release beta 14 march 2016 ; 6 months ago 2016 03 14 development status active written in serpent and javascript platform ethereum type prediction market platform license free software gpl website www.augur.net augur is a fully open source and decentralized prediction market platform built on ethereum a blockchain technology that allows for the execution of smart contracts . javascript is also used for a browser based gui supplementing the command line . notable supporters of the project include intrade co founder ron bernstein the thiel foundation 1 and vitalik buterin . early development of the software began in autumn 2014 and an alpha version was released in june 2015 . from august to october 2015 a global crowdfunding campaign raised more than us 5.2 million in cryptocurrency to support future development . 2 a beta version was released in march 2016 . 3 live release is currently expected in q4 2016 . contents 1 purpose and background 2 operation 2.1 use of ethereum 3 history 4 academic and business affiliations 5 references 6 external links purpose and background edit the augur project seeks to leverage the open global peer to peer and distributed ledger functionality that blockchain technology provides as well as game theory and financial incentives to better explore the concept of the wisdom of crowds also known as collective intelligence and try to get more accurate predictions about future events . 4 the specific technologies used would theoretically allow for more participation and volume compared to traditional betting platforms therefore augmenting the quantity of markets available and their accuracy . on augur anyone anywhere in the world can instantly create a market or question on his topic of choice with no need for centralized approval can freely participate in all markets and will lose a minimal amount of money to fees due to the decentralized system of market creation and resolution the overhead costs of the platform are more widely distributed and thus lower on average for the individual user . there is also a reduced possibility of corruption or misappropriation of funds or other sources of disruption . augur s conceptual roots can be traced back to friedrich hayek s the use of knowledge in society which is mentioned by several members of the project as a source of inspiration james surowiecki s book the wisdom of crowds robin hanson s concept of idea futures paul sztorc s truthcoin whitepaper 5 vitalik buterin s schellingcoin concept 6 and the work of stanford university computer scientist joseph bonneau . operation edit the underlying network unit utilized by augur is known as reputation or rep which will be used by the platform s referees to report event outcomes whether predictions were successful or not 7 while bitcoin and ether ethereum s internal currency will be used for speculating on markets . almost all of the reputation units were distributed during the crowdsale to approximately 4 800 participants but they are set to be continually redistributed from bad actors to good actors . augur can be used as a distributed oracle system allowing other smart contracts to propose questions to it and discover information about the real world without having to trust a single person ai or organization . use of ethereum edit after an initial desire to build the backend on the bitcoin blockchain the augur team settled on ethereum explaining that it currently offers a better development platform for rapid deployment that making use of bitcoin as the foundation would not have offered clear security benefits and that it intends to integrate into the bitcoin network through sidechains as soon as that technology becomes available . 8 one critic has expressed the opinion that the ethereum platform is impractical for use in the calculation of outcomes because it allows for parasite contracts which steal the work done by contributors without compensating them properly . 9 the augur team pointed out that this vulnerability is not unique to ethereum any blockchain based system can execute such a parasite attack on another blockchain simply by incorporating merkle proofs of the host blockchain into its own chain . ethereum based oracles are expected to be resilient to parasite attacks as they can not be attacked by ethereum based parasite contracts ; ethereum contracts do not have access to raw blockchain data . 10 history edit the development of augur began in october 2014 with an alpha prototype being released shortly after . in april 2015 augur s first contract was uploaded to the ethereum network . 11 augur s alpha gui in may 2015 augur released a two minute animated video titled how augur works narrated by country music star shooter jennings . the video provides a detailed explanation of augur using simplified language to increase understanding of the technology . 12 it was watched more than 200 000 times on youtube . in june 2015 an alpha version was released to the general public for testing . 13 shortly afterwards augur announced that 8.8 million reputation tokens would be distributed via a 45 day crowdsale beginning on august 17 2015 . 14 15 it was deemed necessary to support future development and distribute voting power for event outcomes . augur raised over 5.2 million before the crowdsale concluded on october 1 2015 making it one of the top 25 highest funded crowdfunding projects of all time . 16 17 18 2 coinbase selected augur as one of its five most exciting bitcoin projects in their bitcoin trends in the first half of 2015 report . 19 augur was the only blockchain technology that made it to the finals in the cnbc and singularity university s exponential finance xcs challenge . 