STEPN today released its vision for NFTs and their utility in the future. The team hopes its new plans will allow the general public to see the utility of non-fungible tokens.
In a lengthy post on Medium, the team detailed how it has incorporated the utility of NFTs so far, and what it plans to do in the future.
It delved into topics such as collectibles and PFPs, ownership and transparency, and rarity, among others.
The company posted a link to the article on Twitter and prefaced it by saying, “In 2021, we saw incredible hype around NFTs, with the NFT market becoming a $40 billion market. In this article, we explore the next phase, the NFT Utility movement, which #STEPN has been pioneering from the very beginning.”
NFTs: Not just expensive profile pictures, according to STEPN
Non-fungible tokens started out as profile pictures. At least, that’s how many people saw them.
STEPN referred to the Bored Ape Yacht Club, where people paid crazy amounts of money to buy pictures of monkeys. But of course, it was never about the pictures. Nor was it about the fact that someone could just take a screenshot and own them too.
Still, that was people’s first impression of NFTs and their usefulness. Skeptics thought the only reason the NFT market had become a $40 billion market by 2021 was because of the hype around NFTs. There was no real utility. Wasn’t there? Turns out that’s not true.
NFTs were and are much more than that. They are not just images. They have incredible utility. Each NFT is unique, hence the reference to non-fungible tokens. Ownership is completely transparent and recorded on the public ledger that is the blockchain. And of course, there’s the benefit of scarcity.
But what does this mean for STEPN?
STEPN’s NFT utility model has disrupted the fitness model. But how did STEPN incorporate NFTs to create a popular move-to-earn Web3 lifestyle application?
A STEPN spokesperson shed light on STEPN’s vision for NFTs: “Our NFTs are not just flower vases meant to be displayed as an ornament. In fact, aesthetics is the last thing on our priority list.
“We want our NFTs to be a gateway to our ecosystem, and that utility is reflected in the way our users engage and use STEPN.”
This is true to a large extent. For example, the game requires users to purchase NFT sneakers in order to participate in the “win” aspect of the “move to earn” game. But these NFT sneakers aren’t just pretty pictures. They are dynamic.
That means they allow users to earn crypto-currencies while walking, jogging or running.
STEPN users benefit from the usefulness of NFT in several ways. These include:
- Incentive reward structures in which NFTs are used as a digital representation of users’ actual engagement with their health. This is done through the use of tokens and physical health rewards.
- GST can only be earned by owning NFTs, which is accompanied by achievements such as increasing your neaker level, hitting new NFTs, and opening mystery boxes to provide progression in the app that mirrors the player’s real-life progression.
- Several other benefits are part of the STEPN NFT experience. These include dropping OG sneakers on certain outings, for example.
STEPN NFTs are not simply an aesthetically pleasing image of a sneaker. Rather, they are meant to show how non-fungible digital tokens can have real-life utility. In this case, the gamification of health and fitness is made possible by NFTs.
And if you want to get involved with STEPN, it’s not too late.
