A beginner friendly guide to get started with Polymarket
Prediction Markets
Prediction markets, also known as betting markets, are markets where people can bet on the outcomes of events and follow odds to get insights about the future. As more people participate, the market tends to give a more accurate prediction of the outcome. They are used to bet on a variety of circumstances, from the prices of assets, to the results of a sporting event.
Polymarket
Polymarket is a prediction market where people can speculate with crypto. Users can buy or sell outcome shares, which can be redeemed for $1 if the outcome is correct, and become worthless if it’s incorrect. You can always sell your outcome shares at any point of time.
Disclaimer: US residents can only view information on the market due to regulation. Read more here
How to use Polymarket
The rest of the article will focus on how to use Polymarket.
Sign up & Deposit Funds
1. Sign up. You can sign up with email and password, however I recommend you sign up with Metamask, one of the most popular crypto wallets. (For beginners: How to Set Up Metamask). After you click on connect with Metamask, confirm the sign up in your wallet.
2. Get Funds to your Metamask account. You will need to fund your wallet with both MATIC and USDC on Polygon. (Set up Polygon in Metamask) Polymarket uses USDC to buy and sell outcome shares and MATIC is needed to cover for the gas fees on the Polygon network. You won’t need a lot of MATIC, probably 0.1 ($0.15) will be plenty. (2022/02/25)
3. Deposit Funds to Polymarket. The last step is to deposit funds to your Polymarket account. Head over to the deposit button next to your account address and copy the Polymarket deposit wallet address. Send over your USDC to the copied address in Metamask.
Bet on the Markets
Congrats, now you can bet on a variety of markets Polymarket provides.
- Click on Markets in the Navigation on the top of the page.
- Browse between markets and select the one that interests you.
- Choose the outcome you believe will resolve and input how much USDC worth of shares you want to buy. A little guide for the Buy modal:
- Average price is the price you’re paying per share. The larger your order size and lower the liquidity, the higher your average price will be.
- Estimated Shares is how many shares you will purchase. If your prediction is right, you can redeem 1 outcome share for 1$ (USDC), which is why Maximum Winnings shows you the same number with $.
- Return on investment shows you the percentage gain you will get if your prediction becomes true.
4. Click buy and confirm your transaction. Your trade will be processed within 20 seconds.
Selling your shares
You can sell your shares before the market ends and is resolved.
- Go to the individual market page, and click on the Sell tab.
- Enter your number of shares you want to sell or click Max.
- Click Sell and Confirm.
Redeeming Shares
Once a market has resolved, you can redeem your winning shares.
- Click on Portfolio to view your positions
- On your market positions, the action button will change from Trade to Redeem if the market has resolved.
- Click Redeem and Redeem Winnings
Polymarket Whales
Polymarket Whales is an independent website that tracks trades on the platform to broadcast it over Twitter. If you want to start trading regularly on Polymarket, it could be an useful resource.
Decentralized Betting
Blockchain based prediction markets are still a niche segment of crypto. They provide information that is available to everyone, unlike in a centralized market, where the platform could decide to withheld information to give them an advantage over market participants. Polymarket and Augur are two of the biggest platform of decentralized betting markets.
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