Zeitgeist is an evolving blockchain for prediction markets and futarchy

Built on Substrate, Ready for Polkadot

Technology

Built on Substrate

Zeitgeist is built on top of the Substrate framework for building blockchains, the most advanced tech of its kind.

Permissionless and Unstoppable

No single entity controls the Zeitgeist network. It is based on peer-to-peer technology and distributed governance.

Zeitgeist is powered by ZTG. ZTG is the native currency of Zeitgeist that plays a critical role in market creation and resolution.

Scalable and Affordable

Since Zeitgeist is built on its own layer-1 chain with optimized runtime logic, it will be affordable even with high traffic.

How it Works

Create a Market

An individual, known as an aggregator, wishes to obtain a prediction on a particular variable. They create a new market and pose a question about the variable they want to test.

What will the price of Bitcoin be on December 31, 2020 at 23:59 UTC according to the CoinAPI feed?

Trade on Your Beliefs

Traders, whom each hold different views and information regarding the variable in question will take position in the market by buying market shares.

Report the Outcome

After the conclusion of the event, the designated oracle will report the outcome of the question to Zeitgeist.

Dispute False Reports

If any participant sees that the designated oracle reported incorrectly, they may start a dispute of the market by challenging it in a decentralized court.

Redeem Your Shares

Once the market outcome is finalized, traders who took the correct position in the market can exchange their shares for 1 ZTG. Traders who took the wrong position will have shares that are worth nothing.

Governed by Users

Zeitgeist is governed by the holders of the ZTG using a mix of normal token voting and a new futarchy model. Zeitgeist eats its own dogfood by making governance decisions via prediction market based futarchy.

An Evolving Protocol

Zeitgeist is an evolving network that will change and adapt over time. It does this through a sophisticated on-chain governance process.

Powered by Futarchy

Zeitgeist uses prediction markets based futarchy to determine its direction and policy. Game theory says that this should be more efficient than token voting alone.

Court

The court is the native dispute resolution system.

Holders of ZTG can stake their tokens in order to join the pool of jurors. These jurors are randomly selected whenever an oracle dispute is made for a particular market.

The jurors of the court will be charged in selecting the real outcome of the market. Court decisions can be challenge, which increasingly expands the number of jurors that are selected - each time raising the stakes.

If jurors are found by a later appeal to have resolved an oracle decision incorrectly, they will be slashed.

After a number of quorums are created and asked the real outcome of a market, if there is still a dispute the case will move to a global vote by all ZTG holders to report the outcome.

Applications

Sports and eSports

Sports and eSports betting sites can allow fans to further share in the excitement of their favorite team by allowing them to trade positions in real time.

Politics

Prediction markets on politics are one of the best mechanisms for aggregating information about political races that we know of. They also allow you to hedge again possible outcomes.

Cryptocurrency

The prices of cryptocurrency are notoriously volatile. Zeitgeist allows traders to take long or short positions on cryptocurrency prices, creating a pseudo-financial contract.

Insurance

Markets for various events can act as decentralized insurance by hedging outcomes.

Startups

It's difficult to predict whether a particular startup may succeed. Prediction markets can help by allowing traders to take position on the success or failure of them.

Futarchy

Organizations can run their entire decision making process on-chain by acting on the information aggregating principles of prediction markets.

Roadmap

Team

We have extensive experience in blockchain and prediction markets.

Logan Saether

Founder / CEO

David Perry

CIO

Chris Hutchinson

CMO

Caio Fernandes

Blockchain Developer

Tvrtko Majstorovic

Front-End Developer

Francisco Manuel De Pablo (Numa)

Researcher in Economics

Harald Heckmann

Blockchain Developer

James Preston

Marketing Communications Manager

Patrick Irwin (Bob)

Community Manager

Whisker Yu

China Ecosystem Lead

Anityam Kalita (Alex)

Community Ambassador

Advisors

Anson Lau

China Ecosystem

Investors

And others

FAQs

Have questions? We have the answers.

What is a prediction market?

A prediction market is a speculative market that allows traders to take position on possible future outcomes.

Will Zeitgeist become a parachain?

Zeitgeist may become a Polkadot parachain later down the line since being built on Substrate allows it to do so fairly easily.

What ensures the security of the Zeitgeist network?

Since Zeitgeist is targetting Kusama as its Relay Chain that will enable crosschain functionality, Zeitgeist will inherit its security from the validators of the Kusama network.

How does Zeitgeist use futarchy?

Zeitgeist will operate its own governance system with a mix of token voting and futarchy. Additionally, Zeitgeist will allow DAOs that operate on its own platform to employ futarchy using its native prediction markets.

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