20 21 augur s beta gui augur has amassed growing media attention . maxim lott from fox news notes that augur aims to prevent the shutdown of intrade from happening again by being a prediction market that operates as a self sustaining computer program which would not need a corporation to operate it . 22 jim epstein from reason magazine writes that augur could do to the neighborhood bookie what electric refrigerators did to the ice delivery man . 23 tom kerr from the racing post warns about a technological innovation that could disrupt bookmakers undermine racing s funding mechanism and make preventing corruption almost impossible while also admitting it is now out there and it will not go away . 24 the platform has also been mentioned on politico 25 techcrunch 26 the wall street journal 27 the international business times 28 and coindesk . 29 in march 2016 augur released a beta version . 3 in june 2016 the thiel foundation announced it had named one of the lead developers joey krug a thiel fellow . 1 in october 2016 the augur network was launched with the distribution of all rep tokens . the rep launch was preceded by announcements from the two largest cryptocurrency exchanges poloniex and kraken stating support for rep on their trading platforms . 30 this early integration was unprecedented as augur is the first cryptocurrency to have support from the two largest exchanges on launch . this was followed by integration in myetherwallet and the jaxx multiplatform wallet including ios after apple approved the use of augur rep in the app store . 31 academic and business affiliations edit the project includes intrade founder ron bernstein and george mason university economics professor robin hanson author of overcomingbias.com among its advisers . 32 coinbase ceo brian armstrong said augur could produce some incredibly useful data and that it was super exciting . we talk about it a lot internally . 33 ethereum founder vitalik buterin as well as bitcoin entrepreneurs erik voorhees and bo shen have also expressed support for the platform . 34 35 in march 2015 microsoft announced both a partnership with augur and the augur beta in a firehose blog post . 36 augur will be offered in microsoft azure s blockchain as a service offering to enterprise users . 37 references edit a b thiel foundation announces 2016 thiel fellows . yahoo business wire . june 21 2016 . a b despeignes peronet october 11 2015 . the crowdsale what s new and what s next . a b blockchain prediction market augur enters beta coindesk . 2016 03 14 . retrieved 2016 08 06 . despeignes peronet july 13 2015 . the pressing need for augur . sztorc paul august 24 2014 . truthcoin trustless decentralized censorship proof incentive compatible scalable cryptocurrency prediction marketplace pdf . buterin vitalik march 28 2014 . schellingcoin a minimal trust universal data feed . what is reputation . june 19 2015 . krug joey february 13 2015 . why ethereum . augur.net . sztorc paul 2015 oracles are the real smart contracts truthcoin.info retrieved 2015 10 12 what about parasitic contracts will other ethereum applications be able to use augur s reporter referee system . hertig alyssa 2015 04 21 . augur creates first contract with ethereum . cointelegraph.com . sakich tony may 20 2015 . how augur works video . augur.net . krug joey june 16 2015 . the augur alpha is now available to download . augur.net . augur to issue 11 million rep tokens starting 17 august . retrieved 2015 08 13 . the augur crowdsale . the augur crowdsale . retrieved 2015 08 13 . augur fund the future . sale.augur.net . retrieved 2015 08 28 . tapscott don alex 2016 . blockchain revolution how the technology behind bitcoin is changing money business and the world . portfolio . isbn 978 110198013 2 . crowdsale bitcoin address blockchain.info . bitcoin trends in the first half of 2015 . the coinbase blog . retrieved 2015 07 22 . decentralized prediction market augur reaches xcs finals in breakthrough category . retrieved 2015 06 17 . blockchain prediction market augur elected as a breakthrough finalist at exponential finance 2015 bitcoin magazine . retrieved 2015 06 17 . lott maxim 2015 08 20 . new tech promises government proof prediction markets fox news . retrieved 2016 07 29 . augur may become the greatest gambling platform in history . is there anything the government can do to stop it . 2015 08 11 . retrieved 2016 06 25 . augur could become racing s worst nightmare . september 13 2015 . mega banks back burr next gen prediction market to test limits in d.c. get ready for more greek drama cfpb new york dfs sue pension advance lender archive 8 21 15 . retrieved 2015 08 21 . vapor no more ethereum has launched . retrieved 2015 08 01 . bitbeat ethereum opens its frontier for business . retrieved 2015 07 31 . augur to issue 11 million rep tokens starting 17 august . retrieved 2015 08 03 . augur bets on bright future for blockchain prediction markets . retrieved 2015 03 01 . econotimes . cryptocurrency exchange kraken adds support for augur s reputation tokens econotimes . econotimes . retrieved 2016 10 11 . econotimes . jaxx blockchain wallet adds support for augur s reputation tokens econotimes . econotimes . retrieved 2016 10 11 . rizzo pete march 1 2015 . augur bets on bright future for blockchain prediction markets . coindesk.com . brian armstrong augur . twitter.com . retrieved 10 august 2015 . tony swish . twitter . retrieved 10 august 2015 . why a crowdsale is necessary for augur to work & some updates . why a crowdsale is necessary for augur to work & some updates . retrieved 2015 08 13 . azure blockchain as a service update 6 . azure.microsoft.com . retrieved 2016 10 11 . allison ian 2016 03 15 . ethereum powered augur brings its beta to microsoft azure s blockchain cloud . international business times uk . retrieved 2016 10 11 . external links edit official website augur beta how augur works video narrated by shooter jennings interview with joey krug of augur the crowd