In brief
- DappRadar, a popular blockchain analytics platform, will decentralize and launch its own token.
- The startup has not yet announced how it will distribute the RADAR token.
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For the last three years, DappRadar has shared data and analytics about the rapidly growing decentralized apps (dapps) and games industry. Now the startup plans to decentralize itself by launching its own token and recasting itself as a “dapp store.”
On Thursday, the firm announced that it will become the latest blockchain-based platform to launch its own token and shift to a community-owned model. The RADAR token will let holders vote on the future development of the platform, as well as gain access to as-yet-unannounced benefits and rewards.
As part of the shift, DappRadar has labeled itself “The World’s Dapp Store,” repositioning its service as a discovery platform for dapps and decentralized games.
While decentralized applications may be built on the same blockchain platforms (like Ethereum) or even feature interoperable assets, they typically aren’t connected by a shared storefront—like Apple’s App Store, Google’s Play Store, or Valve’s Steam—as traditional apps and games are. They may not even be welcome on such storefronts, as Steam recently outlawed crypto games.
DappRadar provides data on activity and trading volume for a wide array of dapps across 27 blockchain platforms, ranging from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols like Uniswap and PancakeSwap to popular games like the Ethereum-based Axie Infinity and WAX-based Alien Worlds.
DappRadar plans to pair its existing analytics data on more than 8,300 dapps and games with an increasing focus on discovery, all in an effort to provide more connective tissue across the expanding blockchain industry.
"We built DappRadar around decentralized apps," said co-founder and CEO Skirmantas Januškas in a press release. "Decentralization stands at the very core of our success and it's only right to take it to the next level—true decentralization of DappRadar. Bringing the community closer is the only way to keep ahead of the curve and remain successful in the years to come."
DappRadar raised $5 million in Series A funding in May from backers such as Prosus Ventures and Blockchain.com Ventures. It previously raised a $2.3 million seed round in 2019.
The firm has yet to reveal details on how it plans to issue the RADAR token. DappRadar could potentially sell RADAR through an IDO, or initial DEX offering, via a decentralized exchange, for example. It could also airdrop tokens to users who have used the service in the past, as the Ethereum Name Service recently did with billions of dollars’ worth of ENS tokens.