For many years, crypto has been fended off accusations of being a solution in search of a problem. Another way of putting it is that product-market fit is an issue, or that crypto needs a killer app. It’s worth distinguishing here also between bitcoin and the rest of crypto. Bitcoin can claim a category of its own as a digital store of value, but when it comes to the rest of the blockchain environment, a wide variety of potential use cases are on the table but still unproven.
Stablecoins have perhaps the clearest case for immediate utility, and then there’s the tokenization of real world assets, the use of NFTs in gaming, entertainment and as a medium for digital art, and there’s also DeFi as an alternative financial environment (although then there are still questions as to what specific value DeFi tokens are actually tethered to).
However, regarding practical utility, this year has been marked by the emergence into the mainstream of the decentralized prediction market Polymarket, which increasingly looks like it may be turning into crypto’s first potentially killer app, or is at least gaining recognition as a decentralized platform that makes clear sense to users outside of the crypto bubble.
What Is Polymarket?
Founded in 2020 and built on Polygon, Polymarket is a blockchain-based prediction market that utilizes the stablecoin USDC for trading. There’s no way you can use the product without crypto and it doesn’t require KYC, meaning it’s a legitimately crypto-native platform, and it is–by nature of the gambling on current affairs that it facilitates–closely in touch with real world events, appealing, and easily understood.
Odds Republicans win back the Senate are up to 75%. pic.twitter.com/WQtrzzAZA7
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) September 5, 2024
It should be noted that political betting goes back centuries, while the first online prediction market was the still-in-operation Iowa Electronic Markets, which launched back in 1988. Also, Polymarket is not the first ever crypto-powered prediction market: Augur and Gnosis are both decentralized prediction market developments that were started before Polymarket launched.
However, Polymarket is the first decentralized prediction market that has picked up a lot of mainstream attention while it gains in volume and users. As we’re in a US election year, there is a huge amount of interest in public opinion on the presidential candidates, and it’s become commonplace to see Polymarket’s latest…
