Smoking is a hard enough habit to kick that now a crypto company wants to use a combination of token incentives and blockchain to help out. Puffpaw, set to launch on the upcoming Berachain blockchain, aims to sell specialty vapes that record a smoker’s smoking habits on the blockchain. The project will reward them with tokens if they reduce their nicotine intake. “With 1.3B smokers globally and nearly 1 in 4 Gen Z adults vaping regularly, our mission is more urgent than ever,” said the company amid a $6 million raise led by Lemniscap. “This funding milestone puts us at the forefront of DePIN infra to integrate blockchain with health-conscious vaping.” To help smokers kick cigarettes to the curb, they are introducing the Puffpaw Smart Vape (PSV), an allegedly healthier alternative with nicotine-free organic tea extract flavorings. Every puff is recorded on the blockchain for transparency, the company added, “gamifying the quitting process.” Supporting healthier behavior through novel technology isn’t a new concept. Avalanche-based Step App rewards its users for taking more steps in a day; FitCoin uses FitBit and Garmin to monitor activities, awarding coins which can then be swapped for Bitcoin; and SweatCoin tracks how many steps a person takes in a day and pays them for the activity. Nevertheless, Puffpaw has received mixed reactions from the cryptocurrency community, mostly because of its $6 million raise. “Seeing a lot of criticism in the comments but it’s actually a cool idea,” said Lexapro on X. “Like from a crypto perspective it’s absurd, I know. 6 million is absurd. But I can imagine mass adoption of this. Going to be f!@king hilarious when the most widely used blockchain tech is a vape LOL.” On-chain sleuth ZachXBT was ruthless and replied to Puffpaw’s raise announcement, “When ZachXBT was younger, my family always said don't smoke cigarettes, look what happened to grandpa, he got cancer. But I deeply regret not smoking bc this Vape2Earn $6M raise gave me cancer anyways.”