Sweatcoin launches in the USA with move-to-earn crypto rewards

0:01I'm Ashton Addison and today on the crypto coin  show we have Oleg Fomenko co-founder of swep   economy Oleg welcome to the show and thank you for  taking the time thank you very much for having me   here Ashton very welcome I'm I'm excited to dive  into move to earn and just getting fit you   know some especially when you're in blockchain you  get stuck on the computer I feel like everybody's  

0:22getting stuck on the computer a little bit too  long nowadays and it's important to exercise   but also if there's incentives to do so that's  great as well so I would love to dive into   sweat economy the recent launch of the application  but let's kick it off from the top I know   that you have a history in building exercise  and tech apps to do with sweat as well this  

0:47isn't the first one so you have quite a history  of it I'd love to hear a little bit of your story   leading up to sweat economy and then we'll dive  into the latest details great question Ashton    I'll probably start with saying say that I looked  at the coin for the first time in 2011 but I was   really really not terribly clever because I got  hooked on technology and read white paper and you  

1:12know kind of few Publications that were around  I did not buy few thousand of them and they were   only 20 cents each but you know I've been told  that there are plenty of people like that around   so you know I'm not feeling terribly bad about it  MH but then fast forward to 2014 and we started   having conversations with my co-founders about  the question why aren't we as physically active  

1:38as we want to be and everyone would start sort  of citing motivation money time energy you know   everyone's got sort of explanation why they cannot  go to the gym as many times as they want to or why   they don't go for a run in the morning and what  we realized very quickly was that the issue in   the culprit is none of those things the issue is  nature nature did not build us to be active nature  

2:08build us to survive which means preserve calories  as opposed to spend them and unless there is a   very very good reason to spend those calories we  would simply sit around the fire and we would run   there as Mammoth showed up because then it's food  we try to kill it to preserve you know kind of to   have some calories for the tribe or we would  run if say the TR tiger is about to make food  

2:30out of us you know then we'll be just you know  saving ourselves MH in all other circumstances we   wouldn't be you know kind we wouldn't be moving  we wouldn't be doing pull-ups push-ups you know   kind of looking good wasn't of particular value  we continue doing this right now but food comes   in abundance calories are everywhere but nature  build us in such a robust way that you know we  

2:54continue sitting around unless you really do a lot  of hard work MH but what we all also realized that   nature gives us a suggestion how to tackle this  problem and how to make it work and the answer is   instant gratification so we thought H what if we  create a new gratification for every single step   you take how would that impact behavior and we  sweatcoin as name suggests we wanted it to be on  

3:22blockchain already back in 2014 but we quickly  realized that Bitcoin and blockchain which was   the only blockchain in existence was too slow  too cumbersome too expensive to build on and we   thought okay we'll just hold fire and we're going  to jump on the next project that comes along we   spoke to vitalic in 2015 we wanted to build an  ethereum but again also was too early we launched  

3:48centralized and we thought well within six months  a year there bound to be something launching every   year we would do an analysis of blockchain  tech and every year the answer would be no   our business would not be able to survive if you  were to move onto this or that project until last   year when we discovered near I mean to be fair  we looked at more than a dozen different projects  

4:13because all of a sudden there was a lot of really  fast technology alaran salana BNB polygon you   know you name it they just sort of came out of w  workor pretty much at the same time but we chosen   near and we launch September last year in many  geographies outside of the US and as soon as we   launched we have 25 more than 25 million users in  the us on sweatcoin our web to health and fitness  

4:44application and they started you know asking  question why the rest of the world is able to work   into crypto and we have to continue playing the  centralized point system s coin and you know more   volume of this post we were receiving the more  we were realizing that actually it probably was   a mistake not to include the United States and we  started doing a lot of digging a lot of research  

5:12into what is possible how is it possible for us  to go live and we made the decision that you know   what it is absolutely absolutely essential because  our users were not happy our outside of the US   made a governance vote with 380,000 people casting  their vote which is by far the biggest web three   governance vote ever basically giving green light  to the US launch and allocating a budget for it  

