Which Project Will Become the Next STEPN? How Can X-to-Earn Projects Escape From the Ponzi Curse?
Since STEPN started a boom of the X-to-Earn category with Move-to-Earn, a large number of similar projects have emerged to explore various scenarios, covering Fit-to-Earn, Dance-to-Earn, Eat-to-Earn, Photo-to-Earn, Learn-to-Earn, Read-to-Earn, and Sing-to-Earn. It seems that every aspect of our lives can be put under an X-to-Earn model and that each daily routine can foster new tokens.
The original motivation of most X-to-Earn projects is to introduce token-econ into various daily activities, allowing users to carry out everyday routines or foster good habits while earning profits, which provides more fun and incentives for them to stick to certain behaviors. Additionally, most X-to-Earn projects have their Web2 counterparts, which also focus on lifestyles and are way more mature. Web3 features such as token-econ, decentralized services, GameFi and SocialFi elements, and NFT designs introduced to Web2 projects enable more Web2 users and the general public to access Web3 applications.
The challenges facing X-to-Earn projects & solutions
For instance, STEPN did manage to attract certain non-Web3 users with the Run-to-Earn concept. Meanwhile, the short-term surge in its token price brought droves of speculators to Web3. All of a sudden, everyone in the world started minting sneakers, and the Run-to-Earn model also went viral. That being said, can such mechanisms retain users over the long run and actually help users foster healthy habits like running? Let’s now turn to STEPN’s monthly active users and the GMT monthly close prices recorded in 2022.
By monitoring several important addressses of stepn on solana, we can vaguely define the number of addresses making payments to the project team and the addresses receiving GST/GMT from the project team as active users. Although those figures exclude the influence of centralized wallets and other chains, it does reflect certain facts. From the above chart, it is clear that the number of active users is positively correlated with the GMT price. Also, both figures started to diminish after peaking in May and are now stably trending downward. Such movements are partially the result of the bearish market conditions and partially caused by a problem facing all X-to-Earn projects: Users of these projects are extremely price-sensitive, and most of them cannot be retained in the long term. Despite that, STEPN has attracted new users and retained some of the active users by constantly revising its internal incentive models on different development stages, pursuing external revenue, and expanding its brand influence. These efforts allowed the project to maintain sound dynamics and stability despite market sluggishness.
We can analyze factors behind the challenges facing STEPN with the consumer psychology. The project’s token GMT was listed on Binance Launchpad in March, attracting some users effortlessly. Meanwhile, with the low circulating supply and intense media promotions, consumers saw potential profits and then invested in STEPN. Generally speaking, in the early stage, STEPN employed delicate Ponzi incentives and the accessible, healthy Run-to-Earn model to attract users, and got through its infancy, which is undoubtedly a successful case. As the project matured, it became more inaccessible and less profitable; as a result, the GMT price and its user base rapidly went down. When the total value contributed by new users could no longer underpin its massive market cap, STEPN started to diminish.
Market bubbles might not be something bad, provided that the project is capable of eliminating those bubbles. The STEPN team is fully aware of that; they know that farming gold and earning profits are what drive the boom and continued success of X-to-Earn projects. Project teams could delay the decline of their project through rational adjustments of the economic model, but such measures are only temporary and are no fundamental cures to the problem of internal circulation. So finding external, long-term solutions has become an urgent demand for teams running X-to-Earn projects. As such, based on its original gameplay, STEPN has introduced advertisements to the project and reached partnerships with other teams. Find Satoshi Lab, the team behind STEPN, has also developed and incubated new projects and collaborated with other related projects to provide new use cases for GMT. For example, MOOR, an NFT marketplace that recently went live, uses GMT as its governance token; Giving Block, a charity platform, supports GMT donations; and GigaSpace, a metaverse project, allows users to buy land tokens with GMT. Furthermore, the recent GMT prices also indicate signs of stability.
As a leader and pioneer of X-to-Earn projects, STEPN recorded excellent performance and provided both warnings and inspirations for future projects: Finding the right external support is the top priority for the long-term growth of X-to-Earn projects. In particular, some of them collaborated with other projects and new channels using their real-world advantages; some extensively studied token-econ and attempted to prolong their life cycle through more sophisticated circular models; and some tried to empower the project by building a larger ecosystem featuring more use cases of their native token.
As an early investor in STEPN, ViaBTC Capital is still looking for outstanding X-to-Earn projects, and SingSing, a Sing-to-Earn project, provides an opportunity for X-to-Earn projects to escape from the Ponzi curse.
SingSing, a Sing-to-Earn platform
SingSing is a Sing-to-Earn platform with a basic structure similar to common music platforms in Web2. The project also introduced Web3 tokens and NFT gameplay and is now under testing. As a latecomer to the X-to-Earn category, SingSing uses Microphone NFTs to provide the general public with easy access to singing. Launched in the post-pandemic world, the project is accessible to all and captures the psychological demand of South Asian users: The popularity of karaoke and the love for music in Asia constitute a seedbed of Sing to Earn. The large user base and established user habits are the initial motivations for the project team to seize this fantastic opportunity.
OKARA, a Vietnam-based team behind SingSing, is a veteran in the traditional music industry. The team owns the largest number of singing rooms in Vietnam, with products spread across most malls in the country. Having established branches in over 20 major cities in Vietnam, OKARA is the largest singing service provider in the country and attracted more than 1.5 million paying users. It is noteworthy that over 200,000 karaokes in Vietnam still use outdated jukebox models. In that regard, OKARA offers the latest jukebox chips and technologies, which have occupied 12% of the market and yielded stable cash revenue every year.
The profound legacies and the large customer group in the industry are the biggest advantages of SingSing, allowing it to attract users and promote its brand within a short period by introducing real-life interactions. To be more specific, the project team intends to combine their blockchain products with real-world businesses. With SingSing, users will be able to pay for hours at jukeboxes or karaoke with the tokens they got on the platform. The team can also combine their business operations with advertising and other sectors to expand the application scope of their tokens.
Besides, as a veteran in the traditional music sector, the project team has built a strong network of connections with music KOLs and celebrities. Right now, it has signed a number of KOLs in Vietnam and Southeast Asia to attract fans. Meanwhile, the team has also tapped into its connections in the music industry. If you are following Vietnam’s music community, you’ll notice that many of the KOLs and celebrities signed by SingSing have appeared in the Voice of Vietnam. Also, the project team plans to work with media networks over the long term. For instance, they will host online singing contests and lotteries to encourage users to spend their tokens and tap into the fan economy. With SingSing, fans will be able to help their idols achieve stardom and even appear on TV. For example, the top winners of SingSing’s contests might have a chance to participate in the Voice of Vietnam.
Besides, SingSing will offer a wide range of features and token scenarios, including drafts, defender vs. challenger, tipping, stake voting, and bets on PK battles, and every one of these features captures the psychological demands of fans.
Generally speaking, SingSing has resolved the dilemma facing X-to-Earn projects through internal and external economic resources. To start with, it takes advantage of traditional resources to create more use cases for its token, which gives rise to a positive external revenue & consumption model that transcends the internal cycling of Ponzi projects. Besides, the project taps into the media and fan economy to enable sustainable business operations. Finally, SingSing introduced versatile elements into its token-econ to prolong its life cycle and provide more fun for users, creating new business models in addition to the Buy-Sing-Earn framework. With unique business models and insights, SingSing has stood out from other X-to-Earn projects and will become a disruptor as it pursues business success.
Link: linktr.ee/singsing.net
Note: ViaBTC Capital is an early investor in SingSing, but the article does not offer any financial advice.
