What is Polymarket? How a Polygon Early Adopter Became the Official Prediction Market on X

Today, X announced that Polymarket, the crypto-native predictions market platform built on Polygon PoS, will be the official prediction market partner for the social media giant. Together, Polymarket and X are launching an integrated product providing Polymarket users with data-driven insights and actionable recommendations.

With $14B in total predictions volume, Polymarket exposes ~600M monthly active X users to a decentralized prediction market. The partnership acts as an easy onboarding route to the broader Polygon ecosystem. 

Polymarket's ascent into mainstream popularity underscores its value as a reliable platform for transparent forecasting.

What is Polymarket? A decentralized approach to prediction markets

The supposed painpoints of crypto are advantages in Polymarket’s unique architecture.

Polymarket provides a decentralized, blockchain-powered platform for users to make predictions. Running on the Polygon Proof-of-Stake network, Polymarket prioritizes transparency, security, and cost-effectiveness. 

Blockchain gives Polymarket an edge over centralized competitors by enabling streamlined user experience. 

And that user experience got a bump with today’s announcement.

Key features include:

• Onchain data: Every prediction is verifiable on the blockchain, offering clear proof and building trust.
• Self-custody: Users maintain full control of their funds using Safe, significantly improving trust.
• Decentralized dispute resolution: UMA's Optimistic Oracle enables fair, unbiased resolution without relying on central authorities.
• Efficient transactions: Polygon gives Polymarket fast and low-cost transactions, providing a frictionless user experience.

Better user experience with data-driven insights

As part of the partnership, Polymarket and X are launching a jointly developed integrated product that combines Polymarket's prediction probabilities with X’s real-time data and insights provided by Grok. Users will see live market annotations and contextual insights directly related to current events, enabling informed and timely decision-making.

What this means for X users

With Polymarket integrated directly into X, users gain immediate, frictionless access to accurate predictions and real-time market insights. This partnership enhances how users understand breaking news, politics, sports, and entertainment, empowering better-informed decisions.

Polymarket’s integration with X highlights a significant milestone: a major mainstream corporation adopting crypto technology at scale. Polymarket has emerged as the poster child for true product-market fit in blockchain applications, setting the standard for breakout decentralized apps. As a result, crypto will increasingly shape conversations online, often without users even realizing they're engaging with blockchain technology.

A major benefit of this integration helps seamlessly onboard X users to the broader Polygon ecosystem. 

Upcoming upgrades to Polygon bring higher throughput

Upgrades to Polygon, which will be detailed in more depth in a forthcoming roadmap, increase TPS to 1000 and cut finality to ~5s (see PIPs 60 and 43). 

These improvements increase stablecoin velocity and help breakthrough apps like Polymarket thrive. As the lead chain for stablecoins, Polygon’s technical upgrades will index on capacity for financial transactions like payments, RWAs, and predictions. 

A faster chain, a better user experience.