solana (SOL) or bnb chain (BNB) to the in-app crypto wallet to purchase sneakers. Then, you can start exercising, and be rewarded for your activity via interacting with tokens and your STEPN NFT sneakers. Before we delve further into the specifics of gameplay, let’s go over the basic modes and unique tokenomics of the STEPN crypto platform.

STEPN Game Modes

STEPN NFT users can choose to participate and earn using three different STEPN app modes: solo, marathon, and background:

• Solo mode: In solo mode, a user can earn tokens by moving. Green satoshi token (GST) rewards depend on your level of physical activity and the rarity and attributes of the sneakers you own.

• Marathon mode: If users opt to participate in weekly or monthly marathon competitions, they must register for each race 24 hours before starting the event.

• Background mode: Users can earn GST without the app when they own at least one sneaker pair. When the STEPN app is off, background mode pulls the step count from the mobile device’s health data. Steps achieved in background mode will not reduce sneaker endurance.

STEPN Tokenomics

Two different STEPN tokens power the ecosystem; the green satoshi token (GST) and the green metaverse token (GMT). Each of these unique digital assets fulfills a specific purpose on the platform.

GST: The STEPN Gaming Token

The GST token has an unlimited supply and serves as the gaming token in the STEPN ecosystem. GST crypto rewards are used to incentivize STEPN users, and can only be earned if users move in specific game finance (GameFi) modes. These are the different in-game events during which STEPN integrates GST:

• Shoe minting

• Sneaker repairs

• Leveling up STEPN NFT sneakers

• Unlocking sockets

• Upgrading gems

The GST utility token does not require any investment other than the time and effort needed to earn it by walking, jogging, or running. It’s worth noting that while there is an unlimited supply of GST, inflation of the supply is managed by removing GST tokens from circulation whenever one of the above actions is completed.

GMT: The STEPN Governance Token

GMT acts as the STEPN governance token, and can be used to level up a sneaker set through a number of means. GMT tokens also provide access to premium game content or gated activities. Several in-game rules govern GMT crypto distribution. For example, only sneakers that have reached Level 30 are eligible to swap GMT with USD coin (USDC).

There are a number of benefits to holding GMT tokens on the STEPN platform:

• Permanently improves the chance of receiving extra sneakers when minting shoes

• Reaching levels 5, 10, 20, 29, and 30

• Permanently improves the success of gem upgrade after level 4

• Helps users mint rare, legendary, and epic sneakers

• Permanently improves the chances of winning high-quality NFT sneakers from a shoebox opening

• Enables the redistribution of attribute points

• Pays for sneaker customization fees

Now that we’ve seen how GST and GMT tokens power the STEPN ecosystem, we can start to examine gameplay on the platform in more detail.

How Does STEPN Work?

All NFT sneakers on the STEPN crypto marketplace are categorized as Walker, Jogger, Runner, or Trainer depending on the average speed of the wearer. Each speed translates to different GST crypto rewards per “energy” unit. Energy is how many minutes a user gets for exercising with specific NFT sneakers — here’s how it breaks down:

• Walker (1 - 6 km/hr):  4 GST / Per 1 Energy

• Jogger (4 - 10 km/hr) 5 GST / Per 1 Energy

• Runner (8 - 20 km/hr) 6 GST / Per 1 Energy 

• Trainer (1 - 20 km/hr) 4 - 6.25 GST / Per 1 Energy

As the tiers point out, the faster a user is expected to move, the more GST tokens they receive per minute of exercise. In addition to these core categories, each sneaker has a resilience, efficiency, and comfort score. These features all contribute to the energy caps of particular sneakers. This energy cap is crucial to consider, because it limits how many GST tokens STEPN NFT sneakers can earn.