STEPN app has not left the first line of the move-to-earn chart for several months. And it’s not surprising because STEPN is a project that breaks patterns and encourages millions of people to follow their lifestyles. To become a part of the project, you just need to download the official app and purchase NFT sneakers. After that, STEPN will autonomously track the user’s speed and distance. For movement, users are rewarded with the internal currency GST, which can eventually be exchanged and withdrawn in fiat.
What Is STEPN?
STEPN belongs to a new direction of games in which the most trending technologies are used: NFTs, move-to-earn, and fitness trackers. To earn money in STEPN, the user needs to purchase NFT sneakers. Then, you will need to walk or run with a smartphone to receive rewards in the form of GST tokens. At the time of writing, the minimum price of NFT sneakers on OpenSea is 11 SOL (about $400).
In addition to the direct purchase of sneakers, users can also rent them from another player. In this case, part of the profit received from the movement is sent to the lessor. There are two tokens in the STEPN project: GST and GMT. GMT is a governance token but can also be used to mint sneakers and level up. GST is the main token that players receive as a reward for movement.
How to Earn $GST?
As already mentioned, GST is the token the user earns as a reward for movement. Therefore, the user must buy NFT sneakers or rent them to earn. When purchasing sneakers, you should carefully consider their characteristics because the amount of earnings depends on them:
- Choose a suitable class of sneakers. The classes are divided into four categories depending on physical activity: walker, jogger, runner, or trainer. Thus, if you are not a fan of running (8-20 KM/HR), choose sneakers in which you can walk (1-6 KM/HR). This is a crucial point because if you move faster or slower than the set range, you are not earning.
- Pay attention to the efficiency and comfort of sneakers. The higher the efficiency and comfort, the more GST per minute you earn.
- Do not try to cheat. This may be followed by a penalty or ban. In addition, keep an eye on the GPS signal; if it is too low, you will not earn.
$GST Tokenomics
GST has unlimited supply and is based on two networks, Solana and BNB Chain. Therefore, the token has a different price and a different circulating supply in different networks. At the time of writing, GST (SOL) price is about $0.1 and has a circulating supply of about 163 million tokens. GST (BSC) is trading at $0.4 and has a total supply of 30 million tokens. Since the supply of GST is unlimited and constantly growing, the developers have implemented a burning mechanism to prevent inflation. GST is burned via:
- Shoe-mining
If you own two sneakers, you can breed them and get a shoebox. Please note that the higher the quality of the bred sneakers, the greater the chance of getting a rarer shoebox. Next, you can open it and get a random sneaker. The cost of shoe-minting is dynamic and depends on the dollar price of GST.
- Level up
If you want to profit more from the movement, you need to level up your sneakers. To level up, you need to burn a certain amount of GST. However, you need to burn the GMT token when you reach the 5/10/20/29/30 level.
- Unlocking sockets
GST is also burned when unlocking gem sockets. When unlocking sockets, you can insert corresponding gems and increase the attributes of your sneakers (to start earning more).
- Sneaker repairing
Naturally, NFT sneakers, like real shoes, wear out. Therefore, to continue earning in the game, you need to constantly repair them.
$GST Price Balancing
Despite the unlimited supply, the price of the GST token has been growing rapidly since the launch of STEPN. All this is due to the huge popularity of the project. Users rushed to buy new sneakers, increasing their floor price. With the help of the GST token, new NFT sneakers could be created (“minted”). Accordingly, the price of GST also grew.
The developers were concerned about the extremely sharp increase in GST price. Therefore, the developers decided to make temporary changes to the in-game economy. As a result, changes were introduced to the procedure for creating new NFTs as a “Double-mint” event. Now, you only need to burn the GMT token to mint sneakers. That is, currently, we do not spend the GST token in the process of creating new sneakers. Moreover, the chance of getting a twin is increased by 300%.
Thanks to this innovation, the GST price has stabilized. Users began to spend less GST since it is no longer needed for mint. Accordingly, the price of this token has fallen.
This innovation is temporary. It is quite possible that the developers will return to the need to burn GST when creating new sneakers. It is still unknown how long this action will last.