nenetus/Shutterstock
Need new sneakers, but you’re broke? Practice all month long. Want a pair of 3D printed headphones? Keep chugging those smoothies. That’s the idea behind Wellcoin, the world’s first health-related currency, which wants to reward you for being healthy.
Wellcoin members collect currency by logging healthy steps throughout the day, then redeem it for discounts and full purchases at retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Reebok, and even Whole Foods. The company is headquartered in Boston and has an operations center in New York, so all Wellcoin in-person redemptions will happen in those two areas until the company expands with more national partners. Signing up for Wellcoin costs nothing, and apps are available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
However, Wellcoin doesn’t just reward gym rats: the service also has credits for healthy parents, friends and even pet owners. You can earn Wellcoins by keeping your dog healthy, making sure your kids eat their vegetables, and even sleeping seven hours a night. The company exited beta on July 29. Glenn Laffel, founder of Wellcoin and former physician in the heart transplant program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, spoke exclusively to Digital Trends about how the company is dealing with fraud, Wellcoin’s plans to help pay for health insurance, fixing Michelle Obama’s Let’s Go program and more.
Digital Trends: WellCoin is an entire health-based currency. What was the inspiration?
Laffel: I came up with this idea when I was watching Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, which, as you know, is her campaign against childhood obesity. They did a good job, but I just think that the actual performance and impact of the campaign could be better if there were two things that it doesn’t have right now. It is one way of monitoring healthy behavior. How much breakfast is eaten? How many walks were made? How many visits to the doctor? Simple things like that, so a campaign like the first lady could set goals and rally around certain goals. You need data to show if there is an improvement in the population.
Second are the prizes. It has been well established by many different scientific fields that it really helps to change behavior, especially health-related behavior, if there are incentives and rewards to go along with it. It was a combination of data needs and reward needs. Wellcoin is a way to weave them together and support many such benevolent projects.
Are there plans for wearables so users don’t have to enter data each time? Otherwise people can just lie and get rewards, right?
They can try to lie, but we’ll catch them. We’ve already connected to three of the most popular apps and devices: FitBit, Runkeeper and Strava. Our members love that we’ve integrated with them because it means that these requests are automatically generated for them as a result of the connection we have with these applications. Once you sync your wearable with Wellcoin, the device automatically updates your health stats on Wellcoin and you earn without doing it manually.
Fitbit
Since the information is coming from one of these devices, it will deal with his lies and cheating. We don’t just post a claim, we give bonuses to members if the way they confirmed their claim was a really good and solid way, like using wearables. As opposed to just posting “I went for a walk”.
So you can’t just post, “I walked 10 miles.”
There are also limits on the number of WellCoins you can earn per day. If someone just decided they wanted to sit there and search, search, search, at their desk, they would quickly reach their limit. Not only that, but we would detect multiple requests, reminding the user that it is highly unlikely that they could do all of these things in such a short period of time. But there are other ways of checking. Say if you and I went for a walk. You could claim that you are walking and then have me, as your friend, verify your claim. I get a push notification and when I continue it says ‘Keith wants you to confirm his claim that he is walking.’ I just click Yes or No. If I confirm it, you will earn more WellCoin because I confirmed it. So it’s a friend’s endorsement.
Photo verification is by far the best and most popular. Fifty percent of all claims on WellCoin have photos attached. Suppose we had a nice salad for lunch today and you wanted to request a healthy lunch. You would take a picture of the salad as proof. That photo then goes into a queue where anonymous members of our community – not your friends – can look at it and rate how well it proves your point. A simple scale from 1 to 5. If I rate a photo, I earn Wellcoin every time I rate it, but I don’t earn more or less for a low or high rating.
What is the most popular gift on WellCoin so far?
The largest and most popular gift card on WellCoin is the one from Whole Foods Market. They are only available in New England and New York, as that is the extent of our relationship with Whole Foods in that area, but they are very popular.
You’ve just come out of beta mode with only a few reward partners; do you think the success and expansion of WellCoin depends on how many there are?
I don’t think it depends on how many companies work with us. This will happen if we maintain the incredible engagement statistics we had through beta. I mean the people who spend time on WellCoin. We didn’t focus on member growth, we focused on engagement. Retailers and brands will want to work with us if we have a big community, and it’s a place where people hang out and talk about their health and share ideas and their photos. We are three to four times higher than the industry standard of health and wellness of active users 90 days after signing up. Up to 46 percent of users are active 90 days after signing up. The average active user posts three or four activities per day, and half of them have photos.
If there is a large enough user base on WellCoin, do you think it is possible that Wellcoin could become a secondary or even the main currency of the community?
“We didn’t focus on membership growth, we focused on engagement.”
WellCoin, like dollar bills, have real real-world purchasing power. Sometimes a person has no way to earn money for some reason. But they can earn WellCoin. That’s how they heal, but in the process they gain real earning power. If that person has worn out a pair of sneakers and needs a new pair, WellCoin will get that guy a new pair. All he has to do is do healthy things and confirm that he has done them.
What are the big prizes you want to give away on Wellcoin?
What about life insurance? Or health insurance? Why not? All we need to do is find an insurance company that will do it. It would take a long time to get enough for something that valuable, but yes, absolutely.
Another thing?
Charitable giving. Fundraising, like the Jimmy Fund in Boston. They are very famous for raising money for cancer through walks, called The Jimmy Fund Walks. Let’s say you want to collect money by walking. Pick up your friends for $10 per mile and they have their big donors in the background to match you. The problem with that is you might be out of town that weekend. Maybe you’re sick. Not everyone likes to walk. Why is fundraising not linked to Wellcoin earnings? That means you can do it your way. If we had a donor who would contribute dollars to a good cause and the money came per Wellcoin earned in our community, you could participate in fundraising any day, any time, any healthy activity you do. It’s a much better model than the Jimmy Fund Walk. I know this will work.
We haven’t done that yet, but that’s my goal.
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn