Do you want to know more about STEPN’s upcoming sneaker rental system?
Maybe one of the reasons why you haven’t started playing STEPN yet is simply because you can’t afford to buy an expensive Sneaker NFT and a rental system would help you get onboarded?
Well, rest assured, the STEPN team fully understands where its barriers to entry are and is working hard on enabling sneaker rental as soon as possible.
In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about STEPN’s upcoming Rental System as well as the Credit System.
Let’s get started!
Key Points (tl;dr)
- The STEPN Sneaker Rental System allows owners of Sneaker NFTs to earn passive income by lending out their shoes to players who cannot afford to buy one themselves.
- Renters can play the STEPN game at zero upfront cost and the earnings are split 70:30 between the lender and the renter.
- It is unclear when the Rental System will launch. It was originally scheduled for September 2022, however, more recent roadmaps have provided mixed signals regarding the final launch date. It seems unlikely that it will be before the end of 2022.
- Sneakers will be available to rent on the in-app marketplace for periods of 24 hours at a time. Players with a high credit rating will be allowed to rent for up to 7 days at a time.
- While the earnings split of 70:30 seems to favor the lender, it is important to point out that they are also responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the shoe.
- STEPN’s Credit System will help ensure that players stay reliable and deliver on the contracts they agree to. This is meant to reward very reliable players and avoid unnecessary opportunity costs for owners of Sneaker NFTs.
For a detailed overview of STEPN’s upcoming sneaker rental system, PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
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STEPN Sneaker Rental: Everything You Need to Know
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Here’s the answer. Great article by @ChrisHeidorn right here: https://tokenizedhq.com/stepn-sneaker-rental/
What is STEPN Sneaker Rental?
STEPN’s sneaker rental system allows players who cannot afford to buy their own sneaker NFT to still play the game. They can borrow a sneaker from another player on the in-app marketplace and the rewards they earn will be split between the lender and the renter.
One of the biggest challenges for many blockchain-based games is the barrier to entry for many new players.
Not only can it be incredibly overwhelming to set everything up if you’ve never interacted with cryptocurrency before.
A major problem is also the fact that the Sneaker NFTs required for gameplay are very expensive and effectively price out millions of people who live in developing countries.
Axie Infinity had the exact same problem and managed to solve it by introducing the so-called “scholar” system.
The STEPN sneaker rental system will be built into the app and will have many similar features.
A Sneaker rental system has many benefits, both for lenders as well as for renters.
For lenders the benefits are quite evident:
- Unused Sneakers NFT can be rented out to earn additional GST
- Continue to earn even when you can’t go for a run (sickness, weather, or work)
For renters the advantages are even more obvious:
- No need to set up complicated exchange accounts
- Start playing STEPN at zero cost
- Play the game and earn until you can afford to buy your own sneaker
STEPN’s primary objective is to increase the total number of players within the game and a sneaker rental system makes that possible.
When will Sneaker Rental Launch in STEPN?
The original STEPN roadmap indicated that the rental system would launch in September 2022. The newest roadmap no longer lists this milestone. It is likely that the team has decided to postpone the launch due to the bad market environment.
As you can imagine, those who can’t afford to play the game yet are anxiously waiting for sneaker renting to be enabled.
STEPN originally announced the rental system back in November 2021.
Since then, a lot has happened, including the implosion of the GST price as well as a bear market in the entire crypto industry.
Even though the app’s interface already has a button for sneaker renting, it’s unlikely that this feature will launch before the end of the year.
According to the old STEPN roadmap, the rental system was scheduled for September 2022, however, given its disappearance from the latest updated roadmap, it’s highly unlikely that this will happen.
How Will STEPN’s Rental System Work?
Players can rent sneakers from the in-app marketplace. Contracts are for periods of 24 hours and creditworthy players will be able to rent for up to 7 days at a time. Earnings are split 70:30, although lenders are responsible for repairing the shoe.
We don’t know much about how renting sneakers in STEPN will work, however, the team has provided some rough guidance in recent AMAs as well as via the official whitepaper.
The information is spread out across various sources but we’ve put together nice a little summary for you:
- Lenders and renters will be paired via the in-app marketplace
- Rental contracts will be for 24 hours
- A Credit System will help incentivize reliable behavior by renters (more on this later)
- Creditworthy renters may rent for up to 7 days at a time
- Reward earnings are split 70:30 between the lender and the renter
- Lenders will have to pay for shoe repair
- Lenders may have to provide Energy to renters (still undecided)
As you can see, the terms are mainly in favor of lenders, however, owning the asset also comes with more responsibilities.
One of the most critical parts of all this is the Credit System and we’ll have a closer look at this in the next section.
What is the Credit System?
The Credit System in STEPN is designed to increase the reliability of renters and provide a layer of security for lenders. Reliable players will be rewarded and receive more contracts, while unreliable players are heavily penalized and will likely be unsuccessful.
One of the problems with renting out your STEPN sneakers to another person is that you don’t actually know whether they will be reliable.
If the renter never actually goes for a run, then the lender is incurring an opportunity cost.
That’s why a Credit System is necessary to ensure that players fully understand how the game works and what the consequences of non-performance are.
Reliable players must be rewarded and unreliable players should receive penalties.
STEPN is planning on using a 5-star system to rate users.
Before anyone can rent a sneaker, they must first complete a set of quizzes that ensure they understand the basics.
Once they reach a 2/5 rating, they can actually start renting STEPN sneakers.
Every time they successfully complete a contract, their rating increases by 0.1.
However, if they fail to deliver on their contract, the penalty is a full star.
So renters should not take the sneaker rental system for granted and make sure they always adhere to the contracts they agree to.
Conclusion
For STEPN, the rental system could be a real gamechanger and onboard millions of new players from all around the world.
Unfortunately, given the recent market environment and the challenges they are experiencing with balancing their token economy, this isn’t the right time to launch sneaker rentals.
Here at Tokenized, we want to help you learn as much as possible about the coming NFT revolution. We help you navigate this fascinating new world of non-fungible tokens and show you how you can integrate tokenization into your own business.