5:41and we effectively you know kind of had to do it  and yesterday we pushed the button and more than   300,000 Americans have opted in to participate  in the lunch it doesn't mean that they you know   kind others can join no no no no but these are the  people that had significant s coin IM balances and   what they managed to do yesterday was to convert  their past physical activity that is embodied in  

6:10sweat coin decentralized points and they were  able to convert them into sweat and they got a   you know kind of significant amount effectively in  consideration for the past calories burned but if   you're interested in this idea and you want to  literally walk into crypto you can do it right   now in s sweatcoin opt into crypto and your steps  going forward will be convertible into SWAT MH wow  

6:38very cool and you know the market for this is  huge you know these all these athletic companies   they say our Market is anybody who moves their  body which is mostly everybody you know and  you have to have smartphone and you have to  have legs these are the only requirements that we   have unlike a lot of move to earn projects who  are not charging you at the door for some nft  

7:03you know it's really really straightforward free  apps they don't consume your you know kind of    much of your battery so why wouldn't you I mean  really the opportunity cost is zero so a lot of   our users they join because they kind of go what  they pay me to work how is that possible you   what's going on here they come in and they kind of  realize that yes it worked these guys don't sell  

7:31data that's extremely important because a lot of  people especially I know that in the US it's very   typical that businesses would monetize data we  don't we are based in Europe data is stored in   Europe we're subject to gdpr which is the most  Draconian privacy protecting framework legal   framework in the world and we also philosophically  we don't believe that data is ours to share or to  

7:56sell very cool and I like the progression  into something like the near blockchain where   I feel like these exercise applications they're  really all about you know microtransactions or   like say you only take a couple steps and you  want to get one or two coins maybe it's only a   few cents at the time before with Bitcoin and  ethereum you know any transaction cost even  

8:22if you want to buy a coffee you know it's going to  be a couple dollars to transact a few cents for   a couple dollars is obviously not worth it but  now with the advancement of blockchain Technology  and the better interactivity and just the user  interface really not having to have to understand   especially with near I know they don't even have  the hexadecimal addresses it's just like you know  

8:42Oleg Flamenco do near like it's the wallet is  simple even if you get to the technical side I'm   sure it isn't that technical but the  beauty is that you're able to slowly earn small   amounts of money for doing things that you were  already going to do anyway and I would love to   sort of get a walkthrough from your perspective  of how exactly does it work when you go for a walk  

9:04so you open up the sweat economy app and  then you either walk or run and then you earn a   certain amount of coins is there thresholds or  how exactly does that work okay so the entry point   is or remains sweat coin our original health and  fitness app and you know you'd be in a very good   company that app has more than 200 million install  ations and you can find it on both App Store and  

9:33Google Play and over the last n years and you  millions and millions of users we've perfected   tracking of your steps but also which is extremely  important verification of the steps because as you   can imagine as soon as you start paying for steps  a lot of people immediately try to shake the phone   put the phone on a dog and let it run in the park  or put it on top of a dishwasher you know while  

9:57it's shaking you name it we have it there is a  actually very funny website called unfit bits.com   that teaches you how to screw with your phone and  wearable into believing that you're physically   active we had to deal with all of those use  cases and then many more so we track verify   your movement and if it's genuine then we issue  you with sweat coins at the rate of 1,000 steps  

10:28to one or if you opted into crypto and you want  to earn sweat which is our crypto token instead of   sweat coins then you will be needing to walk more  and more and more in real time in order to me the   next sweat for example at the moment you need to  walk 4 and a half thousand steps in order to mean   one sweat one year ago we started one with 1,000  and we have this constantly Rising step value we  

11:03call it step value curve of sweat and the reason  why we designed it this way is twofold reason one   is that makes you realize that walking earlier and  more is a very very good idea and basically you   get better return on your movement and the reason  two is that ensures that over time monetary Supply   inflation approaches zero so while it's uncapped  the inflation over time approaches zero and if you  

11:41couple it with all of those Burns that Community  have voted on because we generate quite a lot of   Revenue and revenue in sweat simply goes into  voting Revenue in tokens half of our profits we   use to buy tokens on the open market and those  those again go into votes and Community voted   already multiple times to burn those tokens so  tightening Supply Plus Burns means that we already  

