Augur's Revamped Predictions Platform Launches Next Month With a New Token

Blockchain predictions platform Augur is launching a new version of its protocol next month, but users will have to migrate to a new token if they want to use it.

The company announced Monday the "v2" rollout has been slated for release on July 28, and will represent an entirely new deployment of the Augur core protocol on the Ethereum network.

Augur v1 will continue to exist in its current form independently on Ethereum, as it has no "escape hatch or method of halting trading activity on the protocol or of the REP token," the company said.

Augur v2 will offer a new version of the platform's native REP token called "REPv2," with REPs renamed "REPv1." Current token holders are being asked to manually migrate to the new REPv2 token in order to participate in the new platform's reporting system.

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Action is only required by REP holders after Augur's v2 deployment has gone live. A migration tool will be provided within the platform's user interface, along with a tutorial on how to carry out the swap.

The new upgrade will also reintroduce a concept known as "Use it or Lose it" whereby all REPv1 and REPv2 holders will need to participate in a potential future network-wide fork of its system. If users fail to participate within the 60-day forking grace period they will be unable to use their REP tokens to participate in future forks of the project.

The predictions market said the forking of its project is the "crux" of its security model and is intended to be an "extremely rare event" with no market in Augur v1 nearing forking thresholds.

"Currently, triggering a fork would cost approximately $9,100,000 (550,000 REP at $16.50), rendering the 'losing' side of the forks REPv2 presumably worthless," the firm said.

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Augur's decentralized prediction market project aims to use “the wisdom of the crowds” to create accurate forecasts for different scenarios.

In 2019, blockchain prediction market startup Veil deployed a new version of Augur called AugurLite, created to support bets on the upcoming (at the time) U.S. presidential election.