STEPN — Past, Present and Future
From GMT Earning & Rainbow Sneakers to MOOAR and More!
STEPN is a pioneering web3 lifestyle app that took the world by storm in early 2022, spurring an industry of move & earn apps.
The premise is simple — buy a pair of NFT sneakers and earn cryptocurrency (GST & GMT tokens) while going on daily walks, jogs or runs. Use these tokens to level up in the game or cash out into stablecoins. The app is currently available on Solana, BNB Chain and Ethereum.
STEPN exploded for two reasons incredibly exciting to crypto enthusiasts.
- Mass web3 adoption potential. STEPN bridges the mainstream health, fitness & wellbeing market into crypto & web3 — a huge $200B+ addressable market.
- Real utility for NFTs. STEPN sneakers aren’t just pretty JPEGs — they’re your entry tickets into the world of gamified fitness.
This lifestyle app has uplifted the lives of thousands of players, incentivising them to get out and move every day.
In this article, I dive into the following:
- How STEPN transformed lives;
- STEPN’s story so far;
- Future of STEPN under Find Satoshi Lab’s umbrella ecosystem;
- My STEPN strategies.
New to Medium?
Join here and gain unlimited access to the best crypto & investing articles on the internet.
1. How STEPN Kicked My Butt into Gear
Prior to STEPN, I worked 14 hour days with exercise being the last thing on my mind. Bah!
I became fat, lethargic and anti-social, causing personal relationships and work performance to suffer. Further, the lack of exercise led to sleep issues that only perpetuated my spiral.
STEPN broke the cycle.
I discovered the app in May 2022 and became hooked on Day 1.
Six months in, STEPN is like a digital friend that instills and reinforces good habits every day.
My 2–3 hour walks have become integral to my daily routine, where I achieve a TON of productive things simultaneously.
- Physical health. 10,000+ steps a day does wonders for health. I’ve now clocked 1,100km on STEPN. Crazy!
- Mental health. Clear my head and get some fresh air. This is the time for me to feel alive again and reconnect to the world after staring at a screen all day.
- Posture. A sprightly walk straightens my posture after endless hours in an office chair. Might even squeeze in some physio exercises!
- Brainstorming. In addition to showers and pooping, I often get my best ideas while out on a stroll. Was that TMI?
- Learning. I save all my crypto podcasts for my walks. Enrich your brain while your brain is being enriched by blood through exercise. Synergy!
- Work. I’ll tune into some work calls or catch up on talks while out. Again, I concentrate and retain information better while breathing in the fresh air outside with the blood moving in my body.
- Money! Finally, I get to make $10–50 while doing the above. Crazy stuff.
In short, I’m making money while nurturing my health and growing professionally. That’s pretty darn cool.
2. STEPN — Development so Far
Let’s start with a bit of history.
Find Satoshi Lab
STEPN was co-founded by Yawn Rong and Jerry Huang under their web3 startup Find Satoshi Lab (FSL).
The talented duo conceived STEPN, built a prototype that garnered a top prize at Solana’s Hackathon in late 2021, and scaled the app to a cumulative million daily active users within 18 months. FSL now comprise hundreds of driven and talented people.
Statistically, this is quite an achievement for a startup.
GST & GMT
STEPN employs a novel dual-token economic system:
- Green Satoshi Token (GST) — inflationary, utility;
- Green Metaverse Token (GMT) — supply capped, governance.
The green part reflects the team’s environmental aspirations, while the Satoshi part of both Green Satoshi Token and Find Satoshi Lab alludes to the game’s original lore of Satoshi passing away, shattering into thousands of gem shards spread across the world that players collect.
For most of 2022, players earned GST for their daily jogs, which can be burnt to progress in the game like level up sneakers, fuse gems together, mint new shoeboxes and open up Mystery Boxes that contain gems.
In late September, the team released to great fanfare the long-awaited ability to earn GMT with Level 30 sneakers.
