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I was unable to view the video, but after exploring the site found that this is a startup seeking to monetize prediction markets. This seems to me to be a wort
by japaget 11y ago
I was unable to view the video, but after exploring the site found that this is a startup seeking to monetize prediction markets. This seems to me to be a
worthwhile idea that hasn't been tried before. With the demise of intrade.com, their only competition seems to be PredictIt out of New Zealand. (Iowa Electronic Markets appears to be a research and teaching tool rather than a
for-profit enterpise.)
Here are two of their main threats:
(1) Fraud. This may have taken down intrade.com and took down the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. One start-up that successfully avoided this problem is PayPal.
(2) Being shut down by the government as an illegal gambling site. They need to secure a no-action letter from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
(See the Wikipedia article on PredictIt.)
I plan to follow Augur with interest and wish them every success.
- natrius 11y agoAugur's key differentiator is that it's decentralized. It runs on Ethereum, a programmable blockchain. There is nothing to shut down: it runs on thousands of computers around the world. Prediction markets are a well-defined interaction between people. Blockchain technology lets us build anything in that category with near-zero transaction costs and huge censorship resilience.