Original source: How to, Odaily
Reprinted from: Koala, Mars Finance
After the popularity of StepN, numerous health and fitness Web3 applications have emerged; however, very few projects can surpass StepN's success due to the lack of innovation in most applications.
Against this backdrop, Moonwalk recently announced that it has secured $3.4 million in seed funding led by Hack VC, with other participants including Binance Labs, Reciprocal Ventures, Bonk, and Solana co-founder Raj Gokal. Will it have unique features and create a fitness wave like StepN?
Exercise and fitness require self-discipline; if self-control is poor, use 'real money' to restrain yourself.
Moonwalk is a fitness application on the Solana chain that combines a token reward and penalty mechanism to help users achieve their daily step goals. By creating private or public games, users can set daily step targets and stake cryptocurrencies like USDC, SOL, or BONK, ensuring that users have the constraint of a token economy while achieving their goals.
Moonwalk specific gameplay:
1. Users need to complete account registration according to the requirements, and can choose to register via Google or wallet. It is worth noting that registering via Google will create a Tiplink wallet for you. The author recommends creating an account through MetaMask, OKX wallet, and Phantom to avoid cumbersome transfers later.
2. Currently, Moonwalk uses an invitation code for admission, and you can complete the corresponding registration.
3. Users with different mobile types need to first download the dedicated app from the app store, including Moonboots (dedicated iOS app), Google Fit, or FitBit. The author believes that Moonboots is more convenient for data collection, while Google Fit requires manual synchronization every day, and the project team needs to connect with Google account information.
4. After completing all the basic operations above, users choose a competition pool to enter. Different competition pools have different entry thresholds, and creators freely choose the corresponding tokens, specify daily step counts, and competition durations. However, it is worth noting that participation in the competition pool requires selecting within its restricted time frame, according to the user's time zone each day, and not entering midway, as this may count as incomplete on the first day, resulting in the deduction of corresponding staked tokens.
5. After choosing to participate in a single match, users can see the dashboard of all participants, allowing them to see the number of people who did not complete the daily challenge, and then calculate the rewards.
In simple terms, Moonwalk is very similar to previously popular fitness groups or smoking cessation groups, where participants face penalties if they do not meet the previously set requirements. In Moonwalk, the penalty is the previously staked tokens, distributed evenly based on the duration of the competition. For example, if a user deposits 10 SOL for a competition lasting 5 days and fails to complete the task on one day, only 2 SOL will be deducted, with the remainder returned.
In addition, in Moonwalk, users can participate in private or public games. Private games are suitable for interacting with friends in a closed environment, while public games allow users to join larger communities, increasing social interaction. Games can also be supported by sponsors, providing additional rewards to encourage participants to achieve their fitness goals more actively.
Essentially, Moonwalk is not considered a GameFi but rather a costly exercise planning application, where users restrain themselves to complete their goals by investing 'real money'. If participants in a single game complete the tasks, excluding sponsorship support, no one will profit, but the project's exercise goals will be achieved to a certain extent.
Expectations for future token issuance
From the above content, Moonwalk's gameplay is quite monotonous, only measuring steps, and the competition does not have many additional rewards, making it less attractive. If Moonwalk is merely used as a constraint for personal exercise, its future development space is not 'sexy'.
However, in July this year, Moonwalk launched a leaderboard mode, combining it with the XP (experience points) system to provide users with a fitness experience that has potential incentives. By participating in activities, achieving step goals, recommending friends, and other ways, users can earn experience points and improve their rankings on the leaderboard, thereby unlocking future rewards. The author speculates that future rewards should be token incentives.
Moonwalk's Ascent system has two main leaderboards, allowing users to clearly see their achievements and rankings:
XP Leaderboard: This leaderboard tracks the total XP users earn from various activities, showing their overall performance in the Moonwalk Fitness community.
Competitive XP Leaderboard: Focused on users' performance and success in specific games, reflecting their ranking in competitive matches. This leaderboard encourages users to perform better in games, thus improving their rankings.
Strategies to increase XP
To climb the leaderboard, users need to formulate effective strategies. Here are several methods to increase XP:
Continuously achieving step goals: Ensure that you meet your daily step goals in each competition, which is the basis for earning XP.
Participate in multiple games: By participating in multiple competitions simultaneously, users can significantly increase their chances of earning XP. The more competitions participated in, the more XP earned.
Create and host games: After participating in at least three competitions, users can create their own games. Attracting more participants will earn users more XP.
Recommend active users: Recommend Moonwalk to friends who have the potential to actively participate in games.
Overall, although Moonwalk's current gameplay is relatively simple, it is still in the early stages; at the same time, the user participation threshold is low. As long as users complete daily goals according to the rules, participation is basically risk-free. Moreover, Moonwalk introduces leaderboards and XP systems, providing potential incentives for users to participate in the project for future token issuance.