Tokenomic endgame
The plan is for the inflationary GST and deflationary GMT to stabilise each. This is incredibly difficult to pull off, and the team has calibrated the economy multiple times as players adapted (and at times exploited) the evolving metagame over time.
Should earning GMT become too profitable, market forces delivered through well-designed tokenomics should lift GST prices yet regulate runaway GMT profitability. And vice versa.
This is how it works in practice.
When GMT prices explode, every person and their dog will want to level up their sneakers to Level 30 in order to earn GMT. This encourages tons of GST burning, thus reducing its circulating supply. This lifts GST prices.
At the same time, the ecosystem will see an increasing number of GMT-earning players with L30 shoes who all share a slice of the same GMT pie. That means less rewards for each individual player.
(Same loot, but more looters. Damn!)
The result is runaway GMT profitability is quickly subdued while the GST price is uplifted. When this correction overshoots (as financial markets do), players may switch back to earning GST for awhile due to it becoming more profitable.
The takeaway is in the long run, it’s good to have two shoes: a dedicated GST earner and a dedicated GMT earner. (And perhaps a dedicated Mystery Box hunter! More on that later.)
In short, STEPN’s tokenomy is designed to be robust against sudden perturbations. Violent whale activity won’t send the entire system out of whack, as GST and GMT exert a stabilising effect on each other.
Quite clever.
Enjoying this story? Get an email when I post similar articles.
Rainbow Sneakers — Why?!
To supercharge the stabilising feedback loop between GST and GMT, the team introduced Rainbow sneakers, which fortifies the STEPN tokenomy and kills several birds with one stone.
To be sure, Rainbow sneakers are not popular with some parts of the community. However FSL wants STEPN to be here for a long time, not just a good time.
Here’s how Rainbow sneakers work.
There are special Rainbow Pools of GMT reserved for Rainbow sneaker holders, which you can score a small chance of landing by enhancing (burning) 5 other sneakers. This raises the floor price of STEPN NFT sneakers, which lifts the GST price. Nice.
Now…why bother? Are these Rainbow sneakers really that special?
Yes. The earnings are insane. We’re talking up to 100 GMT per minute, when Level 30 sneaker players (i.e. ‘Classic’ players) may only earn 10 to 30 GMT per entire walk. That’s me! Lol.
Players can also take the chance to craft Rainbow gems by upgrading (burning) 3 regular gems. Rainbow gems sell in the marketplace for an insane amount.
In theory, Rainbow sneakers and Rainbow gems lift GST and sneaker floor prices while encouraging the burning of excess gems. All incredibly helpful towards building a long-term tokenomy.
In practice, it resulted in the rich whale players — who are better for the tokenomy — subsidising the rest of us Classic Pool players who are worse.
Wait, what do you mean by better or worse?
The short story is ordinary players like you and I don’t burn enough GST and GMT because we’re too obsessed with recovering our initial investment — commonly mis-articulated as ‘ROI’. That is, we cash out more than we put in.
This is what results in GameFi economies spiralling.
STEPN whales — rich enough to burn hundreds or even thousands of sneakers or gems in order to land Rainbows — ultimately burn a significant proportion of the insane GMT they earn from their Rainbow sneakers.
This leads to the inconvenient truth that the rich whales and Rainbow players are picking up the slack for the rest of us.
They’re the ones doing far more to buttress and support the economy than we are.
They’re the ones burning a ton of GMT, reducing its circulating supply and thereby lifting GMT prices, which props up Sneaker prices — something they were already doing by burning tons of sneakers — which burns more GST, and so on.
While you and I are typically cashing out our earnings, an average Rainbow whale is injecting a large net positive capital into the economy.
In summary, the STEPN team came up with an ingenious tokenomic mechanic that leveraged a combination of whale behaviour and psychology to put a floor under sneakers and gems during a worsening market where liquidity was being withdrawn across the wider economy.
