Augur Launches New Platform, Introduces “REPv2” Token

On 29 June, Augur came out with an official statement about the launch of the Augur v2 platform. The event is set to take place on July 28^th, suggesting the immediate migration of Reputation Tokens.

The company announced that Augur v2 will introduce the use of a next-generation REP token called “REPv2”. To avoid unnecessary confusion, the current REP token will be renamed to “REPv1”. Crypto holders will have to manually migrate their coins to the new platform.

Augur is a Blockchain Prediction Application, working on the Ethereum mainnet. The Augur Protocol is licensed software, set of smart contracts written in Solidity, that allows users to create and bet on the outcome of any event. One of the main reasons for the creation of Augur v2 is the software problems that the platform experienced in the last two years.

A design flaw in their system allowed some users to run scams by settling their bets on the outcome of events before they have concluded. One such event was the market for the United States 2018 Midterm Elections, where more than $3 million have been placed on the question of whether the Democrat or the Republican party would control the House of Representatives. The settlement date was nearly four weeks before any leadership changes were put into effect.

By redesigning their entire trading app from the ground up, Augur suggests that trades can now happen in a matter of seconds. They claim to have the lowest available fees (~1%) among all blockchain betting platforms. Focusing mainly on the concept of decentralization, Augur is run and owned by its community of users, realizing no profits from the trades whatsoever.

In their announcement, Augur introduces the concept of “Use It or Lose It”, meaning that if a network-wide market fork ever occurs, token holders will be forced to participate in it within a 60-day period, otherwise their REPv1 or REPv2 will become forever unable to be used in any of the forked and future universes of Augur.

Forking is an event that is meant to happen as rarely as possible on the Augur v2. According to the official statement, in the first version of the platform, no market has ever neared the forking thresholds. The organization also reported that triggering a fork will cost an estimated $9.1 million, rendering REPv2 presumably worthless. Despite the risk of such an occurrence, the migration of the platform is said to improve the functions of the application and make it more reliable for users in the future.