Austin Tech Firm Hacks a Way to Get Paid For Sweat
AUSTIN, Texas, March 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Chaotic Moon Studios, a creative technology studio in Austin, awed South By Southwest Interactive Festival attendees with their futuristic fitness application, FitCoin. While other fitness trackers only calculate, Chaotic Moon's FitCoin motivates, with cash. The app measures the length and intensity of a workout and converts it to CPU time on a bitcoin mining rig. The more users workout, the more digital currency they mine. Get fit, get rich, or die mining.
"This concept combines two of our specialties: looking good and making money," said Chaotic Moon CEO, Ben Lamm. "We're always trying to turn existing habits into new opportunities to make money—this one was an obvious fit."
FitCoin syncs with a user's fitness tracker to log vital variables from a workout: including duration, intensity, and distance. Chaotic Moon's proprietary algorithm then determines the amount of bitcoins earned during each session.
"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. "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."
Designed as a connected app and ecosystem, FitCoin gives users real-time notifications and earnings updates as well as a dashboard to track how both their body and their bank account are progressing. Chaotic Moon and other innovators in the space sees a direct link between fitness activity and monetary incentives like lower health insurance rates.
"We've been providing sports and fitness coaching apps and monitoring devices since the emergence of wearable sensor technology," said, Jon Werner of adidas Digital Sports, "One of the biggest challenges in the space is finding ways to keep consumers engaged. We are excited to see how cryptocurrency can motivate people to make their exercise and fitness routines a long term habit."
FitCoin is an early alpha release that has already gained traction with enthusiastic users. Beyond cypherpunks and fitness freaks, Chaotic Moon envisions near future applications of FitCoin and its technology ushering in a paradigm shift in health, wellness and the economy—reshaping our experience of the everyday.
Video - http://youtu.be/xYbWZ8yy4CA
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150313/181673
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150313/181674
SOURCE Chaotic Moon Studios
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