Money is paid for the steps. Money on the run: how to make money on an active lifestyle. Is it possible to get money for walking

As an alternative to real work.

Today we will tell you about how some kind company offers money for the distance covered. How much you can earn in this way, you will find out below.

Bitwalking: make money on the steps.

Among all the sources of income online, Japan alone has come up with the noblest way to generate income from the Internet. The Bitwalking company offers to charge a certain amount for every 10,000 steps taken. The reward amount will be equal to 1 BW $.

BW $ is a new kind of cryptocurrency. The name is taken from the word Bitwalking. One Bitwalking equals one US dollar. Thus, for every 10,000 steps (7-8 km of path), you will be transferred to your account in the program $ 1. In simple words, you are offered to receive money for following a healthy lifestyle. Isn't it cool?

It will be possible to spend all the money earned by exchanging it for the usual money or spending it in online stores.

How and when to start earning.

The Japanese plan to introduce a new cryptocurrency in 2016, and to start making money on the steps, it will be enough to download the application to your smartphone. The distance traveled will be tracked by GPS, thanks to the Internet connection. It is impossible to deceive the program by sitting on a bicycle and starting to cycle, since the program takes into account the speed of movement and other factors that make it possible to distinguish a step from another method of movement.

The company has already been able to find future partners. Currency exchange will be dealt with by British banks (which ones are not specified yet). Also bitwalking will cooperate with representatives of: sportswear, household appliances, healthcare organizations.

In addition, another Japanese company Murata acted as a partner of Bitwalking, ready to release a fitness bracelet that tracks distance traveled and money earned.

Download Bitwalking.

It is not possible to download Bitwalking yet, but you can get an invitation request. By going to this page, in the first field you enter your email mail, just below you select a country from the proposed list, and in the last field indicate the operating system of your smartphone: Android, iOs or Windows Phone.

As soon as the application is available for download, you will be immediately notified of this by sending an e-mail.
The application will be completely free and free of viruses.

Charity.

The main goal of releasing this application is to help people living in poor countries such as Somalia. It is assumed that it will be possible to earn about $ 15 per day.

For the Japanese, $ 15 is an insignificant amount, but for residents whose daily income does not exceed $ 1.5, this application will be an excellent way to improve their financial situation, given the fact that most residents already move on foot.

(from the English sweat - sweat, coin - coin) is a fitness application founded in the UK by a team of immigrants from Russia. Its co-founders are Oleg Fomenko, Anton Derlyatka, Danil Perushev and Yegor Khmelev. The Sweatcoin idea involves paying for the distance traveled by the user with a special cryptocurrency - sweatcoins. 1000 steps generate one svitcoin on the wallet - having accumulated a sufficient amount, you can buy various things and services in the application. The developers expect that in the future, scrollcoins can be exchanged for real money.

The app is remarkable for its augmented reality interface. An unusual UX solution was developed by Vladimir Shreider, a former art director of the project, who left him six months ago (this post is currently held by Dmitry Chernyshev).

Vladimir Shreider

Designer, art director, co-founder of Glitché, SLMMSK, Webby Awards, Cannes Lions, D&AD, FWA. Worked at Art. Lebedev Studio, Yandex, Look At Media and Afisha

© Alexey Kalabin

- First, I would like to know the basic things: whose original idea was and how you ended up in the team.

The application was launched by Anton Derlyatka and Oleg Fomenko - one of them was also the author of the idea of \u200b\u200bconverting steps into currency. Oleg used to live in London, where he has lived for many years. And Sweatcoin is his second project. Anton Derlyatka acted as an investor, but later became a co-author. We met in the summer of 2015. They already had the first working version, a team, and some kind of office in London. We met, talked, realized that we should work together. We decided on the direction, put together a mood board with different projects, which, on the one hand, are super-technological, and on the other, warm, tube, human. Inspired by the healthgoths. At the same time the film "Ex Machina" was released, which made a great impression on me. In general, the task was not to turn the project into some kind of regular fitness tracker, but to make it a complete addition to life.

This is a high-tech startup, it has a very complex system in building a new economy. For it to be a full-fledged currency, like bitcoin, and not just some kind of virtual points, it must be based on mathematical models. But I do not really understand this side of the issue.

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- Are the majority of the team, the entire backbone of them Russians?

Yes, absolutely. But if we talk about the participation of foreign partners, as Vladimir Vladimirovich says, then these are people who are engaged in investments. But the idea itself, the development - everything is in Russia.

