What is STEPN? Everything you need to know about the Green Satoshi Token

Two things can be true. STEPN is one of the most interesting and promising projects in the crypto space. However, its Green Satoshi Token is going through a death spiral like no other. Granted, we’re in the middle of a bear market and the whole world is upside down, but GST looks bad. The company is optimistic, though. They recently wrote to their mailing list: “Rest assured, we can confidently say that STEPN will be here for years and come out as one of the strongest products from this bear market.”

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What is STEPN?

The brainchild of Australian studio Find Satoshi Lab, the app made headlines around the world earlier this year. Their “move-to-earn (M2E)” schtick, in which people have to walk/ run to earn Green Satoshi Tokens, is clever. Plus, the gamification of the activity sounds fun. Before joining the STEPN movement, though, users have to buy an NFT sneaker. Which is also clever.

The app is currently under Public Beta Phase, so a lot of the functionalities described in the whitepaper are under construction. In the document, they describe STEPN as “built around an essential daily activity for most people – moving around. We are the first project to effectively bring to life a functioning move & earn concept.” In the litePaper, the creators are more eloquent: 

“STEPN is a Web3 lifestyle app with Social-Fi and Game-Fi elements. Users equipped with NFT Sneakers – walk, jog or run outdoors to earn GST, which can be used to level up and mint new Sneakers.”

The project started on Solana in December 2021. In fact, STEPN finished “4th out of 500+ projects at the Solana Ignition Hackathon 2021.” And yes, after downloading the app, users need to fund the built-in wallet and buy an NFT sneaker to start earning Green Satoshi Tokens. Everything in there is simple to use, though, as one of the app’s objectives is to onboard non-crypto users.

In a recent medium post, the company detailed the app’s value proposition even more precisely: “STEPN’s adoption relies on real user needs, building healthy habits and impact on physical and mental health that users care about and hence the ever growing organic demand.”

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Everything about the Green Satoshi Token

Theoretically, there’s an unlimited GST supply. In practice, at the time of writing, there are 481,799,487.69 coins in circulation and the market capitalization is around $19M. The price is $0.04, a steep decline from an all-time high of around $9 in April. Is this decline typical for the bear market? Or was there some rug pulling going on? 

Even though markets across the board are in the red at the moment, the Green Satoshi Token’s decline seems suspicious. We have nothing to back that claim, though. The company behind STEPN keeps pushing fresh content in all of its channels, and recently, they signed pretty big partnerships with BAYC and Atlético de Madrid. Shall we give them the benefit of the doubt?

In any case, everything we’ve mentioned so far went on throughout the Solana network. And this is where STEPN gets complicated and confusing.

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GST on Ethereum and The Binance Smart Chain

The company recently opened two new “realms,” one in the Binance Smart Chain and one in Ethereum. Both of them come with their own NFTs and with a separate iteration of the Green Satoshi Token. In the BSC, at the time of writing, the price of the GST is also $0.04, the total supply is 88,936,234.55, and the market capitalization is around $4M. According to the Whitepaper, “Each Realm will have a large degree of liberty to define its brand and community culture. STEPN's ecosystem partners can define the color theme, utility tokens, visuals of the NFTs and the Realm narrative.”

In a recent blog post, the company explained, “We’ve chosen to build our Third Realm on Ethereum and call it APE Realm. This Realm reflects a great experiment to embrace fashion and other NFT communities.” As informed readers probably suspect, the venture is in partnership with Yuga Lab’s Bored Ape Yacht Club. In Ethereum, at the time of writing, the price of GST is $0.4, the total supply is 30,494,035.62, and the market capitalization is around $12M. 

To turn it up a notch in complication, there’s also the Green Metaverse Token. The GMT is a Governance Token with a total supply of 6 billion in each chain. Users who stack GMT get a higher voting power. And the longer the lock period, the higher the power. The Green Metaverse Token also has other functions inside the app like minting sneakers and upgrading them. Executing those functions burns GMT. 

The same happens with the Green Satoshi Token. “All GST users spent in the app are burned daily from the Spending Account,” says the whitepaper. Luckily, or rather by design, you can earn more if you own an NFT sneaker. Buy one on OpenSea and you can start walking. At the time of writing, the floor price for a sneaker NFT is 1.58 SOL, and the collection has moved a total volume of 52K SOL.

