An Exclusive Look At Polkamarkets, An Autonomous Prediction Markets Protocol
Polkamarkets announced the release of its Mainnet on the Moonriver EVM last month, and having the prediction market protocol in a live environment was the most important milestone for Polkamarkets to date. Almost one month has passed, and Polkamarkets Labs is really happy and motivated with what has been achieved so far. We are excited for what’s next!
If you haven’t already joined our Discord and Twitter, click here to join the conversation! Please also read this article for more information about Polkamarkets Weekly Prizes and the bulk of activities that Polkamarkets Labs has deployed for the Protocol Incentives.
The plan is to deploy the protocol on other chains in the near future, namely Polkadot via Moonbeam EVM (which is already being prepared for v2).
In this article, we will do an overview on the following:
- Walkthrough of the protocol
- Prediction markets adoption
- Mini-guide and setup
- Participation rules
- Use cases and the $POLK token
- Looking ahead with Polkamarkets
- A summary of Polkamarkets
Walkthrough of the Protocol:
Polkamarkets is an open and decentralised prediction markets protocol where traders can gather and exchange information. This information is tokenized as shares of specific outcomes in a variety of genres and timelines: from Sports and Esports, to crypto prices, politics and long-tail events resolving in the distant future.
From an inside look at the protocol, you have access to at least 5 different market types to predict: Crypto, Gaming, Sports, Politics, and Other. You can add different markets to a favorites list and even share those markets on social media. Also, you can toggle between dark and light mode.
The market resolution is 100% decentralized through crowdsourced event resolution mechanisms where POLK is used as an ERC20 for disputes.
Prediction Markets Adoption
Existing prediction market volume averaged less than $1M per day in 2020, and even less in years prior. The primary reasons for this are:
- No entertainment value due to a lack of Esports/Sports and live feeds;
- No daily crypto markets;
- Very long resolution times and no DeFi incentives for daily active users.
The result of all these flaws is that the very low volume on these prediction markets made it impossible to take any sizable positions. Polkamarkets solves these issues by building incentives for traders to forecast and LPs to provide liquidity.
As an entertainment DeFi platform, Polkamarkets will build in Esports and Sports markets with live feeds, crypto price charts and use NFTs and in-platform communities to drive adoption.
One of the most important aspects of the protocol is making the UI/UX as smooth, simple to use, and visually appealing as possible. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into crafting the best-looking and smoothest user interface as possible. One of the most asked-for features by the community was the ability to toggle between dark and light mode. Well, we’ve listened and we’ve added it.
We’re making sure we build a premier entertainment prediction market powered by DeFi and NFTs where users will be able to join an online community with engaging entertainment and loyalty incentives.
Mini-Guide and Setup:
You can find more information on how to use the Polkamarkets protocol here. It follows a simple tutorial and guidance for users:
- How to connect your wallet to Polkamarkets: The very first step in the Polkamarkets app (read more)
- How to place market predictions: Learn how to buy/sell shares of market outcomes (read more)
- How liquidity works: Learn how to add/remove liquidity from markets, and what impact it has (read more)
- How are market prices determined? (read more)
- How market resolution works: Learn about the crowdsourced market resolution process. (read more)
- How do I claim my winnings? Learn how to claim your winnings and liquidity after the market is resolved (read more)
- How to create a Market: Step-by-step guide on how to create a market in Polkamarkets (read more)
Users on Moonriver (Moonbeam in the near future), will be able to join the platform, make forecasts, and provide liquidity. As an open and inclusive forecasting tool built on decentralised blockchain systems, Polkamarkets can be accessed by anyone in the world wanting to know more about the future via a decentralized & open-code service.
We believe that the more minds making forecasts on Polkamarkets, the deeper and more accurately we can see into the beyond.
Participation Rules
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS & CONDITIONS (“TERMS”) CAREFULLY AND IN ITS ENTIRETY PRIOR TO YOUR USE OF POLKAMARKET´s SERVICES OR PRODUCTS (“POLKAMARKETS”).
Polkamarkets Protocol is a 100% decentralized protocol for informational and educational purposes only. POLKAMARKET OÜ (Polkamarkets Labs) does not take any custody, profits, or host over any markets.
POLKAMARKET OÜ displays existing markets live on EVMs or sidechains and is a graphical user interface for visualizing data and interacting with the Polkamarkets Protocol Smart Contracts via your Web 3 injected wallet.
Looking Ahead With Polkamarkets:
We’ve seen plenty of different ecosystems booming in the blockchain industry over the past year. The biggest two of them, DeFi and NFTs are directly correlated with that, and we’re building our platform towards both. Polkamarkets Labs is aware of this and has been putting some ideas into the roadmap taking into consideration what the community is asking for.
We’re already focusing on the V2 delivery of the Polkamarkets Protocol. It will include several updates, such as:
- Liquidity Mining — a % of transaction fees will be given to liquidity providers in POLK — this feature was not included in V1 due to the absence of a native integration of Uniswap V2 Protocol early enough on the Moonriver Network;
- Deployment on other EVMs, such as Polygon;
- Cross-chain markets;
- Mobile version.
Our main goals are:
- Continuous Improvement: A new landing page will soon be launched with all the protocol metrics, TVL, and much more. We’re constantly improving UI/UX, protocol utility, and the usefulness of the app itself. We always look to our community to provide feedback, and we will constantly be using that to improve the protocol further.
- Promote the Protocol: Protocol rewards initiatives are being worked on and will launch once stable to ensure that protocol users receive $POLK by using the Protocol;
- Community Growth: We’re working on several aspects and preparing things towards community growth. Creating a bulk of activities and documentation to make it easy for newcomers that use, understand, and utilize the protocol on a daily basis.
- Educating the user: An extended support/FAQ page with all of the community’s questions regarding the prediction markets protocol is being improved. There will be some video tutorials as well.
Summary:
As you can see, we have a lot of things in the pipeline and we are excited about what’s to come. Polkamarkets is working really hard to build the best forecasting tool on the market. You can expect a lot of amazing features on our gamified platform.
Take a look at our roadmap below and let’s predict the future together: https://polkamarkets.notion.site/Polkamarkets-Labs-Roadmap-30f0d57edde445b4bbc6e0aafbc63662
About Polkamarkets
Polkamarkets is an Autonomous Prediction Market Protocol built for multi-chain information exchange and trading where users take positions on outcomes of real-world events–in decentralized and interoperable EVMs.
