What is Augur?
Launched in August 2015, the Augur token becomes an amazing feature build on the Ethereum network. It received a lot of attention because of its revolutionary idea to create a decentralized, peer-to-peer prediction platform from which you can profit and shape a reputation across the network. The whole concept is based on the user’s opinion, if a question is raised to the public, the community can bet on the outcome of it. To bet you will need REP, it refers to the Augurs tradable token. The hardcap of it is fixed at 11 million units. You can buy it or trade it, but the total supply will always stay the same, every time when your prediction is right you earn REP tokens and of course if you guess wrong, you lose some.
Advantages
Based on the crowdsourced data and with the help of decentralized consensus, Augur provides more accurate forecasting than many media, because it`s confirmed by countless users in the network.
- Decentralized consensus
- Crowdsourced platform
- Hedging risks
Disadvantages
The mass predictions are not always correct because they strictly depend on the diversity in the crowd and the knowledge of the users. Sometimes drastic changes may occur caused by unforeseen events.
- Augur interface supports only English
- There`s no proper explanation of the know-how of Augur on their website
History and Evolution
The project was founded in 2014 by Jack Peterson and Joey Krug, later on, even names like Vitalik Buterin, Ron Bernstein and Robin Hanson joined as side advisors to contribute in the development of this ambitious new coming endeavour. Officially the first contract uploaded to the Ethereum network was in April 2015, four months later, on 17th of August 2015 the ICO crowdfunding was formally launched to the public with starting price of 0.60USD per Augur token. For the period between 17th of August and 1st of October 2015, it successfully raised total capital of 5,300,000USD
Augur’s Future
Regarding the expected future of Augur, I can easily express it by sharing with you the opinion of Vitalik Buterin about the project. He described the prediction platform as very valuable for society with great potential to be integrated into the wide spectre of applications. The current manager of Coinbase Ron Bernstein also disclosed that Augur may meet a great future because it has the capacity for borderless marketplaces. The truth is that the platform is constantly under development and many improvements are implemented frequently. Currently, they are working on state channels trading and the 0x protocol which will improve the off-chain trading’s. Also, in the nearest future, they are looking to improve the interface of the mobile version of the platform.
Augur Blockchain
As one of the first applications built on the Ethereum blockchain and considered by the Forecast Foundation as one of the largest and most complex ones, Augur is reviewing the possibility to move to a different network but at this point, nobody knows in what time manner this will happen. Many users are wondering if there is a plan to become a coin, but unfortunately, there’s no further information about any intentions of such. In this case, we can only observe and wait to see the upcoming features and development of this innovative social project.
How to get Augur Tokens at Exchanges
Here we face a very common problem for all cryptocurrencies, the lack of exchanges which support the purchase with fiat money. Ever since you can obtain Augur tokens only in exchange for other digital assets, you must first buy Bitcoin or Ethereum and then exchange it to REP. Despite the struggle, I will recommend you invest, because currently the Augur cryptocurrency is undervalued but after solving the scalability issues of the Ethereum network, it will have the capacity to increase the number of participants and then we will see the real impact of predictions markets over the crypto world.
| Exchange | Buy Augur with: | Buy with Fiat Money: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin | – | Trade now | |
| Ethereum | – | Trade now | |
| Bitcoin, Ethereum | – | Trade now |
Wallets for Augur
Since we speak about Ethereum utilized token, you can use MyEtherWalle(MEW) which is web-based wallet possible of running on any operating system of choice. You can log in through the web version or to download the client on your desktop, but don’t forget to back-up your wallet in order to keep your funds more secured. Follow the guide which is assisting you with that.If by any chance you can’t see any tokens in your wallet, find your answer here.
Alternative Wallets for Augur
There are other alternatives, developed with the idea to provide an exclusive and multifunctional product with higher security and wide usage. There are different types of carriers depending on the device on which they are running: desktop, mobile, and web. There are Multi-coin wallets in which you can preserve many different cryptocurrencies. The most secured once are the Hardware wallets, which are physical devices proofed with many security features and no access to the internet.
Mobile Wallets:
Web Wallets:
News
In the internet nowadays, you can find much information from many different sources, but the truth is that you cannot be absolutely sure that its relevant. I will recommend you first to start with the official web pages and then to overview any other wells of knowledge that you can find. For the Augur cryptocurrency the best place to seek for the latest news and future roadmaps is their medium blog and of course, you can follow them in social networks like Twitter too. Underneath you will find the table with the beforementioned websites.