TL;DR
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In case you’ve been residing below a rock, persons are going loopy on Polymarket proper now.
(Significantly! Take a look at the graph for Whole Worth Locked 👆 which is usually an indicator of the extent of belief and utilization of a DeFi platform).
Polymarket lets anybody (exterior of its restricted areas, of which the US is one) guess on the end result of just about something below the solar.
For instance, as of this writing there’s been over $411M guess on the results of the US election alone!
Polymarket is exclusive in that it doesn’t have a market maker which is what ‘regular’ betting platforms have.
As an alternative, as a result of it’s decentralized, it makes use of an automatic market maker – i.e. an algorithmic system to determine on pricing for every consequence, based mostly on the sum of money guess on all sides by actual punters.
And in a couple of weeks they’re about to launch one thing even cooler/crazier:
Leveraged bets and derivatives-based bets.
With a leveraged guess, as an alternative betting on the end result of X with your personal cash, it will imply you’ll be able to guess on an outcomes and get a number of instances the return (or a number of instances the loss) by solely placing a small quantity upfront.
For instance, you may put $10 upfront however do a 5x leveraged guess, returning you with $50 for those who’re profitable – however requiring you to pay a further $40 for those who lose the guess.
Derivatives-based bets imply you’ll be able to guess on extra than simply the consequence.
For instance, betting on an election winner can be a ‘base market’ guess; in comparison with betting on the margin of victory (a spinoff guess).
It’s no straightforward activity!
However, the absolutely onchain derivatives platform, D8X, is working with Polymarket to carry it to market.
Sounds thrilling for degens, and extremely harmful for skilled and non-professional gamblers alike.
The excellent news: no matter what Twitter says, you don’t need to partake in Polymarket.