The Crypto App That’s Helping To Prevent Diabetes
The world is suffering from a deadly epidemic that claims more than four million lives globally every year, according to some studies. It’s an incurable disease that causes all kinds of debilitating effects, including kidney failure, blindness, heart disease and nerve and blood vessel damage, to name just a few of its symptoms.
It’s a silent killer that currently affects more than 400 million people around the world and there’s no known cure. We’re talking about diabetes – a chronic, metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose. For the vast majority of diabetics, the disease develops as a result of their bad lifestyle choices, such as a poor diet and a lack of regular exercise.
The good news is that this means diabetes is also largely preventable. The bad news is that most people know this already, but simply ignore the advice.
With this in mind, the maker of one health-focused app believes it can help prevent people from developing diabetes by encouraging them to live a healthier, more active lifestyle. The app is called Sweatcoin, and it has made some big waves in recent years, having created a fitness incentive scheme that’s quite unlike any other. By integrating with blockchain technology, the app is uniquely able to reward users for staying fit and active by paying them cryptocurrency for every step they take.
Instant Gratification
Sweat Economy is the company behind the hit mobile application that has been available since 2016. Known as Sweatcoin, it was originally just a basic fitness app. However, it refocused itself this year with the launch of a diverse Web3 ecosystem that introduces its native cryptocurrency token, SWEAT.
Sweat Economy motivates people to exercise by offering them instant gratification in the form of SWEAT coins that can then be spent on various branded goods, services, or donated to charity. It’s a big motivating factor that Sweat Economy says can help to incentivize the millions of people who know they should be getting more exercise, but for whatever reason cannot bring themselves to actually get up and do it.
Some of the capabilities coming to Sweat Economy include the ability to cash out your SWEAT tokens for a stablecoin, such as USD Coin, which can then be exchanged for real-life money. Alternatively, users can instead put their hard-earned SWEAT tokens into liquidity pools or stake them to earn passive income.
In this way, Sweat Economy is providing a lifeline for the millions of people around the world who are currently at risk of developing diabetes. The Mayo Clinic offers five key tips for preventing diabetes. In addition to eating healthy plant foods, healthy fats and skipping fad diets, it says the best way to prevent diabetes is to be more physically active and to lose weight. It suggests at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day, in addition to resistance exercise that should be done two-to-three times a week. It also advises limiting periods of inactivity. In other words, if you’re sat at a computer all day, take a break every 30 minutes or so by getting up and walking around for five minutes to get those muscles working again.
How It Works
Sweatcoin has a similar mechanic to many other fitness apps. As the user walks, it records each step they take. The difference is that, rather than just counting the number of steps to tell people when they’ve hit their daily target, Sweatcoin converts each of those steps into SWEAT coins.
The user interface displays the ratio between steps and SWEAT tokens that the user is awarded. The ratio will evolve over time to take into account inflation and ensure a stable supply of SWEAT coins. When the SWEAT tokens are created at the initial token generation event in September 2022, users will be awarded 1 SEAT for every 1,000 steps they take. One year later, the reward for 1,000 steps will be reduced to just 0.33 SWEAT. By 2032, those 1,000 steps will earn just 0.02 SWEAT.
If that sounds like a bad deal, remember that the model is designed to be anti-inflationary. Sweat Economy has created a sustainable tokenomics model that involves periodic token burns to reduce the supply in circulation. Moreover, like many crypto tokens, we might expect the price of 1 SWEAT to increase if the market enters into a bull run. So it really could pay quite handsomely to keep fit, if the idea catches on.
To ensure it does catch on, Sweat Economy has introduced a social element that includes a referral scheme that pays out 5 SWEAT in rewards to those who can refer a friend to the app.
There’s also plenty of things that users can do with their SWEAT tokens. For instance, Sweat Economy has built up a network of brands that offer discounts on consumer goods within their stores, as well as some exclusive products that can only be purchased with SWEAT. It’s also possible to subscribe to various services with SWEAT tokens.
Besides spending, conscientious fitness fanatics will be able to donate their earnings to various good causes, including charities that support the environment, animal welfare and humanitarian issues. There are more than 100 charities users can donate their rewards too, according to Sweat Economy.
Finally, users will also have the option to exchange their SWEAT tokens and pocket the money for themselves, stake them in liquidity pools to earn a passive income, or use them to buy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that could prove to be a smart investment. Sweat Economy says the plan is for SWEAT holders to be able to interact with various different blockchains once it goes live.
Fitness Pays
Sweat Economy is a commendable idea that has the potential to have a huge impact on people’s health. It encourages people to live more active, healthier lives by incentivizing exercise with the possibility of cryptocurrency rewards. What’s more, it makes it easy for non-technical users who know next to nothing about cryptocurrency to take advantage of those rewards, providing a way for them to spend their SWEAT tokens or exchange them for real money easily, within its application.
The truth is that just about everybody knows the importance of exercise in preventing diabetes and promoting health. Yet millions of people are either too busy, or more likely, just too lazy to get themselves out and about. By providing a tangible financial incentive, Sweat Economy might just have what it takes to make a difference. If so, it promises to have a positive impact in combating the silent diabetes epidemic that threatens the health of millions of people worldwide.
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OhNoCryptocurrency via https://www.ohnocrypto.com/ @Oliver Dale, @Khareem Sudlow