Gm Tigers, 

Last week, we had an amazing Twitter Spaces session with innovative "Move-to-Earn" projects FitMint and Rapty. We discussed how "move-to-earn" games work, what crypto is needed for M2E games, the importance of social elements in "x-to-earn" projects, and much more. Don’t worry if you missed it; here's a recap for ya. Also, both of these projects are soon coming to Tegro Earn, so stay tuned.

First up, introductions:

FitMint: FitMint is a Web3 fitness app where you can seamlessly track your workout, compete against your friends, and earn crypto rewards for burning calories.

Rapty: Rapty is a dance metaverse where you can flex your insane moves, enter dance battles, and earn tokens.

Understanding Move-to-Earn

Axie Infinity introduced the play-to-earn model to the world, wherein players could earn real value (tokens) for playing games. Since then, more than 1600 play-to-earn titles have been released. However, Web3 entrepreneurs are now coming up with interesting new applications for this new model. Move-to-Earn projects, which reward users for physical activities such as walking, running, and swimming, are among the most popular. It’s amazing how Web3 technologies like tokens allow us to incentivize previously non monetizable activities like gaming or exercising. 

While fitness apps like Strava already dominate the space, Web3 fitness apps bring some remarkable new elements to the equation that might accelerate their adoption. It is extremely difficult to overcome geographical barriers.Web3 technologies allow local founders to build global products easily. It literally opens up the world to you. Plus, financial incentives such as token rewards make the app attractive to people who are just beginning their fitness journey.

As a startup in the web3 space, one of their goals is to create stuff that’s web3 native, but we also need to bring in new people into this amazing space. According to Tony, dance is a huge melting pot of talent that can bring a lot of people in.

Issues 

 Sustainability is one of the primary concerns for this new breed of "x-to-earn" projects. Stepn, the pioneer of move-to-earn games, has been notoriously unsustainable.

 Platforms have to experiment with different monetization models. It’s high time that we come to terms with the fact that there’s no such thing as "magic internet money."

 There’s an inherent lack of social features in Web3 move-to-earn platforms. One of the problems with x-to-earn platforms is that the community gets too focused on the earn part of the equation. Going forward, projects should add more social elements to make people engage without incentivizing them with tokens.

If the project wants to pay users, that value should come from somewhere; otherwise, it just ends up becoming a Ponzi scheme. One of the ways Rapty solves this problem is through its challenge mode, where two challengers put in their bets and the winner takes it all (while Rapty earns some commission).

Way ahead 

Token dumps are a real problem for Web3 projects. No matter how good your project is, a portion of the community will always dump it in order to profit.The key here is to design some real-life benefits for the token that will incentivize users to hold them.

One of the Move-to-Earn projects is onboarding insurance companies, because it's beneficial for these insurance firms for their clients to be healthier.

Creating social hooks within the platform is important. Move-to-Earn developers need to balance the initial user excitement about higher profits with interesting social elements because people might come in for the token, but they are likely to stay for the community and the network. 

Partnering with influencers is a great strategy to accelerate adoption. Some influencers within the fitness community have millions of followers that trust them. However, popular influencers receive thousands of endorsement deals, so positioning your projects as the next big thing or presenting them with an attractive offer is key to getting their attention.

Getting investments

Move to Earn projects are quite intriguing and show a lot of potential. However, the market is probably in the worst shape right now to raise money. Investors are looking at the whole space with skepticism. Here are a few tips for raising capital for your Web3 fitness app:

Make it sustainable: As we mentioned above, most people are already aware that the move-to-earn model will not work with real-life sinks. The project should generate enough revenue to cover the cost of providing token rewards to their users.Obviously, after reaping profits.

Marketing it well: It goes without saying that you need to come up with an out-of-the box idea to position your projects above the huge swath of other companies operating in the space. Move-to-Earn projects and Web3 fitness apps in general present many opportunities for these out-of the box marketing gimmicks. Some of the things developers can try are hosting virtual marathons, dance battles, etc.

Get Users first: Investors care about how many people are using their app initially. Show up with good numbers to make it easy for them and you. FitMint was able to easily raise capital as they already had some revenue and a decent number of users.

Projects should stay away from creating shorts pumps. because a big pump is likely to crash the token in the long run (or literally the next day). This is because speculators are generally interested in taking their money out instead of staying in the ecosystem. 

Lastly, you can raise funds through investors for the web3 project, but it's more effective to decentralize the project and raise the funds through the community.

In closing 

It was really interesting to hear these move-to-earn pioneers share their story and experience with us. We’re excited to bring them on our platform. Stay tuned because you'll soon be able to play and earn bounties from these games on our Tegro Earn platform.In the meantime, check out their social channels and show them some love, Tegro community. 

Ciao