Ugh! Alright, here for another update on this venture.

So 2 months ago, almost exactly, I decided to go for something that might help me get healthier as well as help me earn money, and after some debate on what would work the best I went with Sweatcoin.

There are… a number of issues with attempting to use this as a platform to earn money. The first and biggest issue is that there is simply no actual way to translate earnings into cash- theoretically, if you walk the maximum amount of steps every day for 18 months, you should be able to turn the accumulated coins in for 1000$ in Paypal Cash, which is a good chunk of money but not really very time-effective for an 18 month period. Being able to earn faster depends on 1. having a large number of friends willing to sign up and use the app so you can receive bonuses, 2. being willing to use some amount of your earnings per month to “upgrade” your account so you can earn more than the maximum number of coins per day, and 3. being physically able to walk 10000 steps or more per day.

I think on my best day I got up to 8000 steps at a theme park, but it has trouble/often can’t count steps that happen inside buildings, and any amount of physical disability (asthma, mobility/joint issues, etc) limits your ability to use this app productively. There’s also another significant drawback- it takes up a HUGE amount of space on my (admittedly, several years old) phone, and eats up data and battery life like candy.

Ultimately, I think- if you already walk a couple miles a day outside with your newer phone on data, then this app may be beneficial to you in the very long run. But as far as alternative fundraising for creative professionals goes, this is essentially just a very depressing stepcounter that means you can’t also play Pokemon Go.

I’m probably going to uninstall it when I have a minute.