Web3 to Earn: Copy and Innovation

The number of Web3 to Earn projects on the market is increasing every day, and there are 84 of them according to the statistics of Beep News.

They are subtly embedded in life, involving all aspects of our lives, running to earn coins, riding to earn coins, reading to earn coins, writing to earn coins, learning English to earn coins, and even eating and sleeping to earn coins.

There must be unreasonable reasons behind the brutal expansion of the Web3 concept. For example, we have seen that most of the Move to Earn projects are seriously homogeneous, and some obsolete old projects have caught up with the popularity of Web3 after self-packaging. APPs are sold before they are launched. There are also many cases of NFT and launch token.

However, copying, trial and error, iteration, and innovation are necessary processes for the market. The image of mfers comes from the "Are u winning son" meme. Now the floor price is 2 ETH, which is already among the blue chips. The birth of BAYC cannot escape the shadow of CryptoPunks , but BAYC has acquired CryptoPunks to become the number one IP in the NFT industry.

In the same way, a large number of Web3 to Earn projects are started in the form of plagiarism. They draw on the successful dual-token economic model and token consumption scenarios, and package the concepts of "healthy life", "environmental protection" and "meditation and mindfulness" to The way to Earn attracts users, but it is undeniable that they are improving and innovating Web3 to Earn.

This article will talk about these innovations and how the Web3 to Earn project has more vitality.

83 Web3 to Earn projects, source: Beep News

Lower the threshold of participation, free to earn

Axie Infinity and Stepn are recognized as the most successful Web3 to Earn projects. The participation threshold for the former is 3 Axies , which is worth about $1,900 based on the price in October last year. The threshold for participation in the latter is a pair of sports shoes NFT, the current floor price is 20 SOL, worth about 2,000 US dollars. The high participation threshold dissuades a large number of users.

The emerging Web3 to Earn project has greatly lowered the barriers to entry. According to the statistics of Beep News, new Web3 projects such as Wirtual, Sweatcoin, Calo App, dotmoovs, Aircoins.io support the mobile terminal to download APP, and you can play with the registration of email or mobile phone number.

One side of the coin is that the threshold is lowered, and the other side is that the user's income will also be reduced accordingly. Take Sweatcoin and Aircoins for example. Sweatcoin does not yet support secondary market exchange, and tokens can only be used for purchases, auctions or donations of 600 brand partners in the app. Aircoins withdrawal to the address needs to meet the condition that the value reaches more than 20 US dollars.

Although low threshold means low income, for the development of Web3 to Earn, low/no threshold is still a trend.

First of all, users are the basis for platform fission.

Imagine that a Play to Earn game requires purchasing one of 8,888 NFTs to play. Once this game becomes popular, it will definitely be monopolized by "elite users" who have money and leisure.

Another Play to Earn game, users only need to download the application on their mobile phones and register their mailboxes to start the Web3 journey. Although the financial return tends to be zero, ordinary users can participate in it, whether it’s for stalking or chasing hot spots. For game lovers, or others, the scope and number of users are not limited.

Second, high barriers to entry do not constitute a necessary condition for maintaining price stability.

If the product can directly hit the pain points of the market, the functions can be continuously optimized, the gameplay can be continuously unlocked, and the community and culture can be gradually established, then the price can reflect the value. Uniswap is a good example. It meets the needs of liquidity and automatic market making in a point-to-pool way, and provides simple functions and interfaces so that the price can be maintained after a generous airdrop.

Another benefit of Free to Earn is that there are a large number of Web2 users onboard. According to statistics, by November 2021, the number of global Internet users will reach 4.9 billion. Web2 can become the most direct source of Web3 user expansion.

Let a large number of Web2 users experience Web3 products with low/no threshold. They will realize what it means to own digital assets such as NFT; Account - the wallet address can be applied to multiple platforms without repeated registration, and will not be closed by a third party.

Expand functions and scenarios, and embed Web3 to Earn into life

The new Web3 to Earn project is expanding the functions and scenarios of the application. For example, the scope of Move to Earn has been extended to

Bike to Earn, Drive to Earn, Exercise to Earn, Miditate to Earn. Related projects include Wirtual, dotmoovs, VICMOVE, PUML Better Health, BikeRush, ZenCats, etc.

The form of Web3 to Earn is also getting more interesting. For example, Genopets, the Move to Earn project on Solana, extracts player movement data through mobile devices and converts it into experience points, which can be used to upgrade pets in the game, thus combining sports and games.

Genopets combines M2E with GameFi

The extension of functions is the result of gradually discovering user needs.

When the weather is bad, the Move to Earn project, which has the functions of dancing, yoga, and meditation to earn coins, can make up for users' outdoor running needs. For users who have the habit of cycling, the Bike to Earn project can be easily embedded in their lives. All he has to do is download the app and open it before each ride.

The Web3 to Earn project is also advocating more active lifestyles such as sports, learning, environmental protection, meditation and mindfulness.

As IOSG stated in the article "X to Earn: A Formal Challenge to the Death Spiral", for the Web3 to Earn project, users originally had the purpose of to Earn, but after a period of persistence, they began to recognize some non-financial The rewards include a more beautiful body, a healthier body, and a more positive mental state.

The survey shows that for such a project, even if it enters a death spiral, 83% of users are still willing to continue using it. Some users are even willing to enter the market after the project loses popularity. Compared with fitness cards, the financial returns brought by the Web3 to Earn project to users can be seen every day, and users will be motivated to choose a healthy lifestyle every day.

If Stepn goes into a death spiral, 83% of users will still keep the shoes, source: IOSG

For example, there is a project called Poppin on Solana, which focuses on Eat to Earn. After taking a picture of the food, you can get a Pop-bites virtual pet. Pop-bites are fed by taking pictures of food every day. What the Pop-bites look like depends on the type and amount of food you eat. The difference between Pop-bites There is further GameFi play. Although there is still relatively little information about the project, it can be speculated that this may be a project that encourages users to eat healthy and diverse diets.

In addition, Web3 to Earn also allows users to catch up with trends in a more interesting and novel way. When you post how much coins you earn from running and meditation on social platforms, you can show your avant-garde lifestyle and attract other Web3 participants to interact with you.

This is where the social attributes unfold. In fact, among the 84 Web3 to Earn projects counted by Beep News, many of them involve social functions, such as supporting content praise for creators and chatting among users. Social attributes can greatly enhance user stickiness.

Web2 applications are already emphasizing the importance of social interaction. For example, in the Keep community, fitness experts post about their fitness results and healthy diet, which inspire other users. In the Dianping community, users share their check-in experience and attract other users to experience it. This should also become the development trend of the Web3 to Earn project.

epilogue

The wave of Web3 is coming to us, and its adoption is accelerating in the form of to Earn. Despite the irrationality and bubbles in the market, Web3 to Earn is also undergoing improvement and innovation. The entry threshold is lowered, the functions and scenarios of to Earn are expanded, the concept of healthy life and environmental protection is emphasized, and social attributes are integrated...

As a16z agrees, the future of revenue is X to Earn. Perhaps one day, after experiencing market FOMO, greed, and cooling, the entire Web3 to Earn track will break away from investment attributes, become truly popular, and become a part of our daily lives.

Note: This article is not intended as investment advice