Polymarket - prediction markets gettn' out of hand?

[peter]

been seeing Polymarket mentioned everywhere lately so figured id check it out. its a prediction market where you bet on outcomes of various events. politics, sports, crypto prices, basically anything
the interesting part is its p2p - you're betting aginst other users not against a house. platform just facilitates the market

couple questions for anyone who's used it:

1. they convert everything to USDC.e on polygon. whats the deal with that? is it safe?
2. they claim to be decentralized but you cant export your keys. how is that decentralized?
3. can anyone create markets or do you need permission?

not promoting it just curious how it actually works since everyone talks about it but nobody explains the technical side

 

[HarryvdV]

Used it during the US election, worked fine. USDC.e is just bridged USDC on polygon. Should be safe as it's backed 1:1 by real USDC locked on ethereum.
Regarding decentralization - it's not really decentralized despite marketing. You get an address generated for you which they control. Classic web3 buzzword usage.

Markets are created by Polymarket team, not open to everyone. So definitely centralized in that sense.

 

[goodoldfiat]

the "decentralized" claim is pure marketing. they use smart contracts for settlement but platform itself is centralized. they decide which markets to list, they control resolution, they can ban users
basically a normal betting platform that uses blockchain for payments. nothing wrong with that but dont call it decentralized

 

[HaasS.]

Biggest issue is insider trading imo saw someone bet huge amount on trump winning PA like week before election. odds were bad but they knew something
with geopolitical events its even worse. people with inside info can make millions

 

[cryptowine]

Biggest issue is insider trading imo saw someone bet huge amount on trump winning PA like week before election. odds were bad but they knew something
with geopolitical events its even worse. people with inside info can make millions

yeah the geopolitical betting markets are sketchy af something like betting on whether missiles will hit israel? who tf thinks that''s appropriate