Jack Kubinec

If you build it, they may still take a while to come.



Crypto has built a smorgasbord of infrastructural rails for app creation, leaving developers with hundreds of software combinations to use in building decentralized apps (dapps), or apps that run on decentralized networks.



But, so far, for all the technology on offer, few teams seem to be making use of it.&nbsp;



Among the top blockchain-based applications on DappRadar, only four <a href="https://dappradar.com/rankings?sort=uawCount&amp;order=desc">have</a> over 100,000 daily unique active wallets. Some promising consumer crypto apps are seeking adoption by asking for as little behavioral change as possible for those jumping on board.&nbsp;



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">ok let&#39;s do some napkin math here 6 DA layers: celestia, eth, solana, eigen, near and avail 2 types of rollups: op or zk 4 exec envs: evm, svm, move, wasm 3 sequencer types: centralized, decentralized, based 3 settlement layers: eth, solana, and celestia so about 432…&mdash; mert | helius.dev (d/acc) (@0xMert_) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xMert_/status/1733968660580946295?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The consumer dapp delay has been partly caused by crypto’s use of total value locked (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tvl">TVL</a>) as a measure of an app’s success, Oleg Fomenko, co-founder of Sweat Economy and the consumer-facing Sweatcoin app, said. TVL, a bugaboo for many in crypto, causes developers to aim for the wrong targets in Fomenko’s view.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tvl-metrics-defi-lightspeed">Is it time to drop TVL as a DeFi metric?</a>



“The easiest way to get TVL is by attracting a few whales, and when you build for them…the user experience is going to be very different from what you need to build for the next billion people,” Fomenko said, adding that active users is a more helpful target.&nbsp;



Two of the top three <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dapps">dapps</a> by unique active wallets used crypto rails to build apps that give rewards for everyday activities.&nbsp;



Cosmose AI’s KAIKAINOW app lets users earn rewards for <a href="https://x.com/ilblackdragon/status/1702155231558271044?s=20">engaging</a> with content on their phone’s lock screen, paid out in the KAI-CHING stablecoin, which is hosted on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/near">NEAR</a> protocol. KAI-CHING engages with over 600,000 unique wallets a day, per DappRadar.



The similarly-quotidian Sweat Economy pays out token rewards based on users’ step counts with its “Sweatcoin” app. Steps convert to SWEAT tokens, also built on NEAR, which users can interact with in the Sweat Wallet app.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sweatcoin-usa-xrp-ruling">Buoyed by XRP court ruling, Sweat Economy goes live in the US</a>



The step-counting app is meant to appeal to the “crypto-curious” who are held back by complicated app interfaces, Fomenko said.&nbsp;



“[Our] research does not show that crypto is a turn off for people…it doesn&#8217;t have bad connotations, but it is associated with a horribly complicated user experience,” Fomenko said.



Sweatcoin currently sits at #9 on the App Store’s “Health and Fitness” chart. Fomenko said Sweat Economy’s internal data shows a large majority of its users are new to crypto and Web3, which is partly where the app’s value comes from. Crypto-native companies can pay to partner with Sweatcoin and reach an audience that is ostensibly new to crypto.



TinyTap is another dapp seeking to make widespread behavior a little more Web3. On the mobile-enabled platform, educators can <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/118m-education-platform-defi-protocol">publish learning games for students</a> as NFTs and receive crypto <a href="https://x.com/TechNodeGlobal/status/1729498143136338237?s=20">payments</a> for the content.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/apple-allows-nft-sales-on-its-app-store-but-theres-a-catch">Apple allows NFT sales on its App Store — But there’s a catch</a>



One impediment, Fomenko said, is a reticence from developers to work on Web3 mobile apps for fear of Apple, Google or regulation. A majority of the top ten dapps by unique active wallets do not appear on the major app stores.



Updated Dec. 12, 2023 at 3:37 pm ET: Clarified that users can interact with SWEAT tokens in the Sweat Wallet app.



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dApps

The crypto infrastructure is here, but where are the apps?

The move-to-earn company behind Sweatcoin is bringing its Sweat Wallet on-chain in the US.



American Sweatcoin users are now able to move their SWEAT tokens into the Sweat Wallet app and trade the currency on secondary markets. Sweat Economy’s co-founder said the move came after the company’s legal advisors said SWEAT is safe from being labeled as a security by US regulators.



