Mar 18, 2021
Polkamarkets Built on Polkadot (explanation)
Given the tremendous growth of the Polkadot ecosystem, combined with the scalability problems in the ETH network such as transaction time/gas fee costs, Polkadot is the natural choice of blockchain for our platform.
If you haven’t already joined our Discord and Twitter, click here to join the conversation! Please also read this article for an introduction to our product showcase, a sneak peek of the MVP!
Why Build on Polkadot?
Polkadot is an interoperability platform where multiple, tailormade blockchains called Parachains and parathreads can hook into a central relay chain for security while maintaining their custom features for added scalability. The advantage of building on Polkadot is that you can have custom-made blockchains for each use case, such as a prediction market. Entrepreneurs building on Polkadot can set the parameters they need for a performant and safe blockchain environment, and then deploy that knowing that their parachain or parathread will have all the security benefits of the overall network. This is in stark contrast to Ethereum, where everyone uses the same blockchain, and all transactions (whether they are from DEXes or NFT platforms) have to be processed in series. The parallel nature of Polkadot allows it to scale to fit the needs of many different use cases.
Speed and Scalability
Since each parachain has its own custom settings, then each one can set how many transactions per second they require. The same is for fee structure. Usually, in blockchain-based systems, there is a delicate tradeoff between fees, scalability, and speed. This is true if you are dealing with proof of work or proof of stake systems. With Polkadot, all parachains can set whatever balance they want, but still have the security guarantees of the central relay chain.
Polkamarkets requires a blockchain that can settle thousands of transactions per second with minimal fees and minimal latency. This is to allow for our vision of being a high-volume and high liquidity prediction market. If users have to wait up to 15 seconds and pay tens or even hundreds of dollars for a transaction, this pretty much kills any user experience. Yet we see these things happening with platforms like Uniswap. As popular as Uniswap is, the fee situation is unsustainable and is not good for overall blockchain adoption.
Interoperability
Since smart contracts are not yet available on Polkadot, Polkamarkets’ first iteration will be built on top of Ethereum EVM. We are already developing for our eventual migration to Polkadot using various bridging technologies, which we will announce soon as Moonriver, Moonbeam and other Polkadot based EVMs. Polkamarkets is also leveraging Polygon (Matic Network) for our Ethereum facing technology for short-term scaling solutions.
One of the key use-cases for Polkadot is the fact that it can link to other blockchains. We see a very robust bridge between Ethereum and Polkadot for example. Dapps can have various implementations on several blockchain platforms, thanks to Polkadot. Not only that, but parachains within Polkadot can also connect and trade value among each other. We see this as a great synergistic system between Polkamarkets and potentially limitless partnerships and business relationships on-chain.
Ecosystem
Speaking of business development, the Polkadot Ecosystem is rich with opportunities. With programs like Open Grants, Substrate Builders’, and Kusama Treasury, there are many ways for startups to get funding and get out there.
The Polkadot Ecosystem is growing, and Polkamarkets aims to be the standard in Polkadot-based prediction markets in this space.
Governance and Upgradability
Smart contracts on Ethereum, once deployed, can be altered (easily). There are some cases where you can upgrade a smart contract by using another smart contract via governance processes, this is why we believe being a layer 2 EVM based protocol instead of a direct parachain could be a better solution. A lighter version running on Polkadot based EVMs can create an easy ecosystem where users don´t need to adapt to the Polkadot.js ecosystem and keep using the same EVM tools as they are used to while staying in the Polkadot/Kusama Ecosystem.
The Future of Polkamarkets
As an information exchange and DeFi platform, Polkamarkets is a place where people come to learn more about the future. We can say that accurate and crowd-validated forecasts are our main product. It’s our goal to make forecasting fun and entertaining. People like to make predictions and see if they are right!
As we’re building something unique, we’re aiming to have all sorts of partnerships that add value to the ecosystem. Oracles, NFTs, Media, iGaming. We’re certainly planning to expand to other regions/languages and we’re addressing the Asian markets in that sense. We also have plans to engage with Web3 and programs like Open Grants and Substrate Builder’s Program if would make sense for the roadmap.
We plan on releasing a mobile version of Polkamarkets in the future. Our web app will be mobile responsive from the beginning, but having a mobile native app is on the roadmap. NFT gamification and more DeFi features will be revealed in more detail coming soon!
About Polkamarkets
Polkamarkets is an Autonomous Prediction Market Protocol built for multi-chain information exchange and trading where users take positions on outcomes of real-world events–in decentralized and interoperable EVMs.
