How Walk-to-Earn Rewards Work
Published March 9, 2026 The GeoMine team 6 min read
Walk-to-earn is a new category of rewards that incentivizes physical activity and real-world engagement. GeoMine ties rewards to genuine business visits — verified by GPS, rewarded with gift cards.
The Mining Session
When you enter a participating business's geofence (a small virtual boundary around the location, auto-set to 25 meters by default), you can start a mining session. Here's what happens behind the scenes:
- GPS Verification: Your phone sends its coordinates to our server
- Geofence Check: We verify you're within the business's mining zone using the Haversine formula
- Anti-Cheat Validation: We check for GPS spoofing, mock locations, and emulators
- Session Start: If all checks pass, your mining session begins
Earning Rate
The base mining rate is 0.05 GM Points per minute. Per-spot daily caps depend on the business's tier:
| Business Tier | Daily Cap per Spot |
|---|---|
| Bronze ($9.99/mo founding · $12.99 from 2027) | 10 GM |
| Silver ($19.99/mo founding · $27.99 from 2027) | 20 GM |
| Gold ($34.99/mo founding · $48.99 from 2027) | 30 GM |
| Enterprise (sales-led) | 50 GM |
Mining is capped at 100 GM a day across all spots. Punch cards, campaigns and Power Hours are paid for by the business, so their GM comes on top of that cap.
Heartbeat System
Every 30 seconds, the app sends a "heartbeat" to verify you're still at the location. If you lock your phone or close the app, your session safely ends and credits whatever you earned up to that point.
What You Get
Every GM Point you earn converts at the same rate: 1,000 GM Points = $1 USD, redeemable as a virtual prepaid Mastercard.
Gift card rewards for showing up
Free on iPhone and Android. Visit participating local spots and your GM Points add up.