12:12in July this year managed to become a deflationary  project so our token economics in web 2 that would   be analogous to being profitable so circulating  Supply at the end of the month is lower than at   the beginning of the month which is a pretty  in credible achievement and not many projects   in web 3 can claim this you know ethereum was  deflationary for about 6 months last month it fell  

12:39out and I think was somewhat inflationary so it is  a big big big challenge to actually achieve this   especially in move to ear that a lot of people you  know think that is by definition is not possible   to making the sustainable economy mhm H and with  I with the app you know already have 25 million   users I feel like that's if you can get all  of these onboarded into web 3 you know that's it's  

13:12a huge Market because 25 million I have a feeling  you guys aren't going to stop there you know you   could probably have hundreds of millions of people  if the incentives are aligned and you know if   everyone gets on board with this but one thing  to note I feel like is maybe the people that need   the most attention to their Health are also  sort of not very Tech friendly especially when it  

13:33comes to blockchain as well you know maybe it's  elderly or people that have you know they   don't really use their phone a lot yeah do you  see a gap in the market for helping those in need   but also really they're not very Tech friendly and  how would you solve that Gap great question I mean   having such a huge user base we of course have  been catering to a lot of different segments not  

13:59just very technology and crypto Savvy people and  what we've learned over the last nine years is how   to build an incredibly good user experience that  is simple straightforward does not require you   to be a rocket scientist and we've practiced  on sweatcoin and now with our non-custodial   wallet sweat wallet we also bring quite a lot of  innovation and really we to ux Simplicity into  

14:32what is typically extremely complex ux for example  you don't have to you know take down 24 words in   phrase when you're activating your sweat wallet  you do not have encounters with hoddle Biddle   finality and staking and other terminology that  typical user would not really know what this means   and for us it's very natural to put these words  into text and you know into our conversation but  

15:07if person who is not really to Crypton native  and who's not been educated over a long period   of time that pushes them away because if you  don't understand words that people are using   that means that you know this is not your game you  don't want to come in so we really spend a lot of   time solving this problem and we know that what  wallet is having very very high ratings I mean  

15:30you can go and see for yourself in app store and  Google Play you know people really like it because   it makes them able to literally walk into crypto  without having them feel that they have to learn   the science of operational security and the other  thing that we really focused on and we solved for   users which is the major barrier for Mass market  adoption of web 3 is the fact that users who tried  

16:01before and failed they even if they Master 24 word  SE traces and stuff then the next step was always   plot credit cards and buy crypto and if God forbid  they were doing it on ethereum then the amounts of   money that they actually needed to put in order  to start learning the ropes would be in hundreds   of dollars or you know can you really couldn't  make sense of many things without spending at  

16:32least a grand or two right because if transactions  were like $80 to $200 you know even a thousand   wouldn't get you very far and they are not ready  to do this they are not ready to put money first   and then learn later they want to learn first they  want to take few steps they want to understand how   everything works and that is exactly what we're  giving them we're giving them an opportunity to  

16:58move One Foot In Front Of Another they feel that  their steps have value which means that they're   more physically active so they're burning more  calories they are fitter healthier they're going   to live longer and in addition they're acquiring  some crypto assets that allow them to experience   transactions sending and receiving staking or we  call them grow jars so you know they understand  

17:20how it all works then they go and they engage  with learn and earn so they get lessons you   know what is blockchain how does it work what  do coin so basic questions that you know for us   are obvious but for these people you know they  need answers and in addition to acquiring this   knowledge they're getting paid which is pretty  incredible proposition if you think about it so  

17:45they constantly thinking what's going to be my  next thing what I'm going to engage in we're now   rolling sweat hero which is our sort of free nft  game that allows you to battle with other people   by walking on the screen I'm not going to give  you all the details but if you want you can get a   sneak preview on YouTube there are few videos out  there that explain how the game works we're also  

18:08introducing trading we're introducing a lot of  different functionality that basically makes your   physical activity tokenized into more valuable  asset than just tokenized physical activity M and   I'll finish with the thought that you know what  we're really building is not just a you know a   dab with a token we have a vision of building  movement economy think of it as an attention  