- Can you briefly describe the essence of the application? The more you walk, the more of this virtual currency you earn? Where is it going to, some kind of virtual wallet? How are steps different from other activities?

Very large resources are invested in developing a system that cannot be fooled. So that you cannot tie your smartphone to a dog, make it run and earn currency for your wallet. The algorithm is called the walkchain - similar to blockchain - and very serious mathematicians are busy with it.

The mechanics itself is that a person's movement in space is recorded using GPS and a standard accelerometer in an iPhone, which verifies steps and distinguishes them from other activities. The application does not work where there is no GPS signal. For example, deep in the subway, a warning will be displayed on the screen: steps are not counted. The number of steps, for example, in HealthKit and in Sweatcoin will be different, because in the standard iPhone application there is no such complex check - it detects any activity.

- I have come across, for example, the readings in Strava are mischievous: when it seems that you rode a bike at an unrealistic speed, in fact, there was just some obvious glitch.

- This system is constantly being improved. In Sweatcoin, this is one of the most important ingredients.

- Let's see how you can spend these scrolls. Do you have an agreement with shops and cafes in London where you can buy something with the hard currency you earn?

- Yes, goods and services. At least the application works like this now. There are two types of offers. Some are active - there are four of them now. These are the things that you are guaranteed to buy with Svitcoins. Others are proposals that are being voted on. It can be attended not only by commercial organizations, but also by ordinary people who provide individual services, such as training. That is, it is a full-fledged market place. After a person creates a card for his proposal, he goes to the general vote. If his card goes to the top, it will be made an official offer.

- That is, if, for example, I am a massage therapist or an English teacher, I can promote myself through your application and offer my services in exchange for Svitcoins. Correctly?

That's right, yes. The user himself determines the value in rollcoins. Then he is moderated and after that he gets to vote.

- And actually, the application is monetized due to the fact that your partners, for example large companies, can pay extra in order to place goods and services above others?

It's too early to think about monetization. At the current stage, almost $ 900 thousand of investments have been attracted, which so far allow you to simply deal with the project and develop it. But in general there are many maneuvers for monetization. I think we need to wait until the project gains a sufficient audience or enters new markets.

- So far it only works in London?

- Yes. The version we relaunched is available from May 2016. The app immediately took first place in the App Store in the "Finance" category in the UK. Actually, already at the start, it attracted attention, began to be widely covered in the press.

- You have developed a kind of augmented reality, virtual worlds for the application. What does it look like?

- I was faced with a task so that a person, having downloaded and launched the application, immediately wanted to use it. It seemed to me that the best option is a game format that attracts at the level of emotions, interaction with reality. Thanks to the accelerometer, the application understands the current position of the phone: when you rotate around you, the picture on the screen changes. The virtual landscape is mountains, and in the background and in front of you there are abstract geometric objects, among which the road winds along which you must walk. If you put the phone down, you see the earth, lift it up, you see the sky. The landscape on the sides moves with you, is randomly generated and never repeats. You can watch 360-degree panoramas - just like in races or simulations.

- Can you name any specific examples of games that you were inspired by?

- Well, personally, I immediately remembered the Road Rash game - one of my favorite simulations. Well, or any runner - this whole game genre is built on one principle, and each of them will be the right example. The point is to turn into a character from this game yourself and control the process with your own body and its movement in space.

- And how in any runner - to run and collect coins along the way?

- Well yes. If you start to fantasize, then it will turn out to be a bottomless barrel. When we made the prototype, it became clear that it worked. This motivates the person to get off the couch and take a few steps around the room. Well, it also causes, as they say, a wow-effect that everyone has, even when the landscape simply reacts to the movement of the hand.

Also, the color scheme of the interface is tied to the time of day. Fresh colors in the morning, warm at lunch, red in the afternoon, pink in the evening. I took real sky colors and simplified them to a two-tone gradient.

- And what kind of geometric objects with which you can interact? Are these also wow effects or do they carry some kind of functionality?

- There are five user levels. And they move from level to level upon reaching certain indicators. Geometric shapes are such insignia. This object is attached to the user's profile on the leaderboard.

- How about using the app with VR glasses and, for example, connecting your smartphone to a treadmill? Recently I read about an Englishman who pedals an exercise bike with a VR headset on his head and. There were no such ideas?

- I don’t know, this contradicts the very idea of \u200b\u200bthe application. The point is precisely for a person to move in space. Otherwise, it is regarded by the system itself as cheating.

