How 10,000 steps can earn you up to $6.20 a day

Physical activity is proven to reduce the risks of many illnesses and improve performance, which makes it a valuable asset, much like time or attention. But is this value measurable? New research commissioned by the  move-to-earn  (M2E) project Sweat Economy has put a price on it.

Walking 10,000 steps in a day is worth up to $6.25 for an individual, translating to more than $2,280 in one year, according to an estimate consulted by academics from the University of Birmingham.

The same amount of daily activity is also estimated to have a value of at least $0.52, with a median value of $3.96 per person.

Financial value of an active day. Source: Sweat Economy

“Our comprehensive review of the academic literature provides a robust foundation for quantifying the economic benefits of physical activity,” said Mark Elliott, associate professor of Human Movement Analytics at the University of Birmingham, who co-led the study.

Initiated by Sweat Economy, the estimation provided $60,000 in research grants to determine the value of physical activity, aiming to open a new market around being active.

Attention economy is estimated at $7 trillion. What about the movement economy?

Sweat Economy co-founder and research initiator Oleg Fomenko said in an interview with Cointelegraph that physical activity is not unlimited, which could potentially turn it into a new economy. He compared the “movement economy” to the attention economy, estimated at $7.1 trillion in 2016.

According to a report by the United Nations Economist Network, Herbert Simon first introduced the concept of attention economy in the late 1960s, describing information overload as an economic problem.

“You don’t have an unlimited amount of attention. You don’t have an unlimited amount of physical activity,” Fomenko stated, questioning why there’s still no economy of equal or even bigger size around being physically active.

Sweat Economy co-founder Oleg Fomenko. Source: Cointelegraph

Value estimation of physical activity is important because it potentially opens up a new market fueled by interest from enterprises, he added, stating:

“When you’re talking about value without numbers, that’s sort of a nonsense talk. When you start to talk about specifics, all of a sudden, it starts to attract everyone’s attention.”

Active day worth $2 for governments and $4.40 per employee

According to Sweat Economy-initiated research findings, an active day has financial value not only for individuals but also for governments and employers.

Dr. Borja del Pozo Cruz from the University of Cádiz and Professor Sebastien Chastin from the Caledonian University of Glasgow concluded that an active day is worth $1.96 per day to governments.

The academics founded their research based on the UK’s National Health Service annual cost per head and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data.

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Hamburg-based Blockchain Research Lab also discovered that employers can benefit from an economic value of $4.38 per employee per active day from increased employee productivity if they are physically active.

Movement economy: What’s there for crypto?

Founded in 2015, Sweat Economy officially launched in the United States in 2023. It enables local users to earn rewards for physical activity in the Sweat Economy (SWEAT) cryptocurrency.

“We have millions of people who walk earn these tokens, but because the market price right now is 1.2 cents for active day, these people consciously say there is no way that my physical activity is worth this much, and they are actually putting these tokens into we call grow jars,” Fomenko stated.

He went on to say that the Sweat Economy is “not terribly far off” from becoming profitable and is planning to be spending 50% of its profit on buying the token on the open market. He mentioned that the platform has tapped many partnerships to improve the value of physical activity in the Sweat Economy.

“We are rewarding you for your physical activity through charging different entities to pay us, and then funneling this money into the value of the token,” Fomenko stated.

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Additional reporting by Andrew Fenton.