One of the biggest criticisms we receive from Sweatcoin users is that their conversion rate of steps into sweatcoins is not as high as they’d like. Currently, the average user converts about 65% of their total phone steps into sweatcoins. Whilst we would love this percentage to be higher, we wanted to provide a bit of context as to why this is the case and what we are doing about it.
How does our algorithm work?
To ensure that every Sweatcoin that goes into circulation is earned by someone’s steps and nothing else, we need to analyze the step count provided by your phone. This ensures the value of Sweatcoin long-term and prevents cheating (like shaking your phone).
Our analysis takes the steps provided by your device and checks them against other data points like GPS location, speed, and consistency of movement. Although it does much more, our app performs the following critical checks:
- Determines if the data inputs match e.g. you are moving around at a speed and reporting a step count, relevant to the distance you have traveled. If it doesn’t stack up, steps aren’t counted as Sweatcoin steps
- Determines the pattern of your step count and looks for known patterns of cheating (e.g. shaking the phone up and down to mimic steps). If a pattern of movement is deemed invalid, steps won’t be counted. Often, up to 30% of steps recorded on your phone will be false (the result of vibrations or shaking), so the number you see may differ from the number of legit steps you’ve taken
Why are there differences between devices?
This process is very consistent and doesn’t change. What does is users devices and user behaviors. Different devices report these inputs differently. Discrepancies in your total steps vs. your total Sweatcoin steps. Therefore, the only way we can improve this is by developing an understanding of all the different device and model specific quirks and usage behaviors. Because these are what prevent our algorithm from registering steps.
Will this improve?
Please bear with us. We know having low conversion days can be frustrating. We’re trying to do something that has never been done before – converting steps into currency. We created Sweatcoin with the desire to help people move more and stay motivated along the way. We are working hard, but understand that there are still some things that can be improved. We’ll get there soon!