- So Pokémon Go makes you move in space. It feels like everyone wants to re-teach millennials to walk the streets. This is with flanery. In the 19th century, Balzac and Baudelaire taught Parisians a new pastime, and now millennials are learning too, but with the help of Pokémon Go and Sweatcoin.

- I don’t think it can be interpreted that way. It's just that people somehow have a daily routine, and it's nice to fill it with something entertaining - as is the case with Pokémon Go. Sweatcoin can even make it financially profitable. The usual road to the metro turns not only into entertainment, but also into a certain income. These boring moments that people would like to get rid of take on new meaning. This is not just some pointless pastime.

- But still, it seems that someone is interested in getting people out of the house, pulling people out of the Internet. But it is not clear why. Not for the same sake, so that everyone is healthy and athletic. Are there any other reasons?

- I do not know to what extent these projects are invented based on some selfish goals. It's just that since we live in such a time when people have such a tool as a mobile phone, and it has so many opportunities, then, probably, even from altruistic motives, quite a strong business can turn out. Because it combines business with pleasure. Personally, I think these ideas are from the category of "Why didn't people do it before?" I don't see the point in looking for some secret meaning when the benefits are already obvious.

- Are there any interesting stories about English Sweatcoin users? Has the app changed someone's life?

People use it when walking, on the way to work. That is, performing the usual actions. Some jokingly talked about how they tried to trick the system. Someone even tied a phone to a donkey. Well, in general, people are very happy when they buy something tangible for scrollcoins. For example, sneakers. This is a nice bonus.

- There was a famous case of prisoners in China. Are you not afraid that Chinese prisoners will be given iPhones and forced to walk around prisons? We'll have to ship free sneakers in huge quantities.

I don't know how jail users differ from regular users. I don’t think it will be critical. Well, users in prisons, too, probably want to be in shape.

We are ready to look you in the eye on the best day of summer - August 3, at the Afisha Picnic. The Cure, Pusha-T, Basta, Gruppa Skryptonite, Mura Masa, Eighteen are just the beginning.

Russian entrepreneurs Anton Derlyatka, Oleg Fomenko and their partners have launched a new virtual currency Sweatcoin, which can be earned by going through a certain number of steps

Sweatcoin founders Oleg Fomenko, Ranbir Arora and Anton Derlyatka (from left to right) (Photo: Reuters / Pixstream)

The Sweatcoin earned (from the word sweat - sweat) can be spent on the purchase of goods or services offered by the project partners.

How it works? The smartphone owner downloads an application that calculates the number of steps taken and charges 1 swc for every thousand steps. Having typed the required amount, the user can purchase the product he likes on the marketplace in the application, for example, sneakers, a lesson with a personal trainer or a game console.

So far, according to RBC Derlyatka, the project has 12 partners offering their goods and services in exchange for Sweatcoin, for example, shoe manufacturer Vivobarefoot. “We are just getting started, and finding partners is not the most difficult problem. We have a very targeted audience, ”says the entrepreneur. The founders of the project expect that in the future the users themselves will be able to offer their own goods and services: "for example, a nutritionist can indicate that his services cost 20 swc per session." The London Vivobarefoot store starts at £ 85. Sweatcoin users will be able to buy any pair for 250 swc, but this is taking into account an 80% discount, says Derlyatka.

Work on the idea began about one and a half years ago, the last four months the application was in closed beta testing, Derlyatka told RBC. Derlyatka is a long-distance runner who ran the Berlin Marathon last year. One of the problems in sports is the lack of instant results, says the entrepreneur. “Instant gratification can help increase motivation,” says Derlyatka. “And one of the reward options is money.” The idea to start releasing Sweatcoin was born when Derlyatka, a senior partner and shareholder of the headhunting company Ward Howell, presented his thoughts to Oleg Fomenko. Fomenko by that time closed his own music startup Boom.fm and became interested in cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology.

One of the founders of Sweatcoin Oleg Fomenko (Photo: Reuters / Pixstream)

The first investor in the project, according to Derlyatka, who still remains a shareholder of Ward Howell, was himself. “At first I just invested money, and then I realized that the project was interesting and decided to invest more of my time,” says the entrepreneur. In addition, the company also attracted funds from private investors - about $ 900 thousand. “These are well-known business angels from London, but I would not want to name them,” says Derlyatka. According to Reuters, there are people from the music industry among the investors. At the development stage, two more partners joined the project - Danil Perushev and Yegor Khmelev. They brought with them a development team that sits in Moscow.

So far, only residents of the UK can use the application - the company's headquarters are located there - and only iPhone owners. The Android app is due out soon, and the San Francisco office is due.