Sweatcoin takes phone data to count users’ steps, allowing every 1000 steps to be redeemed for one SWEAT. The tokens are currently worth around a cent and are tradeable on Bybit, KuCoin, and OKX, among other <a href="https://coincodex.com/crypto/sweatcoin/exchanges/">exchanges</a>. Users can also earn SWEAT by playing Sweatcoin’s NFT game and staking their SWEAT in “Growth Jars.”



Sweatcoin was founded in 2014 but didn’t go on-chain until last year, when the company, now called Sweat Economy, launched its SWEAT token on the NEAR protocol. The 2022 launch didn’t bring SWEAT to America, however. 



This was because “paranoid” lawyers advised the company against ongoing uncertainty about the legal status of crypto in the US, according to Oleg Fomenko, the Sweat Foundation’s co-founder.



But after Ripple scored a partial court win in its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-loses-ripple-appeal">long-running legal fight with the US Securities and Exchange Commission</a>, the company and its lawyers became “100%” certain that SWEAT is not a security.&nbsp;



A federal court <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/judge-rules-ripple-xrp-not-security">ruled</a> in July that while Ripple’s [<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/xrp">XRP</a>] sales to institutions constituted securities offerings, its programmatic sales did not. The case is ongoing.&nbsp;



Move-to-earn apps have <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stepn-founder-wants-to-promote-healthy-body-and-mind-but-skeptics-question-the-apps-sustainability">caught flack in the past</a> for their allegedly unsustainable economic models, but Fomenko said that Sweat’s economic structure isn’t based on “ponzinomics.” Sweat, Fomenko argued, spent eight years building out its business before creating a token.



At the time of writing, Sweat Wallet is the #8 financial app on the app <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/charts/iphone/finance-apps/6015">store</a>.&nbsp;



The US “needs this,” Fomenko added. “Because let’s face it: we [don’t have] an extremely fit population.”



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regulation

Buoyed by XRP court ruling, Sweat Economy goes live in the US

Shalini Nagarajan

Sweatcoin, a move-to-earn platform that rewards users with crypto for the steps they take, has launched a new campaign that would reward one lucky individual $24,000 a year for simply walking each day.



The team said in a <a href="https://medium.com/sweat-economy/chief-walking-officer-win-a-years-salary-cef47c66ffcd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a> posted Monday that it’s looking for a “chief walking officer” who will receive a monthly paycheck. All this person is required to do is walk an average of 5,000 steps a day, send a selfie to the Sweat Foundation every month and attend media interviews.



The “chief walking officer” title is just a prize draw, not an open position at the Sweat Foundation. Users wanting to enter the contest can do so via the Sweat Wallet app “for a chance to win the easiest paid role on earth, according to the blog.



Unlike Solana-based move-to-earn app, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stepn">StepN</a>, users of the Sweatcoin app aren’t required to make initial payments or buy an NFT to start allowing the app to keep track of your steps. Another move-to-earn platform, StepWatch, offers free NFTs for access.



Using Sweatcoin, the app gathers movement data, and rewards users with an appropriate amount of the platform’s native token SWEAT.



People looking to enter the prize draw should have a valid Sweatcoin account and wallet. They’re also required to stake 25 SWEAT in the wallet and pay an opt-in fee of 1 SWEAT.



People based in the US, China, Russia, Pakistan or any restricted location based on Sweat’s <a href="https://sweateconomy.com/tnc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">terms and conditions</a> are not allowed to participate. The Sweat Foundation’s internal team is also not allowed to take part.



Sweat Wallet is currently not available in the US due to regulatory restrictions, but is expected to roll out to US-based users from Sept. 12. That means US users can earn SWEAT, but are unable to transfer the tokens or self-custody them.



The prize draw runs from April 3 to April 16. A random draw will be used to find the winner within 7 days of the closing date. The prize won’t be paid out in fiat currency or SWEAT but instead in monthly installments of 2000 USDC or USDT.



Sweat Economy secured <a href="https://medium.com/sweat-economy/london-uk-july-26-2022-the-sweat-economy-team-behind-the-most-downloaded-health-and-fitness-71a57800a785" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$13 million</a> in funding last year from investors including Electric Capital, OKX Blockdream Ventures and GSR Ventures. The app says its goal is to incentivize healthier living by rewarding users for moving through “sweat coins,” which it calls “airmiles for steps.”



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