Seoul Meta Week, held at COEX in Seoul on Jun. 29 and 30, featured various lectures under the theme “Web3 X Metaverse: The Future of Hyperconnected Experience”. Among them, Yawn Rong, the co-founder of Find Satoshi Lab, delivered a presentation on "X2E: Beyond M2E and in Real Life Challenges."

Find Satoshi Lab is a company that has developed STEPN, a popular M2E (Move to Earn) model used worldwide. M2E stands out for its more intuitive and straightforward approach compared to Play to Earn (P2E), allowing users to mine tokens simply by walking.

Yawn Rong explained the differences between M2E and P2E, as well as their respective advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, M2E offers health benefits. Since walking outdoors is an inherent part of the process, users naturally receive health benefits. There have been numerous cases where users have experienced positive effects on their health.

Secondly, M2E is not monotonous. While games, no matter how entertaining, can eventually lead to burnout due to repetitive gameplay, walking is a primal activity linked to survival, making it less likely to cause burnout. Additionally, walking allows users to engage in other activities, such as listening to music or making phone calls, adding to its appeal.

Thirdly, M2E does not require any special skills. Unlike games that require learning, walking does not necessitate any additional training. Fourthly, it can serve as a robust validation tool. With the inherent inability for duplicate usage in M2E apps, the user count becomes an absolute metric that proves the generation of actual tokens, allowing for verified operations.

The final advantage is the ability to use multiple projects simultaneously. In P2E, it is not possible to play multiple games at once, making each product a rival to others. However, M2E enables users to open multiple apps and witness the effects while walking, creating a cooperative environment rather than a competitive one.

While M2E offers numerous advantages, it also has its own drawbacks. The most significant one is the difficulty of implementation compared to other projects. Setting it up primarily on mobile devices involves considering various aspects, such as wallet integration and token mechanics. In a way, it is similar to managing multiple projects simultaneously.

Furthermore, it is challenging to distribute to users. To secure a large user base, it is necessary to promote it across various platforms, which involves addressing how to connect and design wallets for each platform. Much effort is required to familiarize users with the system as well. Ultimately, only those familiar with market structures can practically access it, posing a challenge to widespread adoption. Complying with the regulations set by Google and Apple while convincing them to accept the system can also be difficult for a startup.

Yawn Rong then described the challenges encountered during the development of STEPN. The first challenge lies in the technical aspect of utilizing GPS. Finding and restricting multiple users during expansion is crucial. Consideration for expandability is also essential. For example, as the number of users increases, it becomes more challenging to secure governance tokens. On the other hand, setting a limit on the number of daily tokens and distributing a portion of them can affect the attractiveness of the system and potentially become problematic.

In response to these challenges, STEPN aimed to solve them through a tiered approach. For example, using high-tier NFT sneakers would allow users to acquire more governance tokens. It is especially effective when reinvestment is encouraged, as it contributes to the ecosystem's sustainability. Considering strategies and providing users with multiple experiences are essential.

Concluding his session, Yawn Rong emphasized that M2E has great potential when onboarding new customers. As mentioned earlier, the fixed number of unique users sets it apart. Additionally, M2E offers easy onboarding to both Web2 and Web3, making it advantageous.

M2E itself is effective in community building. It encourages people to go outside, making it suitable for organizing offline events. Through face-to-face interactions and physical activities, natural community formation occurs, leading to a strong community. Yawn Rong mentioned that as the value of communities continues to rise, M2E, as a validated mechanism, remains effective and becomes an optimal Web3 tool, and finished his presentation.