The main audience of the project is fans of active sports, users of fitness trackers. Derlyatka says that they do not want to compete with trackers - on the contrary, they would like to cooperate with manufacturers. Fitness trackers and other wearable health gadgets, including those for sports, have begun to massively capture the market relatively recently. For example, in the United States - the largest market - users in two years began to use mobile technologies for health and an active lifestyle twice as often, according to Accenture data: if in 2014 9% used wearable electronics, and mobile applications - 16%, then in 2016 -m - already 21 and 33%, respectively. As analysts of MarketsandMarkets expect, in the coming years, the volume of this segment in money will grow by about 48% annually. And the entire market of applications and gadgets for health, according to analysts, should reach $ 60 billion by 2020.

However, fitness trackers have one problem, according to the founders of Sweatcoin: "people buy trackers, and after a month they are on the shelf." This, according to Derlyatka, is due to the fact that the information received by the user practically does not change from day to day. The businessman is confident that the partnership with Sweatcoin will provide additional motivation to use trackers on a daily basis.

Recently, large companies have started buying fitness trackers for their employees to monitor their health. Wearable gadgets are also used for marketing purposes - for example, the Russian Alfa-Bank offers special conditions to people who connect a fitness tracker to their system. But there is another problem here: the tracker's performance can be artificially inflated. According to Derlyatka, there are even special sites that tell you how to increase the number of steps. “We worked on the algorithm for a long time and now we can guarantee that the movement is clean,” says Derlyatka. The algorithm not only uses the sensors built into the smartphone, but also tracks GPS movements and uses other statistics. However, some problems still remain - for example, the application does not track steps so well in rooms.

How are entrepreneurs going to make money? According to Derlyatka, they will earn by issuing cryptocurrencies - they will take a percentage for the release of each sweatcoin. “We want to be an analogue of the central bank; we are even ready to outsource the marketplace,” says the entrepreneur.

However, Sweatcoin has competitors. In November 2015, another London-based development team announced the launch of a similar project called Bitwalking. However, while this project is in the testing stage - it is suggested to leave your email address on its website in order to receive the application.

Derlyatka hopes that on the basis of Sweatcoin it will be possible to create a new economy in which people will pay with its currency for goods and services. “We recently learned that people are already trying to exchange Sweatcoin in order to quickly accumulate funds to buy,” says Derlyatka. According to statistics on the project's website, Sweatcoin users have already made almost 233 million steps, which means that the same number of "coins" have been issued. So far, the richest person in this economy has around 2600 swc.

Mobile app usage in the Health & Fitness category increased 52% in 2015, according to data from Flurry, which claims to track sessions on 2.1 billion devices worldwide every month.

Apps for health and an active lifestyle belong to the mHealth category - along with personal blood pressure devices, blood glucose meters, heart rate monitors, as well as applications for monitoring weight, health status, medication and part of telemedicine services. The entire global market for mHealth devices and applications will grow by 33.4% annually until 2020 and should reach almost $ 60 billion by 2020, analyst company MarketsandMarkets predicts. So far, the most significant part of this segment - 63.7% in 2014 - is made up of remote health monitoring services. But the category of devices and applications for fitness and wellness will grow faster than others in the coming years, analysts at MarketsandMarkets expect, at 48.1% annually.

According to analyst Technavio, the main players in the fitness app segment are Azumio (developer of the Argus tracker), bracelet makers Fitbit and Jawbone, developer of Runkeeper workout monitoring app and sportswear manufacturer Under Armor, which offers a whole line of devices and apps for active lifestyles.

The most active audience of gadgets and applications for health and active lifestyle, predictably, is people aged 18-34 years, according to Accenture data for the USA: 48% of them already use mobile applications and 26% wear different ones related to health and active way life gadgets. At the same time, fitness apps are the most popular of all apps in the “health” category - 59% of all American users have them, followed by diet control apps (52%).

Healthy rational nutrition, regular movement, positive thinking - these are the three main components of the foundation of a long, fruitful and happy life, not spoiled by ailments and stress. In our years of technical advances and a sedentary lifestyle, running and walking are considered the simplest and most affordable health remedies for everyone.

