In brief
- Dare Market brands itself as the “most unhinged platform on the internet,” as it creates a place for people to be paid to do goofy stunts.
- However, Dare Market says it won’t allow dangerous content on the site due to its strict moderation policy.
- The project raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Karatage and Paper Ventures.
A man screams “What the fuck?” in a store, posts the video to social media, and smiles as he sees Solana tokens enter his wallet. This future is possible because of Dare Market—a newly launched crypto-fueled platform looking to help creators monetize viral stunts.
There are two ways for dares to be funded. The first allows a user to post a dare with a bounty attached. Individuals will then post videos on social media fulfilling the dare, and the proposer chooses the winner.
Otherwise, users can set their own dare that they’ll do as long as the platform can raise a specified amount of money via the “Fund-My-Dare” feature. If 69% of the dare’s funders validate that the user has done the dare, then the deposited USDC or SOL will be released.
“Dare is the internet on steroids,” Isla Rose Perfito, founder and CEO of Dare Market, told Decrypt. “It offers the two things this generation wants most: money and fame. Now, anyone can post a dare or do a dare and get paid for it. For brands and creators, it’s a live laboratory for cultural moments—proof-based entertainment where the audience isn’t just watching, they’re active participants.”
Perfito explained that dares can also be customized only to apply to one person—for example, a notable streamer—or the prize money can be split between multiple users. The Dare Market platform takes 6.9% of the bounty at settlement.
The idea echoes that of the darkest moments in Pump.fun’s history, when the Solana meme coin launchpad spawned crazy stunts that put humans and animals at risk. One streamer literally set himself on fire for his DARE meme coin, and later theorized creating a dare platform inspired by the 2016 movie “Nerve,” although it never came to fruition.
The trend got so out of hand that “Black Mirror” even parodied the concept in April, depicting a site where users got paid for performing increasingly extreme stunts.
However, Dare Market claims no such dares will happen on its platform. Perfito told Decrypt that any dares “that puts any individual in harm’s way” or is “encouraging self-harm, [or] drug usage” will not make it onto the platform. That’s because before dares are posted, they’re run through an automated moderation system and will also be reviewed by real humans.
“I think it’s the [expectation] with some businesses and individuals out there that in order to go viral, you have to do something that’s so ridiculous at the expense of people or yourself. And that’s just not true,” Perfito said.
With this ethos, Dare Market has closed a $2 million pre-seed funding round led by Karatage and Paper Ventures with participation from NBA star Tristan Thompson, crypto influencer Ansem, and gambling firm Super Group.
As of today’s launch, the platform will have a handful of dare markets funded by companies looking to promote their brands. One, for example, is hosted by a company called WTF Leagues, which is daring people to scream “What the fuck?” in public in exchange for funds.
Similarly, last month, a little-known project known as POIDH, short for “pics or it didn’t happen” put a $28,000 meme coin bounty on beating the Guinness World Record for the most kickflips on a skateboard done in a minute. A man named Dave Bachinsky eventually beat the record and claimed his meme coin prize.
The types of content that Dare Market is looking to promote can be seen through the creators that it has been sponsoring. For example, creator Penofein has recorded himself having fake arguments in public, prank-calling businesses, and sneaking into offices—fairly harmless fun.
Screenshot of dildo markets. Image: Dare Markets.“I like to call [Dare Market] the inverse of Polymarket, in a way. Because with Polymarket, Kalshi, or traditional prediction markets, you’re betting on the outcomes of scenarios using capital. They’ve proven themselves as great truth marketplaces,” Perfito explained, labeling a dare as the inverse of a truth thanks to the popular party game truth or dare.
“Now it makes more sense than ever, because attention is one of the most scarce resources on the internet—everyone is fighting for it. It’s one of the most difficult things to earn, and almost impossible to keep,” Perfito told Decrypt. “Dare Market fixes that.”
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Source: https://decrypt.co/344425/dare-me-solana-project-paying-crypto-hilarious-stunts