If you hate Rainbow sneakers for cannibalising your Classic sneakers — just remember that the purpose of Rainbows is ensure that STEPN survives long into the future, which ultimately means a better chance for you to recover your investment.
Attack of the Bears
As 2022 progressed, it became clear the secular bull market that began in 2013 was coming to an end.
Inflation worldwide exploded on the back of unprecedented stimulus in response to COVID-19, and later, an economic and kinetic war that continues to rage in Europe.
Central banks, spearheaded by the US Federal Reserve, began withdrawing liquidity from markets while hiking interest rates to tackle spiralling inflation and commodity prices.
Risk-on assets like growth & technology stocks plummeted. The $3 trillion crypto market followed suit, exacerbated by the collapse of several major players across the space: Terra’s $LUNA & $UST (biggest algorithmic stablecoin), Celsius Network (major crypto bank) and Three Arrows Capital (major crypto VC).
Like most crypto projects, STEPN hasn’t been immune to a downturn in both active players and token prices.
In every market cycle crypto bear market, the majority of projects without a solid business use case die. Funding, execution and vision become crucial as ever.
The projects that survive and thrive through bear markets are the ones that innovate out of them. They don’t stop building.
Build build build.
And that’s what Find Satoshi Lab has been doing around the clock.
3. Future of STEPN
In the STEPNverse, October 2022 represents a calm before the storm. The hype surrounding GMT earnings had subsided, the monthly Town Hall was cancelled and we saw a flurry of team activity emphasising #FSL and #MOOAR.
What’s going on?
In short, the ambitious team is expanding to build something beyond just STEPN— a broader crypto ecosystem of amazing frontend apps that’s supported by backend innovations.
All of this is underpinned by GMT that ultimately rotates value back to STEPN players.
Let me explain.
Find Satoshi Labs ecosystem: DOOAR, MOOAR and more!
Crypto trends come and go.
Early in 2021, DeFi dominated the altcoin scene during the initial BTC rally to $60,000 before Elon Musk’s antics spurred an explosion in memecoins in Q2. Those were exuberant times.
After a short mid-year bear market, Metaverse, GameFi and DeFi 2.0 emerged as the hottest areas in the second half of the year.
The crypto market is a melting pot of innovation, trends and speculation.
Whatever the next trend, the FSL team wants to be there to seize the moment, with GMT at the fore.
In June 2022, STEPN released their own decentralised exchange called DOOAR. It quickly became Solana’s biggest DEX, ensuring FSL’s presence in the Solana exchange space and a steady source of revenue for the team’s development activities. Cashflow is particularly important during a bear market.
In October, STEPN teased the release of their own NFT marketplace called MOOAR, which will be going up against the 800 pound gorilla in the Solana room, Magic Eden. I wrote about MOOAR’s value proposition here.
There’s a lot more exciting stuff coming, but you’ll have to be patient!
Hold on — what about STEPN?
I hear you. You’re a STEPNer. How does all of the above benefit STEPN?
The answer is GMT underpins all of FSL’s offerings, so that the success of any app under the FSL umbrella improves the value proposition of the GMT token.
And as different FSL apps occupy different niches of the crypto market, GMT continues to stay relevant as the market evolves.
To put it more simply:
- Success in one FSL product benefits all FSL products;
- GMT is supported at all times by the latest crypto trends.
When NFTs explode again in the next bull market, FSL’s MOOAR will be there to take advantage, benefitting GMT and thus STEPN players.
When the hype around DeFi returns to Q2 2021 levels at the next bull market, FSL’s DOOAR will be there to take advantage, benefitting GMT and thus STEPN players.
You get the idea.
GMT as a Crypto Index?
With this understanding, GMT (in my eyes) might eventually establish a reputation as a crypto index of sorts, similar to the NASDAQ or innovation ETFs like ARKK in the growth segment of the stock market.
This makes GMT a diversified investment.
