Augur Guide | Learn Everything About REP
Augur is another cryptocurrency based on the ever-popular Ethereum blockchain. The decentralised Augur platform took a while to emerge With initial funding having been launched in August 2015, the project eventually went live in July 2018. Augur enables users to create prediction markets, providing innovation and advance over betting exchanges such as Betfair.
How Does Augur Work?
Augur really places the emphasis on its decentralised protocol, enabling peer-to-peer prediction markets to be implemented. It is a really interesting concept. Users of the site can speculate on a wide variety of markets, enabling them to create, manage, and trade across this marketplace.
There is an aspect of futures trading to the Augur model, and this has been forged from traditional betting market activity to create a vibrant and innovative platform. Traders are provided with more flexibility for long and short positions and Augur effectively provides an opportunity for people to put their money where their mouth is, without the limitations of traditional betting exchanges, or the problems associated with the heavily regulated stock market.
Who Created Augur?
As mentioned previously, Augur was originally founded in 2014. Jack Peterson and Joey Krug are the two individuals to which this can be most readily attributed, although they also sought significant support from the Forecast Foundation. During the founding of Augur, Intrade founder Ron Bernstein and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin were also heavily involved.
What are the Pros & Cons of Augur?
One of the most obvious advantages of Augur is that it benefits from one of the most powerful and experienced teams within the entire industry. All the Augur tokens are already available, and the whole idea of Augur is also fun, interactive, and innovative. Augur runs very smoothly, and there has been great transparency associated with the Augur project from day one. The cost of the project also provides greater accessibility, lower fees, and more accuracy to the prediction market than has ever been witnessed previously.
However, the cryptocoin is not without its downsides well. The Augur interface has been criticised for lacking intuitiveness, while there are question marks over the validity of a platform that is essentially based on gambling – often deemed to be a social ill. As is the case with any innovative idea, Augur will attract its supporters and detractors.
The future of Augur
Augur currently has a market in excess of $105 million and is trading at around $9.50. It isn’t a heavyweight cryptocurrency, but it has firmly established itself as a credible player in the market.
One big problem for Augur is that it has experienced a few legal challenges, and there are suggestions that governments may attempt to shut down the Augur project at some point in the future. This is particularly possible in the United States, in a territory that has typically implemented prohibitive regulations related to gambling and gaming. This can only be exacerbated by the controversial nature of some of the markets that have been posted on this largely unregulated site.
Nonetheless, Augur is an interesting idea, and one that has been embraced by a wide variety of users, and its immediate future seems secure.