Gian Balsamo
Aug 28, 2017 · 1 min read

The cryptosphere is treading treacherous waters these days. We are all working hard toward new, unprecedented sorts of financial integration for blockchain-based initiatives. Now, it seems to me that prediction markets ought to develop their own proper terminology. I presume it is legal to create a prediction market on the future of the market value of Apple shares. Why not? Yet, some effort ought to go into differentiating this market from the official derivative market on the stock exchange. A first step would consist in not calling one’s position in the prediction market with the same names it’d have if it was an option on the derivatives market. It’s true that, jargon-wise, I’m “long” on my pear tree when I assume it’ll give me a good harvest. I mean, that’s the jolly way collective discourse turns specialized jargon into generic jargon. But such sort of terminological appropriation is not really acceptable when it leads someone to tell me that I can go to the prediction market and buy a long call on Apple shares’ future value. For one thing, even if the SEC weren’t fast enough in wacking this improvised market maker on the head, it’d be the legitimate market makers on the stock exchange that would go for his/her throat. And heaven forbid that my option on the prediction market turn out cheaper and/or more profitable than the equivalent one on the stock exchange. It’d be open war then. Who do you think would win?

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    Gian Balsamo

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    Criptologist