Staking to achieve a higher goal during quarantine

makoto_inoue
wearekickback
Published in
4 min readApr 20, 2020
Yalor doing his set of 20 atop Snow King mountain overlooking the Grand Teton range of Jackson Hole Wyoming USA
  • The rule of the challenge
  • Quarantine life around the world
  • Sharing common goals
  • What would you stake on?

The rule of the challenge

About two weeks ago, over 30 people started 30 days push up challenge through https://kickback.events/. Kickback is known for event ticketing site so this is a bit of diversion from our original use but pretty much same rules apply.

The rule is quite simple.

  • Commit 0.1 ETH to join the challenge.
  • Every day, post the proof to the group channel or you get a strike
  • 3 strikes and you are out.
  • Whoever completes the 30 days challenge or the last person standing will share the pot.

Since then, I’ve been watching bunch of people doing pushups every day.

We are split into two cohorts as some people wanted to join after the session started. For the first cohort I participate, it’s day 18 and so far 3/25 people dropped out, meaning everybody would get 0.113 ETH as a payout if no more dropout.

We track everyone’s progress using Google spreadsheet.

I fill in the sheet every morning, then give a quick update.

The second cohort is self managed and I don’t give any update and (that’s probably why) have a bit higher dropout. I don’t think anyone has cheated so far. Most of the time, people fades away once you receive the third strike.

Quarantine life around the world

Some people have been actively sharing what they do on social media such as Twitter and Pepo.

However, the majority are posting videos directly in our telegram channel. With their permission, I can share their quarantine life. It’s fascinating to see how people are spending quarantine life around the world.

With baby carrier on the back (left), and wearing Oculus headgear while attending VR meetup (right)
With a dog (left) and a cat (right)
With beautiful ocean on the back

Sharing common goals

People are not sharing just their pets and their exercise routine courses.

Though we initially started out doing the same things, we started different variants, higher goals, and sometimes comment on each other’s form.

I also learnt a variety of different styles in push-ups. The Diamond pushups, side 2 side pushups, upside down pushups, etc.

It is very inspiring for people sharing each other’s goal. Even though my initial target was to do 20 push ups a day, now I am aiming to do 30 a day, and other seems enjoying the challenge, too.

What would you stake on?

While I was asking my friends to join, some people opted out because they don’t feel comfortable sharing themselves exercising. Others said they would join if it’s a sit up challenge.

The first cohort is pushup only, but the second cohort decided to have more variety. Some people opted for jogging, burpees, body weighting, and so on.

Dawid G. showing us his various exercise routine

To expand that idea, we are thinking about doing another cohort starting early May, so if you have interests participating, please select the following twitter poll to indicate which exercise it would

Though sharing fitness exercises are the good way to keep motivated, this staking mechanism can be used for other things

If you have any other ideas (for both fitness/non fitness) , please add into our Github issues page!

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