Augur (REP — Reputation) is a decentralized, permissionless prediction market protocol built on Ethereum, launched on mainnet on July 9, 2018, after a 2015 ICO and three years of development by Forecast Foundation, that enables anyone globally to create a market on any future event’s outcome (sports scores, election results, financial market prices, cryptocurrency prices) and for anyone to buy shares representing belief in each outcome — with REP serving as the economic stake for a decentralized oracle system where REP holders report on and dispute the outcomes of markets once events resolve, with the game-theoretic design ensuring that honest reporters profit and dishonest reporters are financially penalized.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | REP |
| Price | $0.96 |
| Market Cap | $7.87M |
| 24h Change | +3.4% |
| Circulating Supply | 8.17M REP |
| Max Supply | 11.00M REP |
| All-Time High | $341.85 |
| Contract (Ethereum) | 0x2216...c9bb |
| Contract (Energi) | 0x2a26...f6ce |
How It Works
- Market creation — Any user can create a prediction market for any question with a defined resolution date. Market types include Yes/No, categorical (multiple outcomes), and scalar (numeric range) markets. Creators post a small bond.
- Trading shares — Before resolution, users trade “shares” representing belief in each outcome. Shares are priced between 0 and 1 ETH, with the price reflecting the market’s implied probability of each outcome (e.g., a “Yes” share at 0.7 ETH implies ~70% probability).
- Automated Market Maker — Augur v2 introduced an AMM for improved liquidity on markets without sufficient order book depth.
- Reporting (the REP mechanism) — After a market’s resolution event occurs, REP holders can stake REP to report the correct outcome. Initial reporters commit first; later, anyone can dispute with 2× the staked REP. This escalating dispute system ensures that only incorrect outcomes can be disputed upward, as doing so requires more REP to overturn each round, making honest reporting economically dominant.
- Dispute window — Markets go through a dispute window after initial reporting. If the initial report is not disputed during this period, it becomes final. If disputed, REP is forked into separate Universes in extreme cases.
- DAI markets (v2) — Augur v2 shifted from ETH-denominated shares to DAI-denominated shares for price stability, significantly improving UX for prediction markets.
Tokenomics
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | REP (v2: REPv2 at 0x221657…) |
| Chain | Ethereum ERC-20 |
| v2 Contract | 0x221657776846890989a759BA2973e427DfF5C9bB |
| Max Supply | ~11,000,000 REP |
| ICO | 2015 — one of early Ethereum ICOs |
| Usage | Staking in dispute/reporting; earn fees from honest reporting |
Use Cases
- Prediction markets — Trade shares in event outcomes globally, permissionlessly.
- Decentralized oracle — REP stakers report and dispute market outcomes to provide trustless resolution.
- Hedging — Users hedge real-world event risk via prediction market positions.
- Forecasting research — Efficient prediction market prices as forecasting tools.
History
- 2014–2015 — Augur concept published; co-founders Jack Peterson and Joey Krug. One of the first dApps proposed for Ethereum. Vitalik Buterin is an early advisor.
- 2015-08 — Augur ICO raises ~$5.3 million in BTC/ETH — one of the first major Ethereum token sales. REP distributed to ICO participants.
- 2015–2018 — Three years of development, security audits, and testnet iterations. The extended timeline reflects the security-critical nature of a financial protocol and the slow maturation of Ethereum itself.
- 2018-07-09 — Augur v1 mainnet launches. Becomes one of Ethereum’s first production dApps. Initial market volume is modest; creating and trading in markets requires significant technical proficiency and ETH gas.
- 2019–2020 — Augur ported to use DAI (v2 development). REP → REPv2 migration. The v2 migration offers better UX with DAI-denominated markets.
- 2020-07 — Augur v2 launches. DAI-based markets, AMM liquidity, and improved interfaces reduce friction. Turbo markets (fast-resolving events with faster dispute windows) introduced.
- 2021 — Augur gains relative attention during DeFi summer/prediction market renaissance. Polymarket (a Polygon-based competitor using USDC and off-chain trading) captures more user mindshare with a simpler UX. Augur’s gas costs on Ethereum L1 remain high.
- 2022–2024 — Augur’s mainnet usage is minimal as Polymarket dominates decentralized prediction market activity. Augur’s architecture is academically significant as the design for decentralized oracle incentive systems; the protocol is studied but underused. REP token price significantly below 2018–2021 peaks.
Common Misconceptions
“Augur’s REP token is for trading prediction markets.”
REP is specifically for the oracle/reporting system — REP holders stake on market outcomes to earn fees. Predictions are traded using ETH (v1) or DAI (v2), not REP. You do not need REP to participate in prediction markets as a trader.
“Augur is the same as Polymarket.”
Both are decentralized prediction markets, but with key architectural differences: Augur uses a fully on-chain oracle (REP staking disputes), while Polymarket uses an off-chain oracle (UMA’s optimistic oracle). Polymarket uses USDC and significantly outcompetes Augur in user volume as of 2024.
Social Media Sentiment
Augur occupies a unique position in crypto history as truly one of Ethereum’s first production dApps — deployed on mainnet years before DeFi existed as a concept. It is respected academically for the REP economic design and peer-reviewed in blockchain research on oracle mechanisms. However, Polymarket has eclipsed it in practical usage. Augur is increasingly referenced in historical context (“one of the first Ethereum dApps ever deployed”) rather than as an active trading venue.
Last updated: 2026-04