Genopets: The Move-to-Earn Blockchain Game

NFT gaming is surging. Play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity, RaceFi, and Battle of the Guardians have stolen headlines for providing novel ways to earn in the metaverse while playing video games. Now, there’s a new NFT gaming concept that is challenging its users to move-to-earn.

Genopets: The Move-to-Earn Blockchain Game

In 2016, Pokémon Go changed gaming. The augmented reality mobile app had its 147 million monthly users getting up and getting active in order to advance in the game. With the popularization of blockchain games that let you earn money, it should come as no surprise that Pokémon Go’s “active-gaming” model has been applied to the blockchain.

Cue Genopets, a Solana-powered NFT game and the first NFT game that rewards users for staying active.

A Genopet is part digital pet and part digital twin. As their website states, “The Genopet is your NFT spirit animal, encoded with your personality and fitness data.”

The Genopet NFT-based game works like this:

• Using biometric data from your phone or wearable devices, your Genopet will upgrade the more active you are.
• Genopets users are rewarded with $KI tokens for being physically active.
• These tokens are then used to collect and trade rare in-game NFT items and abilities, as well as improve your Genopet’s style and performance.
• As you improve your Genopet, players enter the Battle Arena to play against friends in mini-games that challenge reaction speed, memory, and spatial awareness to earn more $KI tokens.

Genopets developers describe the game as “Tamagotchi meets Pokemon'', and it’s pretty dead on. It seems like the creators of Genopets are hoping to change the stigma of gaming and health with move-to-earn. Because who doesn’t want to make money playing a game that asks you to take a walk?

Health wearables like Fitbit, Apple Watch, Withings, etc. have all made huge strides in making everyday fitness progress fun and interactive. By integrating Genopets with wearable health data, they’re essentially building a gaming layer atop of the existing health hardware. It’s a geniously innovative approach that I could see other health platforms copying.

Healthcare Gamification Upgraded

Let’s be honest, healthcare isn’t fun and sexy. It’s a constant, morbid reminder of what’s wrong with us. That’s where gamification changes things. Similar to how Duolingo teaches languages through gaming, healthcare gamification has been a hot topic for changing the way people and businesses approach healthcare.

But what hasn’t been popularized yet is bringing healthcare gamification to the blockchain. And we feel that Genopets is going to set the precedent for many HealthTech products to follow.

Our phones and digital wearables already monitor and record our biometric data. Imagine integrating a gaming aspect as well:

• Fitbit could create blockchain gaming challenges for competing with friends and strangers worldwide.
• Peloton might offer exclusive digital blockchain bikes that unlock new racing scenarios and workouts.
• Asana Rebel could offer a DDR-styled yoga class matching poses to earn points and unlock perks or collectible NFT achievements.

Why would they need blockchain to do any of these ideas? Largely because blockchain and web3 provides a better means for digital identity management, sharing rewards securely, and creating secure secondary economies. All of which are quickly becoming the new standard for creating engaging communities and customer relationships.

Theoretically, healthcare gamification on the blockchain could also be applied to the health insurance industry – incentivizing healthy habits through various Move-to-Earn games, aggregating said data to depict a person’s healthy habits, and then adjusting premiums and policies for rewarding healthy behaviors. It’s a moonshot idea, but very possible when you see the direction that so many companies are headed.

Gaming has revolutionized the way we connect and learn, and now it’s revolutionizing the way we care for ourselves. Health can be fun and exciting when we approach it in a fun and exciting way. Blockchain games seem to be that new way. We’ll have to see what happens next.