Meet STEPN, the crypto app that assurances to pay you to stay in shape

What will encourage you to exercise more? The obvious answer, says the STEPN founder, is hard money. Their money-making app offers cash rewards to its users for being more active and has convinced millions of people to mark up in just a few months.

It's a relatively simple principle, explains Yaun Rong, co-founder of STEPN. "We want to encourage people to change their behavior and get more exercise," he said. "This is an opportunity to share the benefits of Web3 technology with a new and diverse group of fitness enthusiasts."

To participate, users must download the STEPN app and then purchase a pair of virtual sneakers in a non-replaceable token (NFT). Once they do, STEPN's GPS tracking technology and motion sensors will track how far they've traveled each time they walk, jog or run and reward them with tokens. These tokens can then be used in games - for example, upgraded sneakers - or hard currency.

The potential rewards on offer seem attractive. According to Rong, the minimum consumers can earn is $25 for 10 minutes of activity, and some users earn as much as $4,500 per day. But many people don't take all that money, he added. Instead, they use their proceeds to buy new in-game NFTs, trade with other players and donate some of their money to good causes.

There's a catch if this all sounds too good to be true. To start playing, you need to buy these NFT sneakers at the price of Sol, the native cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain on which STEPN operates. And they're expensive: Daily prices in fiat currency vary by the value of the sole, but the cheapest sneakers cost hundreds of dollars -- and sometimes start up more than $1,000.

STEPN hopes to introduce a sneaker rental feature to cut this significant entry fee in the coming months. New players rent sneakers from someone already in the game and share the proceeds with the shoe owner until they earn enough money to buy their own NFT shoes.