Different crypto niches like DeFi, NFTs and GameFi (not dissimilar to different sectors in the stock market like banking, energy and tech) might alternate up and down, but the entire market — represented by an evolved GMT supported by a basket of diversified apps and use cases — will thrive as long as crypto and web3 thrives.
This transforms GMT from a riskier single use case token — tied to the success of STEPN alone — into a picks and shovels investment that benefits from the success of so many diversified products across web3.
That’s incredibly exciting.
4. My STEPN strategies
I could go on for hours, but the short version is I am excited to play STEPN for years to come and want to get the best possible GMT-earning shoes that I can get my hands on.
For a single GMT shoe setup, I’d suggest a CCLL sneaker because daily GMT-earning is uncapped, making it especially synergistic with Mystery Box hunting. Right now my Rare walker gets me 30 GMT and a L6/7 box for every 20 energy walk.
More committed players might want separate LLLL and CCCC shoes to optimise their Mystery Box and GMT earning repertoire. Deploy their CCCC on non-MB days and LLLL on MB days. Wonderful.
How to get these beautiful sneakers?
One can craft them through the 5-sneaker enhancement mechanic, or search for the perfect pair on the marketplace.
I personally prefer the marketplace (actually, I’m addicted to the STPEN marketplace and tools like STEPN Market Guide!) but this means I’m forfeiting the chance to land a lucrative Rainbow sneaker! Tricky stuff eh?
Don’t forget GST.
STEPN’s tokenomics is set up so that GMT’s success should mean GST’s success.
As a result, I’m still working to level up my Efficiency gems. Aside from GST-earning being more profitable on particular days, better Efficiency gems will mean less energy spent fill up your daily GST cap (mine is currently at 320 GST/day). This means more energy set aside for GMT earning each day. Excellent.
Finally, macroeconomic concerns. The white elephant in the room.
Are you sitting on the sidelines with some white powder? Eyeing that juicy L5 Luck gem on the marketplace like me? LOL!
Do you believe there’s further downside to go until the equities/crypto markets bottom? In that case, it might make more sense to wait for a better deal down the line. A common investor view is the crypto market valuation could slide another 40–50%. DYOR.
Maybe you’d rather YOLO in now, convinced all those better and tastier mystery boxes will be worth it? That’s fair enough too.
Lots to think about. Let me know if you’d like a dedicated strategy article. There is much to talk about! Until then…adios and happy STEPNing!
Follow me on Twitter & YouTube for regular analyses and guides.
My Crypto Articles
- Unlock unlimited access to Medium by joining here.
- When Will the Bear Market End? Macro 101 for Crypto Investors
- A Review of the Cryptocurrency Market in 2022
- Web3 Gaming — What do Crypto, NFTs & Metaverse offer?
- FTX’s Collapse & Solana’s Long-term Impact
- Polygon & Solana — 6 Killer Crypto/NFT Use Cases
- A Brief History of NFT Marketplaces
- Compound Interest is the 7th Wonder of the World
- How to Generate Passive Income with Crypto
- Crypto Passive Income on BNB Chain
- Move & Earn Crypto — 6 Month Review of STEPN
- PancakeSwap’s High APY Pools — What’s the Catch?
- Cardano, Avalanche, Solana Staking Guides (2022)
- Cardano, Avalanche, Solana Price Predictions (Bull Market)
- How to Make Crypto Price Predictions
- Top 3 Price Prediction Mistakes
- Crypto VISA Cards — Cashbacks for Every Purchase?
- How to Build Wealth like Smart Money
- Is Crypto.com’s Earn Program Worth It?
- Understanding Terra’s Anchor Protocol
- How to Participate in Initial DEX Offerings
- Memecoin Speculation — Is It Worth It?
- Why SHIB Can Never Reach $1 (or even close)
- Want to Retire Early? Buy Bitcoin
- Democrats vs Republicans — Which Party Better for Markets?
