Walken (WLKN): The Walk-to-Earn App With Big DeFi Dreams

Judging from the mass adoption of STEPN and Sweatcoin, it’s clear that the move-to-earn movement has made big strides in the GameFi scene. From running off-road outdoors to scaling treadmill inclines, these move-to-earn projects are finding all sorts of ways to make working out engaging and profitable for the average investor. This is certainly the case with the up-and-coming project Walken. Curious about how this walk-to-earn game is attempting to take over the move-to-earn scene? Read on as we explore what makes Walken a solid GameFi project, determine whether WLKN tokens are a good investment and highlight Walken’s ambitious DeFi ideals.

What Is Walken?

Walken is a gamified exercise app that puts a spin on the move-to-earn genre with its unique CAThlete NFT characters. Users’ steps are converted into Gems which are then used to power up their CAThlete NFTs so they can participate in competitions and earn WLKN tokens in the process.

The barrier to entry to the crypto world can certainly seem daunting for newcomers. From setting up your wallet to understanding how blockchain technology works, it can be a step hill to climb unless you’re already technically savvy. Fortunately, move-to-earn crypto projects like Walken are designed with such users in mind. Right from the get-go, Walken welcomes the crypto curious with an easy-to-navigate user interface and adorable characters that’ll appeal to both young and old audiences. Within minutes, Walken arms players with their personal Walken wallet and a starter CAThlete which they can use to begin their walk-to-earn journey. Curious about the core gameplay and mechanics of Walken? Read on as we cover the basics.

Getting Started in Walken

Progression in Walken is easy. Each verified step contributes to players’ overall step count. As it increases, they’ll earn Gems which will go towards upgrading their CAThlete’s stats. This increases their odds of winning at competitions where players can earn WLKN tokens for winning, with rewards depending on the league that players are taking part in. This will be the main way players earn WLKN tokens from the game as they continually stay active, earn Gems and use them to refine their CAThlete’s attributes.

Competitions come in three formats, namely Urban Running, Sprint Running and Marathon Race. Each competition format corresponds with a particular attribute. Strength is related to Urban Running, Speed is related to Sprint Running and Stamina is related to Marathon Race. This variety ensures players aren’t forced to focus on a single specific attribute and instead are given more leeway when it comes to the type of competition they prefer to take part in. Additionally, it should be noted that the higher the league, the greater the minimum CAThlete level required so players need to continually work at improving their CAThelets over time.

Walken’s NFT CAThletes and Accessories

Once players have earned enough WLKN tokens, they can expand their CAThlete customization options by outfitting their NFT with accessories that improve specific stats. This opens up even more opportunities for earning WLKN tokens as players can strategize by purchasing NFT accessories that make up for their CAThlete’s weaker attributes or choose ones that further improve their strengths.

Conversely, players can also purchase new CAThletes from the marketplace that have a whole different set of attributes that players can pick and choose from to tailor to their competition and league preferences.

Walken Protocol

Beyond launching the Walken app, the team has the overall goal of helping players get into the world of decentralized finance (DeFi). Much like how WEMIX operates, the Walken protocol is part of the team’s plan to create an overarching Walken ecosystem. While still in its infancy, the Walken protocol will grant developers the tools to create apps and make them part of the Walken API. This ultimately lets studios and developers with app marketing and development experience add Walken related earning and DeFi functionality to their apps or create whole new apps with WLKN token integration.

Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of Walken, it’s time to dive deeper and find out how the Walken economy works by exploring what WLKN tokens are.

What Are WLKN Tokens?

WLKN is the game’s native token users will receive for winning competitions that their CAThlete NFTs take part in. With WLKN tokens, players can perform a myriad of actions that include:

• Buying and selling NFT accessories,CAThletes, and berries to feed CAThletes on the marketplace

• Leveling up their CAThlete NFTs and improving their attributes

• Decide Walken’s future by voting on various proposals

• Stake WLKN tokens to earn more rewards

With this much WLKN token utility, the team hopes to create a deflationary effect as WLKN tokens are burnt when players engage in some of these various processes.

WLKN Tokenomics

Overall, there’s a total supply of two billion WLKN tokens, which will be released over the length of the Walken project. While details are still scarce when it comes to WLKN tokens’ exact distribution, eager investors and those hyped for Walken can check out the Bybit Launchpad, where twenty million WLKN tokens can be earned through either committing BitDAO (BIT) tokens or participating in the USDT lottery after signing up on Bybit.

Are WLKN Tokens a Good Investment?

As we’re moving towards a post-pandemic environment, we’re seeing more and more users transitioning away from the sedentary lifestyle of being cooped up at home and embracing a more active lifestyle. Thus, it’s easy to see why move-to-earn is the next big narrative GameFi projects are trying to capture. With all this in consideration, it’s easy to see why many users are bullish when it comes to the future prospects of Walken and WLKN tokens. From its casual design that appeals to the masses to its ambitious goal of getting users involved in DeFi via the Walken protocol, Walken certainly has the potential to be a big name player in the move-to-earn space.

When it comes to evaluating if WLKN tokens are a good investment for the future, we can simply look at Walken’s roadmap and future plans to expand their ecosystem. Down the line, we can expect Walken to enable staking functionality, CAThlete cross-breeding and a fully fleshed out DeFi platform that encourages developers to create apps revolving around the Walken ecosystem. All of these plans point towards increased utility for WLKN tokens, making the HODL strategy for WLKN tokens even stronger if investors are already confident in the project’s long-term future.

Speaking of confidence, a significant part of this assurance also comes from Walken’s secured $4.7 million funding from industry-leading venture capitalists. With big names like Infinity Ventures Crypto, Shima Capital and Yield Guild Games, investors and players can expect the development team to rapidly scale up Walken in terms of feature rollouts and growing their overall player base.

The Bottom Line

With GameFi primed to experience exponential growth in the coming years, it’s certainly a lucrative and exciting field for crypto projects to explore and build upon. Walken aims to capture a huge part of this blooming market as it solves the issue of crypto being too hard to get into by providing a user-friendly platform that welcomes all who are interested in the move-to-earn movement. Given this in mind, Walken is already leagues ahead of the competition and can certainly shake up the GameFi scene with its ambitious DeFi dreams.