If you're unfamiliar with Sweatcoin, it is a new and upcoming fitness app that rewards you based on your daily steps. For every 1000 steps you take, the app will payout .95 of a 'Sweatcoin' to you which you can in turn then spend on fancy rewards such as FitBits, Daily Offers, iPhones & much more!
I installed Sweatcoin and started turning my sweat into moolah yesterday morning on my phone and after 24 hours of use, I thought I'd give it a little review!
I hope you enjoy the read :)
The app runs in the background and uses GPS and location services to track your movements and as a result how many steps you're taking. I've counted the step counter and it seems to basically be spot on, so the algorithm that they use definitely works well!
It appears in the app tray and if you have a fast phone that's less than 2-years-old, you really shouldn't notice any performance drops by just having it open in the background.
It's claimed to be a 'Cryptocurrency' but it's more just a simple medium of exchange and the use of Blockchain technologies aren't harnessed in the app - so probably not the 'Crypto' you and I are used to, but possibly for others.
Here is a montage of the aesthetics of the app, and how it appears in the app-drawer;
(Apologies for the poor quality)
The 'free' version limits you to 5 Sweatcoins per day, and with most people easily hitting 10,000 steps a day, that does sort of limit your earnings a little bit. You can then upgrade to 3 different 'payment' options (with a 4th coming soon!) and you'll pay 4.75 SWC, 20 SWC or 30 SWC per month to upgrade your potential earnings to 10 SWC per day, 15 SWC per day and 20 SWC per day respectively. You'll also receive your first month for free, so as a 'microtransaction' it really isn't too bad!
To give you a small example of how long it will take you to earn some of the offers...
A FitBit Flex (currently one of their offers) will cost 375 SWC. So if you make ~ 15 SWC per day (walking a decent amount) it will take you 25 days. A FitBit Flex retails for ~ £60, so for just walking for 25 days it's really a no brainer!
The only thing I'm really annoyed about is there's no way to import raw .tcx/.gpx files from Running Wearables to log those steps. I could go for a 10 mile run and decide not to bring my phone, as I prefer wearing a watch over shoving a huge phone on my arm - which after a while irritates my shoulder, and I would probably do a fair amount of steps only for it not to count towards my daily amount.
Anyhow, this app will certainly cut down on the odd occasion when I take the bus to University, and will probably make me go for random, spontaneous walks much, much more!
I'll make another post after 30 days and see whether I've claimed anything, but at time of writing my collection of SWC stands at exactly 12.
If you're interested in it - check your relevant app store!