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Carbon neutral for the planet

A recent blog post quotes Jerry Huang, CoFounder of STEPN, saying “We want to enable our users to each feel a sense of ownership towards this initiative. As the world pivots to making greener choices, we believe this is the first of many steps towards sustaining a conducive planet for future generations.” That’s in line with the company’s product and healthy lifestyle ambitions.

The quote comes from the announcement of its partnership with Nori, in which STEPN committed itself to buying Carbon Removal Credits. Or, in Nori’s words, “a portion of STEPN's profit goes to[ward] buy[ing] carbon removal on the blockchain to combat climate change.” However, the users are the ones who are going to make the sacrifice. They can choose to donate the Green Satoshi Tokens they earn, which will be transformed into USDC to buy Carbon Credits. 

According to STEPN, donations are voluntary, but the last two names for the categories of donors are “Selfish Taker” and “Greedy Taker.” Which is a little bit on the nose, to be honest.

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Rapid fire facts about the GST and STEPN

• One of the announced features that isn’t ready yet is the ability to rent NFT sneakers. Once deployed, it will decrease STEPN’s barrier of entry to zero. The app will split the earnings, 30% to the renter and 70% to the NFT owner. This feature is derivative of Play-To-Earn games, in which rentals are a common practice.
• In September STEPN turns one. It’s hard to believe they’ve accomplished so much in just one year. The future looks bright for the young app and for the Green Satoshi Token.
• Apparently, users are cheating (shame on you!) So, STEPN had to develop from scratch a mechanism called SMAC. What does it do? “SMAC uses Artificial Intelligence to examine data like GPS tracking, motion sensor, and health data to identify cheaters who use the app with multiple phones. It doubles up as an anti-botting software, which detects any form of bots and scripts.” Seriously, several phones at once? That was pretty ingenious.
• Another important app feature that’s coming down the pipeline is called DOOAR, “our new multi-chain Decentralized Exchange (DEX).” The exchange promises swaps across “various blockchains, not only a single network like most dexes.” Plus, it will incentivize the locking of Green Satoshi tokens by providing yield to “liquidity providers.”
• STEPN’s Ethereum realm recently partnered with Spanish professional football club Atlético de Madrid. Both entities will offer a “co-branded NFT collection,” which “will feature a total of 1,001 digitally hand-drawn Atlético de Madrid sneakers.” Not only that, in line with the companies’ charitable spirit, “10% of the sales profits will go towards “Fundación Atlético de Madrid” to help fund international schools through soccer initiatives.” Enhorabuena!
• Speaking of co-branding, STEPN recently launched a cross-promotion campaign for BAYC holders. All of them get a free mint of an NFT sneaker. This is one of the reasons STEPN called its Ethereum version the APE realm. Expect more announcements in this vein.  
• Recently, the company “strategically invested in an early-stage Web3 Stream and game editor. Our tokens can be used for payment on their platform. Similarly, in our future online merchandise store, we will enable payment with our native tokens.” So, the company is creating and seeking new markets for the Green Satoshi Token and the Green Metaverse Token. Which is usually a good sign,

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Buy/ No Buy Recommendation

The project’s characteristics make this one a tricky coin to advise about, but here we go…

If you’re interested in a healthy lifestyle and are willing to do the sacrifices necessary, this might be the project for you. You’ll get a great incentive, the Green Satoshi Token rewards, and a phenomenal community to boost. So, consider investing in the sneaker NFT. Remember that even if you fail to recoup the cost, you’ll still get motivation, a fit body, and health. Plus, the Green Satoshi Tokens.

Now, if you want to invest in GST hoping that it will gain value in the future, the story is different. According to the litePaper, the team, the advisors, and STEPN’s treasury got a premine of almost 50% of the tokens. And there’s no mention of a vesting schedule. Plus, there was a private sale of 16.3% of the tokens. All of them could dump on you. The whole move-to-earn ecosystem runs on 30% of the tokens, which leaves possible investors in a precarious situation.

This is not a problem for STEPN users, because they get their Green Satoshi Tokens by walking and running and participating in the activities. If you’re part of the ecosystem and like the gamification aspect, you could even consider investing in the Green Metaverse Token and participating in the project’s governance. In the future, you’ll be able to burn GMT to upgrade your sneakers and much more.

This is more of a game and a lifestyle app than an investment. So, get out there, exercise, and have fun.