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This cryptocurrency can help you stick with two of your new year’s Resolutions

This cryptocurrency can help you stick with two of your new year’s Resolutions
Patrick Devaney

Patrick Devaney

  • Updated:
Investment in crypto-assets is unregulated, may not be suitable for retail investors and the entire amount invested may be lost. It is important to read and understand the risks of this investment, which are explained in detail here.

Christmas and new year have come and gone and we’re stuck in January wondering what the hell happened with a vague determination to make it better this time around. Well if your new year’s resolutions involved losing weight, getting fit, or being better with money you might be interested in a new cryptocurrency called Sweatcoin.

The Sweatcoin Android and iOS apps take your steps and convert them into a digital currency called Sweatcoins that can then be used to buy things via the app. Sweatcoins can even be turned into PayPal gift cards, which means they can be spent pretty much anywhere.

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The problem is that, in an effort to prevent fraud, the app needs to track the user’s GPS location. In fact, the permissions required before your steps will qualify for Sweatcoin conversion are pretty extensive. Version 1.10.1 can access:

Identity

read your own contact card

Contacts

read your contacts

Location

approximate location (network-based)

precise location (GPS and network-based)

Phone

read phone status and identity

Photos/Media/Files

read the contents of your USB storage

modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Storage

read the contents of your USB storage

modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Camera

take pictures and videos

Wi-Fi connection information

view Wi-Fi connections

Device ID & call information

read phone status and identity

Other

receive data from Internet

view network connections, full network access, run at startup, draw over other apps, control vibration, prevent device from sleeping

The constant GPS tracking will also raise battery life issues. There is a battery-saving mode but this explicitly states that some steps might be lost, which is as good as money down the drain. So just how much are steps worth in Sweatcoins?

For every 1,000 steps travelled, users will get 0.95 Sweatcoins, which means you’ll make just shy of 10 Sweatcoins a day if the app registers all of your steps. You can use your coins to buy things from Graze snacks for 80 Sweatcoins to an iPhone X for 20,000 Sweatcoins. It has been estimated that about 65% of all steps will be registered, which means it’ll take users about 3,000 days to accrue enough Sweatcoins for an iPhone X.

There is a catch to be taken into account and that is the different types of accounts that users need to sign up to. The Mover account is free and allows users to earn 5 Sweatcoins a day. After that, incremental increases in Sweatcoins paid per month unlock different accounts that allow users to earn more Sweatcoins each day, all the way up to the Breaker account, which costs 30 Sweatcoins a month but allows users to earn 20 Sweatcoins a day. Technically all the accounts are free but accrued coins will disappear if users stop using the app.

All in all, Sweatcoins seem like a great incentive to get yourself moving and are particularly exciting if the app is used in conjunction with games like Pokémon Go. As Niantic has promised us a Harry Potter version later this year it could be worth signing up to Sweatcoin now if you think you’ll be playing Harry Potter Go when it comes out.

For now Sweatcoin is only available in

Are you excited by Sweatcoins?

Via: The New York Times and Lifehacker

Follow me on Twitter: @PatrickDevaney_

Patrick Devaney

Patrick Devaney

Patrick Devaney is a news reporter for Softonic, keeping readers up to date on everything affecting their favorite apps and programs. His beat includes social media apps and sites like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat. Patrick also covers antivirus and security issues, web browsers, the full Google suite of apps and programs, and operating systems like Windows, iOS, and Android.

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