Caring with Crypto: A deep dive into the world of Charity and Web3

At STEPN, one of our core values is bettering the global community. It’s an integral part of our mission, and it’s what drives us to work hard, day in and day out. Our next goal? To enable our community to participate in this mission.

Last week we enabled the highly anticipated $GMT for Level 30 Sneakers on the STEPN app. Shortly followed by a partnership announcement with The Giving Block, the leading crypto philanthropy platform. With this new partnership, you can now donate our native token $GMT you earn on your runs to thousands of Non Profit Organisations of your choice on The Giving Block’s platform.

We’re extremely excited about this and can’t wait to give all of our incredible users the opportunity to engage in charitable giving and donate them to causes that they care about. Today, we’ll be digging into why we embarked on this project and how you can donate.

Breaking Boundaries Series 1: Fitness, Charity and Web3

Before we get suck in, make sure to catch up on our STEPN Breaking Boundaries event where we were joined by special guests Kelli from The Giving Block and world record holder Lucas from OUTRUNCANCER. We had an inspiring discussion spanning fitness, charity and onboarding the next generation of users to Web3.

Giving is good for you: The science says so

Did you know that giving to others is actually good for your health?

Studies have shown that “prosocial spending” (loosely defined as spending your money or time on other people instead of yourself) can boost your emotional well-being, from greater self-esteem to less depression to lower inflammation and stress — and come with an entire host of health benefits.

• “Helper’s high”: A peer-reviewed study found that spending money on charities was linked with increased levels of happiness, while money spent on personal expenses or new things had little or no significant impact on a person’s long-term happiness level.
• Live longer: In a study that looked at people 50 and older, those who volunteered for about two hours every week were considerably less likely to die over a five-year period than those who didn’t volunteer.
• Better body: People who give social support to others have been found to have consistently lower blood pressure, lower levels of stress, less likelihood of experiencing depression, and

When you think about it, it makes sense. We are social creatures by nature, and thus our minds and bodies have natural reward systems built in when we help and give to others.

Unfortunately, our generosity has taken a hit. According to Vox, fewer and fewer Americans are giving to charity; between 2000 and 2018, about 20 million Americans stopped giving.

Some theories? Americans are less religious overall, and religion has historically received the largest share of charitable donations. Another theory points to economic downturns. For example, the largest drop in participation occurred after the Great Recession in 2010.

When we look at the state of our health and the rise of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection, this is a troubling trend. Especially when you consider how impactful giving to charities can be for our health and well-being.

That’s why we want to put the focus back on charitable giving — and the positive knock-on effects it brings.

STEPN — health for you, health for all

From the beginning, it’s always been purpose over profits for us at STEPN. Over the last year, we’ve changed the way people think about active living by gamifying a healthy lifestyle through our move-and-earn model.

We’re endlessly dedicated to promoting all facets of health across the world.

• We encourage physical health and help people develop a great workout routine through our app. We’re revolutionising the fitness tech world by promoting positive habits, making exercise fun and “addicting,” rewarding users for taking care of their bodies on a regular basis. Our recent Burger Burn challenge asked users to get creative when thinking about how they work out.
• We promote mental health by nudging users to get outside and get their bodies moving, which has been consistently linked to greater happiness and satisfaction in myriad studies. Your mind and emotions are inextricable from your body — there’s an entire body of somatic therapy that is dedicated to this truth.
• We champion social health by connecting users across the world. We are founded on community and are committed to fighting the rising tide of the loneliness epidemic sweeping the globe. Nearly 50% of adults say they’ve experienced an increase in loneliness. And COVID has only made things worse. We’ve launched challenges like Best Running Friends Forever to hone in on social well-being and connecting like-minded users across our ecosystem.

Now? We’re adding yet another spoke in our flywheel of holistic health — the nourishing health of giving.

The Giving Block x $GMT

The Giving Block is a philanthropic organization with a one-track mission to make crypto one of the greatest forces for good. It can process charitable donations in hundreds of cryptocurrencies.

We’ve partnered with The Giving Block to enable users to donate the GMT you earn to thousands of nonprofits on The Giving Block’s platform. And through a campaign called “Caring with Crypto,” The Giving Block’s parent company, Shift4, will match all donations made in GMT to Impact Index Funds.

This tool means that you can contribute to multiple nonprofits, based on causes you care about — from economic development to arts and culture, children and youth to environment, health and medicine to mental health, science and technology, and more.

Users also have the opportunity to support an Impact Index Fund, which supports many charities with a single donation and removes the friction of needing to transfer funds to several different entities and selecting multiple organizations. This diversifies your giving, amplifying your impact and supporting laboratories of effective altruism.

Plus, donating crypto is a highly tax-efficient form that also supports mainstream crypto adoption. Even donating a small portion of your crypto can make a profound impact in helping a cause you’re passionate about — not to mention improve your own health.

The bottom line

We’re so excited about this partnership because it serves a dual purpose, where the impact is greater than the sum of its parts.

For one, GMT holders now have added utility to their tokens — they can have a real-world impact through their digital earnings. Meanwhile, because holders walk, run, and jog in order to earn those tokens, there’s a positive feedback loop of leading an “active lifestyle” while giving back. It’s the ultimate health hack — and you can feel great while doing it.

We can’t wait to see how you decide to give back, and we’re so happy to have you along on our mission of giving.

Thanks for reading!

Team STEPN

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