BEneFIT: A Decentralized Fitness Accountability Framework

BEneFIT is a research-backed framework that leverages decentralized technologies and behavioral psychology to encourage users to stick to their fitness goals. It introduces ETH-backed staking, fraud-resistant validation, and smart contract enforcement — all while offering flexible incentive models designed to match different user preferences.

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📄 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Project Goals
• Key Features
• Improvements Introduced
• Research Folder
• Prototype Folder
• Evaluation Summary
• References
• Demo Video
• Authors

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🧠 Overview

This project critically analyzes existing fitness incentive apps like StepN and Sweatcoin, identifies their weaknesses (fraud, centralization, rigid models), and proposes two ETH-staking models:

• Lock-and-Release: Solo-based. ETH is returned if the goal is achieved.
• Redistribution: Group-based. ETH from failed users is redistributed to successful ones.

Each model supports API-based data validation, optional ML-based fraud detection, and complete smart contract automation.

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🎯 Project Goals

• Review and critique current M2E systems and literature
• Design a decentralized, privacy-preserving, fraud-resistant framework
• Support both competitive and non-competitive fitness users
• (Optional) Build a working prototype with smart contracts + basic UI

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⚙️ Key Features

• ✅ Anonymous goal setting
• ✅ ETH staking for accountability
• ✅ Verifiable health data (Google Fit / Apple Health)
• ✅ Peer-based validation (Redistribution model)
• ✅ Optional ML-based fraud detection
• ✅ Smart contract-based fund release or redistribution

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💡 Improvements Introduced

• True Decentralization: No central authority managing goals or funds
• Custom Goal Support: Users define their own fitness commitments
• Fairness-First: Validators are rewarded; cheaters are penalized via logic, not opinion
• Fraud Prevention: Includes ML-based detection or oracle integration

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📁 Research Folder Structure

Click to expand

research/
├── 01_Introduction.md
├── 02_objective.md
├── 03_related_work.md
├── 04_Methodology_LockAndRelease.md
├── 05_Methodology_Redistribution.md
├── 06_Evaluation_Comparison.md
├── 07_Conclusion.md
├── 08_References.md
└── Images/
    ├── comparisonTable.png
    ├── Architecture.png
    ├── Architecture_LockAndRelease.png
    ├── workflow.png
    ├── workflow_LockAndRelease.png
    ├── smart_contract.png
    └── smart_contract_LockAndRelease.png

Each file covers a distinct research section — from literature to methodology to evaluation and future scope.

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🧪 Prototype Folder Structure

Click to expand

BEneFIT/
└── Prototype/                            # Main project directory
    ├── client/                          # Frontend React application
    │   ├── public/                      # Static files (HTML, icons, etc.)
    │   └── src/
    │       ├── abi/                    # ABI definitions for smart contract interaction
    │       ├── components/            # Core React components for the dApp
    │       │   ├── BenefitStakeForm.js     # Form for staking ETH toward fitness goal
    │       │   ├── ChoicePage.js           # UI page to choose between staking or validating
    │       │   └── ValidateGoalForm.js     # Form to validate fitness goals after completion
    │       ├── App.css                 # Global CSS styles
    │       ├── App.js                  # Root component
    │       └── index.js                # Entry point for React DOM rendering
    │   ├── package.json                # Frontend dependencies and scripts
    │   └── package-lock.json
    ├── contract_code/                  # Hardhat-based Ethereum smart contract workspace
    │   ├── artifacts/                  # Auto-generated contract build artifacts (ignored)
    │   ├── cache/                      # Hardhat cache (ignored)
    │   ├── contracts/                  # Solidity contracts
    │   │   ├── BenefitLockAndReleaseNoDeadline.sol   # Lock-and-release staking logic
    │   │   └── BenefitRedistributionZKP.sol          # Redistribution staking logic
    │   ├── ignition/                   # Hardhat Ignition scripts (deployment configs)
    │   ├── scripts/                    # Custom deployment or test scripts
    │   ├── .env                        # Hardhat environment configuration
    │   ├── hardhat.config.js           # Hardhat configuration file
    │   ├── package.json                # Smart contract dependencies and tasks
    │   └── README.md
    ├── server/                         # Node.js backend (e.g. for OAuth or Chainlink calls)
    │   ├── .env                        # Backend environment config (Google Fit, API keys)
    │   ├── index.js                    # Express server entry point
    │   ├── package.json
    │   └── README.md
    ├── .gitignore                      # Git ignored files list (node_modules, .env, etc.)
    └── README.md                       # About Prototype

Note: This prototype is optional and may contain simplified implementations for ETH staking and goal verification logic.

Environment variables for both the backend and React client can be configured using the example file at Prototype/.env.example.

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📊 Evaluation Summary

Comparison of BEneFIT with existing M2E apps:

BEneFIT outperforms both Sweatcoin and StepN in transparency, flexibility, decentralization, and fairness — without relying on speculative token economies.

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📚 References

Detailed academic and app references are listed in
➡ 08_References.md

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🎥 Demo Video

A demonstration video showcasing the BEneFIT framework, its prototype, and the ETH-staking models is available here:
➡ Watch the Video

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👥 Authors

• Kushi Reddy Kankar(kushi.reddy.kankar-1@ou.edu)
• Rohan Mukka(rohan.mukka-1@ou.edu)

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License

Licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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