Wellcoin, the Boston-based creator of the World’s First Health Currency, launched today with a mission to help Americans lead healthier lives. On Wellcoin, members report and verify healthy activities they do and earn Wellcoins for their effort. This health currency has real-world purchasing power: members shop with Wellcoins in an online marketplace stocked with goods and services from Skechers, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Pure Barre, Whole Foods Market and dozens of premier local fitness partners and vendors.
The free web site and app lets members earn Wellcoins in hundreds of ways, including sleeping at least seven hours per night, choosing a healthy beverage, hiking, seeing a health professional and helping one’s child (or pet) be healthy. Members can ramp-up their earnings by syncing their account with fitness monitors from Fitbit and other brands, or by uploading photos to verify their claims. To date, Wellcoin beta members have used more than 200 different fitness and food-related apps to verify their claims.
“Wellcoin was founded on the premise that rewarding people for easy-to-adopt, positive behaviors can help create lasting lifestyle changes,” said Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD, a Wellcoin Founder and a former attending physician in the cardiac transplantation program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Our members are inspired by the fantastic rewards in our Marketplace, and also by our community and the support it provides.”
“Wellcoin invokes a broad, welcoming, inclusive view of health and wellness,” added Laffel. “We recognize that everyone makes many healthy choices every day. We meet folks where they are today, and help them step forward to create new healthy habits for themselves.”
In its successful beta, Wellcoin enlisted 10,000 Boston-based members including employees at wellness client Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Over 65 partners have handed out rewards, including gift cards, running shoes, fitness classes, healthy snacks and massages.
About Wellcoin
Wellcoin created the World’s First Health Currency to help people to live healthier lives. Our members earn Wellcoins by claiming and verifying they did healthy activities, and then spend them in our Marketplace for goods and services offered by local merchants and national brands. Over 65 merchant partners, including Skechers, Reebok, Whole Foods Market, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Sports Authority and Pure Barre, have joined the Wellcoin Marketplace. Signup for a free account on wellcoin.com or download the app.