18:39economy that by some estimates is7 trillion where  you give your attention to Google or Facebook they   sell it to third parties advertisers they return  some value to you in the shape of a free product   or free service right we believe that movement  economy can be done better I give physical   activity and I benefit as well because I will live  longer I am fitter I'm healthier I'm in a better  

19:10mood I'm more productive I put less pressure  on Health Care Systems around the world there   are other parties that are willing to pay for it  insurers Health Care Providers employers countries   ultimately because if you're physically active  you're going to live longer you're going to pay   more taxes it's pretty good business so we believe  that movement economy certainly has potential of  

19:33being even bigger than a tension economy and  the tension economy s x the whole crypto what   stays in the way of building this quickly is  toize physical activity because otherwise we   need to invent this convoluted ways of you giving  physical activity us giving you free product and   if you notice Google Facebook and a lot of other  businesses they haven't given us fully loaded  

20:00value of attention otherwise they wouldn't be  called big teag they wouldn't be monsters as they   right now they've taken full value of attention  and they've given us this much back with movement   economy it's got to be different it's got to be  all the value that physical activity is worth   should be going to people who are Physically  Active because that's going to persuade you  

20:25to be more active that is going to create more  wealth and value for everybody and we're happy   to basically be the guarantor that no gaming no  faking no cheating is entering into this system   wow very interesting o leg and I'm glad that  you mentioned that part about the game and nfts   I feel like a lot of people that are just getting  into crypto if they are getting their first coins  

20:57through an app like like like sweatcoin you  know even if in the past I've sent some Bitcoin   or ethereum to some people and it's their first  coins but they're really not in the system they   don't really understand okay what do I actually do  with this it's now it's just sitting in my wallet   you know I guess I'll just hold it for years to  come because I really don't know what to do are  

21:15the next steps I feel like having those little  easy on boardings of hey you can use it here or   maybe we're partnering with these big companies  you can use your coins to get some Fitness   apparel or something like that I feel like a partnership with like Nike or Adidas would be a   huge Advantage for you guys in the future I'm  curious about specifically Fitness Brands and big  

21:38companies is are those kind of Partnerships in  the works I cannot possibly confirm or deny but   one thing that I would do is I would point you  to sweat hero because if you open the tab in   sweat wallet you will actually see the of basic  nft that you will receive and we call them legs   you know it's an avatar that is you know because  we're all about steps we're all about legs and we  

22:12build this really really cool looking you know  massive collection of legs that of course are   dressed in various different attire and they wear  different shoes and all of them are unique so that   represents a really really interesting partnership  opportunity not at the level of fungible tokens   but at the level of actual visual you know kind of  representation of Brands and products for millions  

22:41of our users I like your train of thought and you  know I'm sure that we'll see that but I'm just not   going to jump into committing to a brand and the  time slot definitely I feel like I could put   two and two together and how that could work   with the nfts so I'm going to take a look at   the sweat hero and look into that and see  if I can collect some beforehand so with the  

23:10application I guess people can just get it on  Android and an iPhone on their phones and then you   open up store type sweat sweat coin is going  to be at the top you open the app you find a   banner that says walk into crypto follow prompts  and you'll end up in installing sweat wallet so   sweatcoin is a health and fitness step tracker  and the sweat wallet is the non-custodial Mobile  

23:36Wallet application that manages your sweat the  reason why they are twoo separate is because   they very very different one is effectively Shin  Tech it's like a banking app and another one is   health and fitness application at pedometer with  sort of massive additional functionality when we   discussed with users combining it they were  like bank with pedometer or pedometer with a  

24:03bank yeah know I think that in the future it  will become you know kind of widely accepted   and we will probably bring them together at the  moment it feels a lot more natural to keep them   separate yeah very cool well I can leave the  links to those in the notes show the show   notes below o like as well I'm looking forward  to all these future updates that you mentioned   

24:26for sweat economy and I'll be following along  I'll also leave the socials to the platforms  in the description below and thank you so  much for thank you very much ason thank you very   much for having me and you know in conclusion  I'll just say you know let's make the world   more physically active we've been at it for nine  years and actually we're quite different crypto  

24:49project because we are using crypto to accomplish  that goal and objective and it motivates a lot of   people as opposed to being in crypto because  we want to be in crypto so yeah let's walk CTO [Music] together