Regular active walks on foot have a huge number of advantages:

• Accessibility and simplicity... For walking, there is no need to select a special platform with a special coating that does not injure joints and knees, there is no need to buy expensive running shoes with a shock-absorbing sole. You can walk anywhere, anytime, in the simplest and most comfortable shoes;
• Minimum injury rate... When walking, there are no push-off and landing phases of the legs, as when running, which is a distinctive advantage of walking; it can be done by both people with a large weight and those who have diseases of the knees and joints;
• Scheduling flexibility... You can easily incorporate walking into your daily routine: walking to work and home, taking a walk in the afternoon;
• The ability to combine mental activity and walking... It was noticed that walking helps to revive the movement of thoughts, the activity of the mind, because when walking, you do not need to concentrate your attention, looking at the road, as is often required when cycling or jogging over rough terrain;
• New acquaintances and communication... help to track your path, progress, share your successes and achievements with your friends in social fitness communities, invite them to compete, compete for medals.

Can I get paid for walking?

Since a healthy and active lifestyle has gained unprecedented popularity in our time, many manufacturers of fashionable fitness gadgets and developers have decided to further support and develop the idea of \u200b\u200bfighting for health with the help of motor activity, namely walking. They offer to make money walking. What is the essence of their idea?

With the help of special trekkers that count the number of steps you have taken, all the information you need goes to the app installed on your mobile device. For every 10,000 steps taken (which is an average of 10-11 km), the system credits 1 BW $ - Bitwalking cryptocurrency to your virtual account. The funds accumulated in this way can be spent on purchases in various online stores, or convert into cash... Most skeptical citizens have a question, and who benefits from it? The developers share their plans: in the future, they plan to attract sports brands, companies that produce a line of footwear, workout clothes, fitness bracelets, pharmacological networks that produce goods and products for healthy eating, and other advertisers who can take advantage of all the benefits of such an unusual and a useful tool for promoting your products.

Bitwalking is an app for walkers

Currently, you can make money walking using the Bitwalking app, which is still available for Android owners. The application is downloaded and installed for free. Besides the possibility accounting for daily steps taken, regular review of your statistics, you can register in the relevant social networks, invite friends. From the latest news from the developers, it became known that Misfit, a well-known manufacturer of fitness bracelets and sports accessories, has become an official partner of Bitwalking.

How to make money while running?

It turns out that financial incentives have become available not only for walking enthusiasts, but also for those who cannot imagine their daily life without to. Many programs have also been developed for them, thanks to which it is possible not only to improve and improve your physical level and a skill by participating in increasingly difficult and long marathons, but also making good money walking.

In such applications, you can place bets on runners, register and participate in upcoming marathons yourself, and receive ready-made training programs.

Walking is enough to make money. The more the number of steps taken, the higher the earnings.

How much pay

Go! Mobile app to earn Bitwalking is under testing, for this period for every 10,000 steps the user receives one cryptodollar. Users will be able to spend the money they earn in the online store or cash it out, say the creators of the project, British Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi.

The application credits the cryptocurrency to the account based on the data of the user's pedometer or smartphone. The program is being tested in a number of countries, mostly African, for example, Malawi and Kenya. The creators do not specify a complete list of states where it is already possible to earn money for steps, although the proposal to participate in the project is available for all countries.

The currency has no exchange rate yet, since its official launch has not yet taken place. The creators expect that in developed countries the user will earn about $ 15 Bitwalking per month, and in developing countries - much more, since residents often walk, in particular for drinking water, the founders of the project argue.

Where is the money

The founders of the project attracted more than $ 10 million in investments, most of the funds came from Japanese entrepreneurs. This money is needed to create a bank that will check the steps for fairness and through which all payments will pass.

A major Japanese electronics manufacturer Murata has begun creating a special fitness tracker that will count the steps and show the owner how many cryptodollars he has earned. Shoe makers are ready to support cryptocurrency, discussions are underway with organizers of music festivals about sponsoring Bitwaking.

Risks

How a currency that is so easy to get for users of the service will be able to generate and maintain its value is the main question. The success of the scheme depends solely on how much interest sports brands, insurance companies and charitable foundations show in cryptocurrency, the newspaper notes.

Perspectives

Bahar and Embesi believe that their project is interesting not only for large companies, but for cafes and other retail outlets where you can pay with Bitwalking dollars. This will attract a potential consumer to your institution, say the creators of the cryptocurrency.

In the future, they plan to partner with sports brands, fitness product makers and even insurance companies. The developers do not exclude that their project will be of interest to employers, who will thus encourage their subordinates to walk more.

It has become the norm for Japanese companies to financially reward employees for their physical activity. The founders hope to popularize this practice in other states as well.

To participate in testing, you must leave an application on the company's website, the list includes all countries, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Tajikistan.

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