SweatCoin: The Latest App That Pays You to Get Fit

As the novelty of New Year’s resolutions winds down and the year stampedes along, many of us find ourselves in the same situation that 80% of Americans struggle with, asking ourselves: “Which resolutions to keep or not to keep?” So how do we make it out of the rut and continue pushing on with our goals?

While we here at PF are still clinging to many of our self-reinvention plans for 2018, a little incentive certainly can’t hurt. As studies show, time and time again, reward circuits in the brain help manifest and maintain our goals and the overall sense of motivation. The more we pursue something and are rewarded for it, the more dopamine is released, creating a feeling of accomplishment in our minds.

As you know, technology can help us stay fitter, but here’s one tool that, if you haven’t yet downloaded it, is actually designed in such a way to make you see dollar signs (actually, alt-currency signs). SweatCoin is a popular phone app with a simple concept: get paid cryptocurrency as you simply…walk. It taps into the buzz of generating alternative currency that can then be redeemed on various offers like fitness apparel, classes, or gift cards.

So if your New Year’s resolution was anything like mine, which was to move more, sit less, and become generally more fit, this app certainly taps into your brain’s natural dopamine production and becomes embedded in its pathways of desiring to win and succeed.

For every 1000 steps that you take, you earn .95 SweatCoins (the app takes .5 coins as a form of commission). Each day, you’re capped at five SweatCoins. To ensure that you’re consistently earning coins, you need to walk outside or around your house (or the office, in our case). Walking or running on a treadmill won’t generate the coveted coins.

While the five sweatcoins per diem may seem rather limited, think about the offer in this light: We normally walk without any reward whatsoever, so having a program that runs in the back of our phones (and our minds), slowly accumulating any kind of currency is an added dimension of fun. The prospect of winning, even a small amount, goes a long way in helping our brains release chemicals that may be just the thing for us to keep going–and keep our resolutions and workout goals on track. And if you do walk 10K steps daily, there are big rewards for you on the app as well, but more importantly, for your health.