Online betting has long been one of the most attractive applications of the internet and the web. Many websites have risen to offer betting options. Those platforms attract customers looking for some opportunities to increase their holdings by betting. But, not many of the interested users are happy with their experiences. Lots of them lose fortunes because of the broken policies in the betting industry.
Blockchain, as one of the most secure and transparent technologies of the modern world, can solve this issue, too. Augur is one of the platforms that leverage blockchain features to offer a more reliable and trustful betting experience.
What is Augur?
Augur is a blockchain-based betting platform that offers various options to users. They can bet with no limits on multiple topics from sports and economics to real-world events, etc.
Augurfounded by Forecast Foundation and built on Ethereum network, looks for solving the current challenges of the betting world. The problems that prevent many mainstream users from joining the industry.
Fears of losing money because of policies in the betting platforms are the biggest challenges Aufur is trying to solve. Founded in 2014 by ack Peterson, Joey Krug, and Jeremy Gardner, Forecast Foundation relies on advice from big names in the industry like Ron Bernstein and Vitalik Buterin.
Lower fees, guaranteed payouts, transparent, open-source platform and offering no limits for betting, are some of the features Augur offers to its users.
Augur Protocol
Forecast Foundation has built Augur protocol under open-source licenses to benefit from the community features. The free, public, open-source software is under the General Public License (GPL). Some parts are under licenses from MIT.
Using Ethereum the underlying blockchain for Augur, the development team has used a set of smart contracts to write the software in Solidity.
It offers a powerful decentralized oracle solution to developers. They can rely on this oracle to collect accurate real-world data without the need for a trusted intermediary or third party
Any developer or regular user can download and run the Augur protocol client app.
It “has no upgradability, modification ability, or governance over the set of contracts and software that run and exist on the Ethereum blockchain. No single entity can modify, alter, update, upgrade, censor or make any changes of any kind to the smart contract’s software,” according to Augur documentation.
Forecast Foundation OU
A group of passionate developers and technology experts have built Forecast Foundation. They don’t claim the ownership or monetization of Augur but devote time and effort to support and develop the open-source protocol.
Forecast Foundation has primary missions regarding the development and promoting open-source trading platforms and oracle systems. It doesn’t have any role in the markets running on Augur protocol and develops and publishes the protocol on GitHub.
Augur VS Today’s betting Industry
Augur is missioned to disrupt the current betting industry. It offers a global no-limit betting platform. The prediction market Augur is targeting, has many opportunities and by providing decentralized solutions, many regular users get convinced to enter the industry.
Those who are interested in betting can use this network for many situations. Some examples include the price of a specific cryptocurrency or even fiat money, predicting real-world events, betting on technological achievements in the coming years, betting on sports events, etc.
Various developers create markets and betting options on Augur. No central entity controls the markets, and everything is decentralized. As a result, there is no worry about frauds or account suspensions or other everyday situations like traditional betting platforms. In fact, Augur users control the platform.
Because of the decentralized nature in Augur, users don’t have to pay that many fees to the hosts. The winners pay a small amount of fee (1-2%) to the runners of the market. Some portion goes to those who report the winners of each bet.
The most crucial feature of Augur that differentiates it from the regular betting platforms is the underlying technology. Because there is no central server or database storing markets and bets, the platform runs as long as the Ethereum public blockchain runs.
[REPv2] The Augur Coin
Augur, like any other blockchain-based protocol, has primary operation cryptocurrencies. Reputation (REP) – now migrated to REPv2 – is the token used by reporters in Augur platform. It is an ERC777 token developed on Ethereum.
Augur V2, launched in July 2020, is the improved version of Augur protocol and offers REPv2 tokens to reporters. Those holding REP token can migrate to REPv2 in the Augur client.
REPv2 offers the option to collaborate in market disputes in Augur. They check the outcomes of prediction, and if there is a dispute between opposite sides, reporters are responsible for determining the exact result.
“Reporters report on a market by staking their REP on one of the market’s possible outcomes. By doing this, the reporter declares that the outcome on which the stake was placed matches the real-world outcome of the market’s underlying event,” according to Augur whitepaper. Reporters receive rewards as fees because if their reporting collaboration.
Reporters use their REPv2 holdings to stake on disputes and har forks of Augur network. Their holdings will become useless if they don’t participate in operations. A policy that, combined with financial incentives, guarantees an active community of reporters.
REPv2 has no use in trading procedures in Augur market. Traders who are not interested in participating in the reporting operations, don’t need to hold or stake REPv2. All of the tradings on Augur happens using DAI stablecoin. But REPv2 token is required when users create a bet.
Conclusion
Augur offers the opportunity for any user around the world to enter the prediction market. Many significant challenges that have halted mainstream adoption of betting platforms are solved in this network. Combining the blockchain features with open-source naturalitymake this network a best of both worlds for all users.
Prediction markets have a long history and also a bright future ahead. Many people love to try their chances on predictions to earn money. When a platform like Augur offers ease of use next to security and transparency features, they become more interested in entering the market. It can lead them to test more use-cases of blockchain and cryptocurrenciestoo.