STEPN responds to the controversy, why do we cancel mainland users

In the early morning of May 27th, the user policy of STEPN, the leading Web3 application, was "shocked". In response to relevant regulatory policies, STEPN will check accounts in mainland China. If users in mainland China are found, STEPN will stop providing GPS and IP location services to their accounts at 24:00 on July 15, 2022 (UTC+8) in accordance with the terms of use.

The news fermented rapidly. After all, STEPN is very representative of the concept of Web3, and can even be considered the industry leader. The current wave of Web3 entrepreneurship is not unrelated to the success of STEPN. Any content that mentions the concept of Web3 on the Chinese Internet cannot do without the name STEPN. However, the announcement in the early hours of May 27 basically indicated that after July 15, it is theoretically impossible for mainland China to participate in STEPN’s Move to Earn.

The panic in the Chinese community is mixed with the spread of gossip. Information such as "the team has been arrested" and "GPS data has been supervised" has exacerbated the tension in the community. disturbed. To this end, STEPN co-founder Yawn responded to the most concerned issues of the community.

Question 1: First of all, let’s get straight to the point. Now it is widely rumored on the Internet that the STEPN domestic team was taken away for investigation. How does the official respond?

Yawn: I saw that these rumors were written seriously, but it is a pity that we are not in mainland China Without a team, being taken away for investigation is even more nonsense. We have a major update going live next week, I believe these rumors will be self-defeating.

We are a Web3 start-up company, developers from all over the world can apply for our jobs on Discord. In the early days, we were all distributed offices. The founding team was from Australia. Ms. Shiti, the CMO in charge of the market, was based in London. The customer service center was in the Philippines, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. Two large R&D centers are being established in the United States and Australia.

Question 2: The announcement shows that in order to comply with the supervision, it is necessary to check the mainland users. What kind of supervision is it because of? Is it related to the supervision of Internet transmission GPS? Didi also faced similar supervision before. In recent days, Nike’s running app NRC has also suspended the use of Chinese users. Is STEPN facing the same problem?

Yawn: As our team grows bigger and our business expands, we deeply understand the importance of long-term development to us . Because of anti-cheating needs, we must use GPS location as an anti-cheating check, and GPS supervision does make Didi and other large companies face the same problem, and Nike cannot even conduct business in mainland China.

As entrepreneurs with a Chinese background, we understand the relevant policies of the mainland very well. We have always supported and abided by the relevant laws and regulations of various countries. If one day, in Zimbabwe, Kenya or South Korea have similar policies, and we will abide by the rules in accordance with local laws. We believe that as Web3 gradually enters the mainstream, regulatory policies will gradually keep up with the development of the industry and provide us with corresponding guidelines.

Question 3: Yesterday Jerry said that the number of domestic users accounted for 5% of the total number of STEPN users. Is this figure accurate? There is an opinion in the community that domestic users account for 30% of STEPN users.

Yawn: This number is accurate, we are talking about mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) . What I need to clarify about the community’s views on this aspect is that Chinese users account for more than 5%, such as Malaysia, Singapore and other places. They also speak Chinese and participate in activities in the Chinese community. Therefore, many users are prone to confusion.

Chinese users are an important component of Web3 around the world, including Binance, FTX and many other executive teams are Chinese, Our Chinese users must be more than 5%, but what I want to talk about here are Chinese users in mainland China. This part of users is indeed only 5%.

Web3 has no borders, but policies do. The low proportion of mainland users is mainly because according to local regulations, we have never provided download and installation services in mainland China, and the threshold for use is high. Apple users need to obtain an Apple ID in a non-mainland region, and Android users must install the Google suite to get it from Google Play. However, none of this can stop the enthusiasm of the majority of users. About 5% of the users are still from the mainland, and they use various methods to finally download our products. We also look forward to one day being able to provide high-quality products and services to users in mainland China.

Question 4: No matter what method you use, are mainland Chinese users theoretically unable to participate in STEPN’s move to earn after July 15th? But you can participate in other STEPN games, can you understand that?

Yawn:Since STEPN must use GPS as a way to verify users, after July 15th Users will not be able to use GPS at all and thus cannot use STEPN normally, while IP ban will make users unable to access STEPN. We need to point out that STEPN has complied with relevant rules since its establishment and has not engaged in any business or provided download channels in mainland China. Therefore, this time we have put forward higher requirements for compliance during the self-review process, and accordingly, we will stop services for accounts used under GPS and IP in mainland China before July 15.

Question 5: There are opinions that the development of STEPN also relies on the Chinese community to a large extent. Did you say that?

Yawn:We still believe that Web3 has a better future, we fully understand and support related Policy, we will continue to expand the market of Web3-friendly countries, and gradually expand our construction of Web3 infrastructure, so that more non-Web3 users have the opportunity to participate in our ecology, and then become an important part of the Web3 world. We hope to use our method to provide more Chinese Web3 entrepreneurs with experience and skills in entrepreneurship and business development.

The above is STEPN’s response to the most concerned issues of the community recently. At present, it seems that STEPN's departure from the Chinese mainland market has been confirmed, which is a pity, but I also believe that all decisions made by the team must be carefully considered. As a representative application of Web3, STEPN has brought us surprises and a new space of imagination, allowing users and entrepreneurs to look forward to the future of Web3.

But we still hope that STEPN can return in some way, so that mainland players can enjoy the full experience brought by STEPN again.

欢迎加入律动 BlockBeats 官方社群：

Telegram 订阅群：https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram 交流群：https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Twitter 官方账号：https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia