Why Blockchain is a Game-changer for Fitness

There are blockchain-powered applications in countless industries, but in the world of fitness, the technology has found some of its most compelling use cases.

It’s not without its challenges, however, and not all fitness apps on the market get the delicate balancing act of tokenization right. Apart from that, blockchain’s architecture lends itself to suitability for reasons we intend to summarize in this article.

Blockchain for fitness

Blockchain presents a compelling opportunity for the fitness and health industry, which is why we’ve seen a number of startups leverage distributed ledger technology to power their apps. Using blockchain technology, fitness apps can provide richer data with clearer and more personalized improvement goals. This in turn can improve the way individuals exercise to better achieve their health and fitness goals.

Even better, the introduction of blockchain technology opens up incentive schemes that the sector previously did not enjoy. Blockchain – together with cryptocurrency – makes it possible for next-generation fitness apps to reward their users financially as well. This concept is often referred to in the industry with the term move-to-earn or M2E. Simply put, the more you move, the more you earn.

One project that uses this model to get users off the couch and into their sneakers is Sweat Economy, which stands out as the world’s most downloaded fitness app with an incredible 120 million users. The app, which runs on Android and Apple devices, has topped the download charts in 58 countries.

The platform is powered by SWEAT tokens, a cryptocurrency that incentivizes and rewards healthy behavior from users. Normally, you have to become active to qualify to receive SWEAT – but when the Web3 app launched, the company conducted an airdrop, giving 13.5 million users 4.7 billion newly created crypto tokens.

The token drop represented the company’s shift from web2 to web3, with users’ efforts tokenized on the Near blockchain. Sweat economy continues to be at the epicenter of this burgeoning fitness frontier, but as with all frontiers, there are pitfalls and hidden dangers.

Mistakes can be made

Not all blockchain fitness apps get the tokenization process right. For every sweat economy, there are more apps that stumble and fall without finding the Goldilocks zone of sustainability.

Tokenization is not a risk-free process and some apps, notably Stepn, have been accused of “ponzi economics”. These apps, often quite unintentionally, create token models that simply cannot sustain in the long term. That doesn’t mean they are a scam by any means; it is quite easy to say that their token models are designed in a way that could eventually lead to the formation of a Ponzi-like effect.

With these apps, the early adopters of the technology are doing well – far too well. Later adopters get almost nothing at all, no matter how hard they try. A user can go from obesity to a Mr. Olympia title and still not earn enough to cover an annual gym membership.

For the users who lose, it is of little consolation that this Ponzi effect is borne out of foolishness rather than malice. Eventually, most users lose patience, and the whole house of cards collapses.

Because Sweat Economy built its business in the Web2 era, it grew using a sustainable business model before the prospect of tokenization was even considered. The platform monetized the company through in-app advertising and sponsorships rather than speculative token trading and hype marketing.

According to Growjo, the estimated annual revenue of the Sweat Economy is $26.7 million per year. With a sustainable business model and an incentive scheme that works like a high-end treadmill, the future of blockchain in fitness looks bright.