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Paid in cryptocurrency for every puff: the vapes that reward you for not stopping

Qurexa Editorial Team28 September 20266 min read 0 0
Paid in cryptocurrency for every puff: the vapes that reward you for not stopping

What happened

Researchers have raised the alarm about a new kind of vaping device: one that connects to your phone, counts every puff you take, and pays you for taking them. In a perspective piece published in the New England Journal of Medicine and publicised on 27 September 2026, three researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina's Hollings Cancer Center - Dr Amanda Palmer, Dr Tracy Smith and Dr Benjamin Toll - describe what are being marketed as 'smart' vaping devices. These products pair a vape with a smartphone app. The app tracks use and hands out rewards for it: points, free refill cartridges, and in some cases cryptocurrency. The researchers looked at two products in particular. One, Puffpaw, is a nicotine vaping device marketed as an aid to help people quit e-cigarettes. The other, Gudtrip, is a cannabis vaping device that ties artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency to how much a user vapes and engages with the app. Neither product has authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration, which means neither is legally authorised for sale there. The researchers note that unauthorised vaping products nonetheless remain widely available. Their core warning is simple. By combining an addictive substance with financial rewards, game mechanics and artificial intelligence, these devices risk reinforcing addiction rather than treating it - rewarding people for vaping rather than for stopping.

Why this matters

Anyone who has used a fitness app knows how well this machinery works. Streaks, points, badges, a little celebration when you hit a target - these things change behaviour. That is why they are everywhere. Applying that machinery to nicotine is a different proposition. Nicotine is already one of the most reliably habit-forming substances there is. Adding a reward loop on top does not create the addiction; it puts a second engine behind one that is already running. The detail the researchers highlight about Puffpaw is the one that should give people most pause: it is marketed as an aid for quitting e-cigarettes. A product that pays you per puff is not, on the face of it, a quitting aid. When the marketing says one thing and the incentive structure says the opposite, the incentive structure is usually what wins. There is also a specific reason to care about this in the UK. Vaping has a genuine, evidence-backed role here in helping adult smokers stop smoking, and the NHS supports it for that purpose. That is a hard-won public health position. Products that blur the line between a quitting tool and a rewards-driven consumption habit make that message harder to hold, and they risk undermining trust in vaping as a stop-smoking route for the people it genuinely helps. And there is the young people question. Cryptocurrency payouts, app streaks and gamified rewards are not aimed at 55-year-olds trying to come off twenty a day.

What the evidence actually says

It is important to be accurate about what kind of article this is. This is a perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine. A perspective is expert commentary and analysis, published in a highly respected journal. It is not a clinical trial. Nobody has yet run a study measuring whether people using a vape-to-earn device end up more addicted than people using an ordinary one. So the claim being made is about risk and mechanism, not about a measured outcome. The researchers are saying: here is how these products work, here is what we know about how reward systems and nicotine interact, and here is why that combination is worrying. That is a reasonable and well-founded argument. It is not proof of harm, and the authors do not present it as such. The regulatory facts, though, are facts. Neither product examined has FDA authorisation. The UK position is separate again, and worth knowing. Vapes are regulated here as consumer products. It is illegal to sell them to anyone under 18. Since 1 June 2025 it has been illegal across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for businesses to sell or supply single-use disposable vapes, including non-nicotine ones. UK regulations also cap nicotine strength and tank size for nicotine-containing vapes. What is genuinely uncertain is how UK rules apply to a device whose main feature is an app paying users in cryptocurrency. That is a new shape of product, and regulation tends to arrive after the product does.

Practical advice

If you vape, or you are worried about someone who does, a few things are worth holding on to. If you are a smoker trying to stop, vaping remains a supported route in the UK and it works for many people - but the best results come from combining it with a free local NHS stop smoking service. People who use a stop smoking service are considerably more likely to quit successfully than people going it alone. You can find your local service through the NHS website, and your pharmacy can point you to it. If you do not smoke, do not start vaping. That has been the consistent UK public health message and nothing here changes it. Be sceptical of any product that pays you to use it. A reward for consumption is a business model, not a health intervention. If a device offers points, crypto or free refills for puffs, ask what it is actually being paid to achieve. Buy from established UK retailers. Products bought through unofficial channels or shipped from abroad may not meet UK safety rules on nicotine strength, tank size or ingredients. If you are a parent, the app is the thing to ask about, not just the device. A vape that connects to a phone and offers rewards is designed to be engaging in a way an ordinary one is not. And if you want to stop vaping, say so to a pharmacist. Stop smoking services increasingly support people who want to come off vapes too, and asking costs nothing.

What to know

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, have warned about 'smart' vaping devices that link to a phone app and reward users with points, free cartridges or cryptocurrency for each puff. The two products they examined - Puffpaw, a nicotine device marketed as a quitting aid, and Gudtrip, a cannabis device using AI and crypto - have no FDA authorisation. This is expert commentary rather than a trial, so it is a warning about a mechanism, not a measured harm. The mechanism is nonetheless well understood: reward loops change behaviour, and pointing one at nicotine is a poor idea. In the UK, vapes cannot be sold to under-18s and single-use disposable vapes have been banned since 1 June 2025. Vaping still has a real role in helping adult smokers quit - best used with a free NHS stop smoking service. Sources: MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, 'Getting paid to vape? Researchers say that's a dangerous combination', 27 September 2026, https://hollingscancercenter.musc.edu/content-hub/News/2026/09/27/getting-paid-to-vape-researchers-say-thats-a-dangerous-combination; EurekAlert, 'Getting paid to vape? Researchers say that's a dangerous combination', 27 September 2026, https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1145464; GOV.UK, 'Single-use vapes ban: information for businesses', https://www.gov.uk/guidance/single-use-vapes-ban. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#vaping#nicotine#addiction#technology#young people#regulation

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