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by olefoo
4586 days ago
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That's awesome. People never cease to amaze. To be clear, I was suggesting that someone setup a full-blown futures market; not a prediction market ( which is the most neutered form of a derivative market, as near as I can tell ). If you denominated the contracts entirely in BTC it might even be legal... And if you had some enforcement mechanism (anything from shaming to gangsters giving amateur dental work to defectors), it might even work. The question of whether a Bitcoin futures market would be more volatile if denominated in dollars or BTC is left as an exercise for the reader. |
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So, if you short shares, it locks up the full amount you would owe if your prediction is wrong. Going long only takes the amount of the bet (since that's all you can lose). It's kinda confusing and difficult for me to wrap my head around it, honestly, so I probably won't be doing a lot of that sort of thing.
But, it is a necessary part of the economy, I think. Having markets for all sorts of risk provides the ability to hedge against volatility. I don't think Predictious is really doing that, right now...it's sort of a thinking mans gambling site, as far as I can tell. Which is, as you note, less exciting and interesting than a proper futures and derivatives market.
But, legality is definitely up in the air. Americans can't participate in Intrade, for example, so I guess futures markets aren't legal in the US. I'm gonna guess that once Bitcoin looks like a currency to the US government there might be a stink about Predictious, too. I'm sure I'll be bored of the concept before then.