We Need To Revisit Move To Earn (M2E) , With An Integration With DePINs

I was looking through some data on crypto companies, categorically by ecosystems and happened to stumble on “move to earn” which quickly jogged my memory on having declared the ecosystem dead some time back.

I also recalled that this was my best performing post at the time, on the front of search engine rankings, I guess it was an underreported sentiment growing across the cryptocurrency ecosystem then due to the rise and fall of projects like StepN and Sweatcoin.

It should be getting to 2 years now if I remember correctly and while to any newbie, that ecosystem seems fine right now - data shows that it's a $600 million ecosystem, actually was 700+ the first time I checked on CoinMarketCap, but this is crypto afterall, volatility is our nickname.

That said, despite what it looks like, $600 million, it would interest you to know that just one project controls more than 80% of that value.

Imagine Bitcoin at 80% market dominance, not good right? Especially when liquidity is very thin across the rest of the ecosystem.

The project in said control is StepN, it appears there was an introduction of some sort of platform token at some point which is worth over $500 million in marketcap.

I'd conclude that move to earn is still dead, what I see on the surface area is really just maximum extraction of value from the community, the incentives do not appear worth the name “move to earn.”

Without sustainable income structures, no project should make promises of offering users money for their involvement. Same goes to blockchain games with play to earn promises whilst really being “pay, then play to earn” and even with that, there are no guarantees.

A Reform Is Due, With DePINs

We are moving into an era powered by data, those with the most valuable data will govern a lot of things and DePINs is one way to bring back value of move to earn DApps.

For those wondering:

DePINs (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) are blockchain-based systems that combine physical infrastructure with decentralized networks. They enable collaborative ownership, operation, and funding of physical resources like telecommunications, energy grids, and transportation systems, leveraging blockchain technology to ensure transparency, trust, and efficiency. - ^GPT

DePINs as an ecosystem ecompasses a variety of services but all have one thing in common and that's data collection.

Move to earn is an ecosystem focused on moving, an activity that leads users to travel or move through various data hubs.

By integrating with environmental data collecting DePINs, perhaps DePINs focused on enhancing the pace of developing smart cities through timely analysis of physical environments for delivering real time accurate data of transport routes including service centers that may be valuable to travelers for example, we essentially achieve lower data collection costs through movers.

With regular move-to-earn apps, there aren't long term benefits from each activity engaged by users, but with integrated DePINs, we enable incentivized global mapping and distribution of accurate environmental data that's not just rewarding for management companies but individuals, monetarily and health wise, especially considering that most times it will be handled by natives.

Why would this be sustainable and more rewarding?

That is a great question. I never fully loved the idea of move to earn because it lacked depth, there was really nothing to it, you move and earn tokens, that's it.

Too good to be true(sustainable, essentially).

That very reality makes it unsustainable because the only way to earn better involves engaging in more activities which is time and energy expensive.

Any system that relies primarily on spending more time to earn more will always prove unsustainable. We only have so much time. The average user has to be able to compete in a way that offers more value without any heavy focus on time.

With the merging of move to earn with DePINs, incentivization is now a two stage system. First incentives are directly linked to your exercises, while the other is linked to the quality of data you collect and pass onto the system or network.

The second stage is the layer of advantage that dedicated users have over others. Higher incomes will generally follow high quality of data collected, this makes it more sustainable because there's fairer access to rewards linked to value, as the exchange of valuable data for the incentives provided, essentially puts M2E apps in a position of not just throwing tokens away for nothing.

This collaborative building is what I look forward to and believe will greatly change the M2E industry and draw in more investors given the obvious value this brings to emerging technologies like AI.