Congratulations Shayne, I mean it.
We all watched Polymarket grow from a tiny crypto-native betting market into one of the largest information oracles available to the public.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, Polymarket gave up on its values.
I was rugged for $500K by Polymarket after correctly predicting the future - that Microstrategy sold Bitcoin before May 31st. As anyone knows, Strategy sold Bitcoin for the first time in 3.5 years at the end of May. Your own platform's X account tweeted it out. The rules were clear, but "sharps" and insiders colluded to scam thousands of traders by modifying the rules, disqualifying evidence, and publicly rewriting history.
You chose to focus on the money - Sports+US Election markets over smaller crypto+world politics markets.
That's fine, but Polymarket is now essentially unusable for anyone who believes in your original vision - a free and open information oracle, futarchy as a public service, and the simple concept of making money by correctly predicting the future.
Insider cabals have taken over smaller markets and now rats, both inside and outside of your organization, abuse these for financial gain. If it's not a large market, there is no guarantee that it will not be manipulated, disputed, or challenged on technicality or supposed precedent.
Polymarket is essentially just another sportsbook now. And that is unfortunate, because it could have been so much more.
Today is the 6 year anniversary of when I launched Polymarket.
I’m truly grateful to be able to work on something that means so much to me.
It’s been awe-inspiring to see the world catch up with this crazy idea called “information markets”. Yet there still remains a long ways to go
For those curious about my headspace when starting the company, this thread is a nostalgic artifact.