FAQS

RADAR Launch is a new platform connecting for future makers and adopters, part social network, part reputation graph, part rewards platform.

RADAR Launch is part of the RADAR ecosystem; accelerating better futures in multiplayer mode. You can find out more about RADAR here.

Far too often, ideators, innovators, and builders struggle to bring their visions to life, falling victim to the cold start problem. Left to the devices of a world in single-player mode, they’re disconnected from market demand, gatekept away from critical resources, and unable to tap into network effects — and so their individual visions fail to propagate. Too early, too late, too misunderstood to have an impact, their visions fall short of capturing future-market fit.

RADAR is already opening the loop by identifying emerging futures ripe for adoption and priming it by facilitating imagination and ideation among those who are drawn to the vision. So what if we closed it, too? Enter RADAR Launch: the platform where anyone can launch ideas in alignment with our futures.

Future Makers – anyone with a vision (an idea) for a better future.
*We are currently focused on RADAR’s Cycle #2: A More Play-Full Future
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Future Backers – anyone who wants to support to someone’s vision of the future

Future Seekers - anyone who is interested in discovering visions of better futures

Launch is a place where founders, builders, creators, and makers can bring their ideas to market no matter their shape or size. And we mean it. To make better futures our reality, we need all types of ideas to flourish and thrive: products & services, experiences, campaigns, media, communities, you name it. If it helps to cultivate one of our better futures, it’s a fit for RADAR Launch.

Right now, we’re inviting ideas that make the world more playful, in alignment with our latest emerging future.

Launch is a curated platform, meaning that projects need to be approved by our curators before they go live. To be accepted, your idea must align with one or more of our creative briefs: play to wow, play to heal, play to connect, play to learn, play to create. You can find the creative briefs here.

Every project on RADAR Launch will be approved by RADAR's crew of future-savvy curators. This is a diverse and high-context group of nine RADAR community members who will validate that your idea aligns with one of our creative briefs and A More Play-Full Future.

Once you’ve submitted your project to the platform, you’ll receive a decision within 48-72 hours.

Play, whimsy, and mischief. What if we framed our approach to the world using these words?

As detailed in our report, we’ve had a long and thriving history of play. Today, play catalyzes culture, it bolsters our resilience through life, and it empowers us to ‘do nothing’ in a modern world so driven by productivity. In many ways, it’s a radical act. Which is likely why, over time, cultural baggage, capitalist expectations and social power dynamics have evolved to develop a cultural system that seeks to keep play at bay, denying us the positive benefits of play and building barriers to it. It’s a system that’s left us feeling burnt out in a disenchanted world.

Luckily, a new age of play is starting to emerge into the mainstream, no longer rebelliously making mischief at the margins, but coming into vision like dandelions through concrete. We have outlined five archetypes for play, each offering a nuanced approach to a more playful future, and each demonstrating a shift of consumers worldwide seeking play as a way to bring wonder, healing, connection, learning, and creativity into their lives.

Now, we are turning our research into reality and using the insights from the report to inspire real, tangible ways to make the world more playful. This is where you come in. Join us in using play as a force for good.

In current crowdfunding models, when you support future makers, the relationship ends with the platform. There is no way to build a reputation around the projects and people you believe in and no way for you to become a real stakeholder in the future.

To solve this problem, we use "blockchain" technology, which provides an immutable record of digital transactions. This means that supporters, future makers and the world can see who has supported visions for better futures and how.

Collecting digital collectibles and using blockchain technology also unlocks new opportunities to bridge the gap between early adopters and future makers, from rewarding early adopters and giving access to imagining entirely new models outside of traditional fundraising.

On RADAR Launch, backers can support projects and collect visions with ETH (Ether) on the Optimism network.

Optimism is built on top of Ethereum. It’s much cheaper to use than Ethereum. We’re talking fractions of a cent, compared to the $10-$30 often seen on Ethereum. So you’ll pay less fees (gas) when you support a project on RADAR Launch. This is important to us because it makes RADAR Launch more accessible to future makers and backers, and it means that a higher percentage of the money raised goes toward building better futures.

To back projects on RADAR Launch, you can pay with card, or with crypto.

If you choose to pay with crypto, you’ll need to get some ETH on the Optimism network first. You have two options:
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For Future Makers, RADAR Launch doesn’t collect a fee. Optimism will charge a small gas fee when you withdraw funds from our platform.

For Future Backers, RADAR Launch collects a flat fee of ~$1 for each edition collected. We do this to maintain RADAR, the launch platform and to support future makers from our own treasury.

RADAR is a decentralized community of 300+ future seekers – researchers, futurists, early adopters, web3-natives, and web3-newbies. We gather together to discover and accelerate better futures, founded by Fancy in 2021.

Our research is led by a small core team of industry-leading foresight practitioners, instigated by Keely Adler, and supported by the whole community.

2-3 times a year we focus on an emerging future, and in this focus over a 10-week research sprint we explored every angle of play, with a dozen featured experts and 168 contributors exchanging thousands of signals.

Our innovation process is instigated by Matt Weatherall. Last year, we ran a seven-day innovation sprint — The Futurethon — attracting 400 registrations and inspiring hundreds of ideas for A Future In Sync. This year, we’ve published five creative briefs to inspire ideas for A More Play-Full Future.

Now, we’re scaling our impact with the RADAR Launch platform, so that we can support many more future makers.

Get in touch by emailing admin@radardao.xyz