Bringing IRL Utility to WheelCoin to Embrace ReFi Agenda
Today, January 18th, we are announcing the live functionality for WheelCoin app users to burn WHL, the reward token, in exchange for discounts for using green mobility services from our growing partner network.
The Move2Earn (M2E) space took off in 2022 with the astronomical growth of STEPN, continued impressive adoption of SweatCoin and the introduction of dozens of other M2E games such as Genopets, Dotmoove and others. During the bull market, the colletive market value of the Move2Earn space exceed $1 billion. Despite continued growth of new entrants, the total market cap of the space is less than $400 million.
While it’s easy to write off the decline as just part of the market correction tied to the bull market. Yet, I believe the biggest reason for the decline is that many of the M2E games have failed to build a sustainable token economy and in particular, lack clear connectivity to IRL utility for the token.
It is hard to build a sustainable token model that relies almost exclusively on “up only” reward token value where the project just mints inflationary tokens for users who walk or exercise and the goal of the users is to acquire more tokens as a purely speculative financial asset. Some M2E have embraced IRL-in real life-like SweatCoin (which was not even a tokenized project until recently when they deployed on NEAR).
Iomob deployed the public beta of WheelCoin in October 2022. The vision of WheelCoin is to help accelerate the adoption of green mobility, placing WheelCoin directly in the app layer of the ReFi Climate Stack.
As a ReFi project, WheelCoin aspires to have an IRL impact on climate change. This means it is critical that WheelCoin has a sustainable reward token economy and truly helps move the needle on carbon emissions from the mobility sector.
The WheelCoin reward token (WHL) is designed almost like a stable coin tied to carbon emissions. 1 WHL is equal to 1 kilogram of “avoided” emissions. In particular, WheelCoin detects the users mobility choices and rewards them with WHL by comparing the average carbon emissions from the mode they chose versus the same journey with an average combustion engine car.
I put “avoided” in quotes only because those of you familiar with the carbon offset arena will know that there is a science and methodology to formerly claim that the project in question can prove the emissions are avoided because of the project. Clearly WheelCoin can not prove WheelCoin users would have chosen a car instead of a train, bus, bike, walking, scooter, etc. if it were not for WheelCoin so we take a more liberal approach to thinking about avoidance. Based on a poll of early WheelCoin users, it appears that 20% of the community has made some changes in their behavior just because of the app.
So we explored the importance of tying the issuance of the token, which can only be earned by users for moving green, thus it is a true fair launch and is not possessed by founders or investors.
But if we at Iomob are sincere in our ambition to help nudge millions and eventually even hundreds of millions or more people around the globe to move green, WheelCoin needs to do more. Today I am excited to announce the first true utility of WHL for users.
Both the iOS and Android apps that are live in the app stores, now allow users to burn WHL which they earned for free by moving green, to obtain discounts for using or buying green mobility services. We have signed 15 deals so far with green mobility operators ranging from high end Jaguar electric carsharing (THE OUT) to on-demand bike and scooter sharing like Nextbike, Tier, Dott, Voi and Beryl. We have deals for discounts on monthly subscriptions to electric bikes and EV cars and we even have discounts on electric boat taxis (Prague Boats).
Today the discount functionality for burning WheelCoin went live with the first three partners and all 15 will be live soon. This is of course just the beginning as the plan is to have global discounts available for WheelCoin users. Click here to see a demo of how WheelCoin and the discounts work.
Why am I so enthusiastic about this new functionality for WheelCoin?
- As discussed above, the move2earn space has had a lot of speculative bubbles tied to earning tokens which users expect to go “up only” in price and you had people making hundreds of $ a day just walking an hour or 2 which is not sustainable
- There is real interest in m2e and gaming in blockhain but a desire to see more sustainable approaches that can last and keep people interested without so much focus on token value. Finding IRL utility for m2e reward tokens in our opinion is the best way possible to build a sustainable economy.
- In the ReFi space WheelCoin is one of the first apps to be live and in this space, having a tangible impact on climate is the main focus. We can show that we are nudging or encouraging people to reduce their emissions AND the utility of the reward token is already obvious and functioning in the app.
The burning of WHL for discounts on green mobility services is a win for users, for the fragmented green mobility suppliers seeking to attract new values-aligned consumers, and for the planet!
WheelCoin Website
WheelCoin Apps
Please feel free to download the iOS or Android version in the public app stores. Links form the website
WheelCoin Discord
White Paper (v1)
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