Hello Aave Community! 
This is Michael Ghen from Philadelphia and I’m excited to announce that Run Money’s integration with Aave is now live on Base! 
I’d love to have the athletes in the Aave community try it out and provide feedback.
Try it out: https://www.runmoney.app
Figure: Run Money’s Dashboard for Athlete Members; An athlete has 10 USDC stake and will earn 14.66% annualized reward this week paid out from interest earned through Aave.
Run Money is a no-loss savings game that combines fitness with decentralized finance (DeFi). Run Money is a run club and savings system that rewards athletes for consistently running 5 KM per week. Thanks to our socialized yield model the athletes that run 5 KM weekly earn the yield forfeited by athletes that did not run. On top of that, all athletes purchase a membership in ETH and weekly the yield from this membership pool is distributed to athletes. Athletes earn higher yields than they would on Aave alone.
Run Money is integrated with the popular athlete social network and activity tracking application, Strava. Members log in using their Strava accounts and grant the Run Money Oracle (offchain) access to receive notifications when they record activities in Strava. Activities such as running are tracked automatically, and the oracle verifies compliance with weekly goals without storing sensitive activity details on-chain.
Join the Run Money Club on Strava: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Run Money
*You don’t need to be in Philadelphia to join!
How It Works
Run Money’s protocol is simple and effective:
- Join the Club - There’s currently one Run Money club with a weekly requirement: run at least 5 kilometers (about 3.1 miles) during the week.
- Stake USDC - Members stake USDC, which is deposited into Aave to earn aUSDC yield.
- Run and Earn - Members who meet the weekly distance requirement (referred to as compliant members) earn their interest plus a share of the interest forfeited by non-compliant members, along with ETH yield from membership fees.
- Claim Rewards Weekly - Athletes who meet the clubs running requirement can claim their rewards weekly.
Why Athletes Earn More
Run Money’s protocol guarantees higher yields than depositing directly into Aave. Above you can see a screenshot of the yield as recorded for last week onchain.
Athletes got a 20% boost, driven by two unique features of Run Money:
- Socialized Interest Redistribution - Interest forfeited by non-compliant members (those who don’t run at least 5 km in a week) is redistributed to compliant members.
- ETH Rewards - Membership fees are pooled and generate additional ETH yield, which is distributed among compliant members.
Last week, the combined USDC rewards were 7.41%, while the ETH yield added an extra 1.70%, delivering a total effective rate of 9.11% for Run Money members. This advantage underscores why athletes earn more by staying consistent and active in the club.
Simplified Socialized Interest Redistribution Example
Here’s how the rewards would break down in a hypothetical week with these parameters:
- Total USDC interest earned = 1 USDC.
- Total ETH interest earned = 0.001 ETH.
- Compliant members: Alice (50 USDC) and Bob (100 USDC).
- Non-compliant member: Charlie (50 USDC).
Total compliant stake = Alice’s 50 USDC + Bob’s 100 USDC = 150 USDC.
Total staked USDC (including Charlie) = 50 + 100 + 50 = 200 USDC.
Rewards:
- Alice earns:
- 0.33 USDC from her share of the USDC interest.
- 0.00033 ETH from her share of the ETH yield.
- Bob earns:
- 0.67 USDC from his share of the USDC interest.
- 0.00067 ETH from his share of the ETH yield.
Charlie forfeits 0.25 USDC, which is redistributed among Alice and Bob, further enhancing their rewards.
Club Membership and Positive Churn Dynamics
Run Money is built to be a Regenerative Financial (ReFi) Application by harnessing the natural churn dynamics inherent in the fitness industry, specifically with memberships.
In Run Money, Athletes pay a one-time membership fee in ETH to join the Run Money club. These fees are pooled into a common ETH fund that generates additional yield through DeFi protocols like Aave.
Run Money’s design takes advantage of natural fitness churn. When members leave:
- Their membership fee remains in the ETH pool.
- Yield from these abandoned fees is redistributed to active members.
This creates a positive feedback loop:
- New members purchase memberships and contribute ETH to the membership pool.
- Departing members leave behind their membership fee, increasing the pool size.
- A larger pool generates higher yields, making the system more attractive to new members.
Run Money turns typical membership churn into a benefit for active participants, creating a system where consistent members are continually rewarded.
Privacy-Preserving Design
Unlike many other applications in this space, Run Money is designed to protect your privacy while ensuring transparency in rewards. Athlete activity is tracked offchain, and only a binary compliance status (compliant or non-compliant) is recorded on-chain. This means no detailed activity data, such as distances or routes, is publicly visible.
Run Money only shows you your own activity and does not share it with anyone else, in line with Strava’s API usage guidelines. Wallet addresses are not linked to Strava accounts onchain. Run Money can be used by all Strava uses and works even if athletes enable all privacy features in Strava. The system is designed to be as private as a bank account, within the constraints of public ledger technology like Base.
What’s Next
We’d love for the Aave community to give it a try! Run Money is live now on Base, combining the best of DeFi and fitness. The Run Money Landing Page now features real-time TVL updates, club pool balances, and Aave rates.
Try it out: https://www.runmoney.app
Let’s run and earn together! 
– Michael Ghen
