Coinbase Backs Vega in Prediction Market Race, Catching Up with Polymarket
Date: 2024-08-09 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchain prediction markets are gaining momentum. After Joe Biden’s poor performance in the debate last month, rumors began swirling that he might drop out of the presidential race. At the time, blockchain platform Polymarket, where users were already betting on the incumbent president’s chances, became a useful resource for gauging public opinion.
Polymarket allows betting on everything from sporting events to scientific discoveries. While betting on the outcome of U.S. elections is generally illegal, Polymarket’s global prediction markets have been mentioned alongside traditional voter polls in discussions of the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Now, Coinbase Ventures-backed Vega is joining the competition with its own betting-focused update. Vega, a blockchain and decentralized exchange (DEX) running on the Cosmos network infrastructure, is one of several crypto platforms focusing on perpetual futures, a means of speculating on the future price of an asset. Vega’s new update expands the capabilities of the DEX app by allowing users to bet on the outcome of future events, just as they can bet on the future price of a token.
In its initial phase, Vega’s prediction market will differ from Polymarket in that it will be an open platform rather than a fully-fledged betting app. Vega will continue to function as a regular decentralized crypto exchange: users will be able to trade assets as they normally would, with the only difference being that some of those assets will act as bets on predictions.
Polymarket, on the other hand, is a standalone app built on the Polygon blockchain ecosystem. It offers users a casino-style betting interface similar to online platforms like Draft Kings.
“Our starting point is to develop the protocol, to create the underlying primitives that will enable these markets to be built,” explained Vega founder Barney Mannerings. “People who build and run markets on Vega will be able to develop their own products with their own user interface, including sports, news, and other areas.”
While betting apps for any event have their critics, Vega’s update highlights the growing interest in prediction markets as a potential use case for blockchain technology.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if prediction markets took off and other DEXs that offer perpetuals or futures contracts started adding these features, because it just seems like a logical fit,” Mannerings said.
