FitCoin app pays users in Bitcoin as they exercise

BitCoin app syncs to users wearable (PRNewsFoto/Chaotic Moon Studios)

At the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, Chaotic Moon Studios, an Austin-based creative technology studio, demonstrated its fitness application called FitCoin, which rewards users in Bitcoin.

FitCoin measures the length and intensity of a workout and converts it to CPU (central processing unit) time to a Bitcoin mining rig. The more users work out, the more Bitcoin they mine.

“This concept combines two of our specialties: looking good and making money,” said Chaotic Moon CEO Ben Lamm in a press release. “We’re always trying to turn existing habits into new opportunities – this one was an obvious fit.”

The app syncs with a user’s fitness tracker to record vital variables from a workout, such as distance, duration, and intensity. Chaotic Moon’s proprietary algorithm then determines the amount of Bitcoins earned during each workout.

“At Chaotic Moon we are interested in crypto-tech computing and decentralized services, and wanted to explore them through a prototype that leverages the blockchain as application, service layer and platform,” said Lamm in the release. “It was important for us to make this experience compelling, useful and obvious for users by bundling the blockchain with the quantified self: translating sweat into equity.”

Chaotic Moon Studios’ BitCoin app in action (PRNewsFoto/Chaotic Moon Studios)

Ultimately, Chad Derbyshire, Chaotic Moon Studios’ marketing director, hopes that FitCoin will be used to form its own digital currency, reported Yahoo Tech. Derbyshire imagines that individual companies could award dedicated athletes with their own digital currency, based on their fitness achievements.

Specifically, Derbyshire imagines that this technology would be particularly appealing to one of the studio’s clients: Adidas. He imagines Adidas could offer special access to merchandise that you could buy only with the digital currency you earn using the FitCoin app.

“Adidas can say: These are proprietary shoes that only Bitcoin users or only FitCoin users, or only AdidasCoin users can get based on this currency.”

Jon Werner, Innovation Explorer at Adidas, said in the press release, “We are excited to see how cryptocurrency can motivate people to make their exercise and fitness routines a long term habit.”

Images via Chaotic Moon Studios’ press release on PRNewswire