Will Ether (ETH) End 2018 above $500? and More Prediction...

Augur, a prediction market protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, hosted a number of prediction markets to wager on using crypto. Here are some of them.

Prediction markets are the perfect place for bettors who believe they can foresee the future, or at least have a hunch on what could potentially happen. For cryptocurrency owners who believe they can also do so, then Augur would be the right fit for them.

Augur is a decentralized oracle launched in 2014 that was built on top of smart contracts platform Ethereum. Carrying the name of a foreteller of events, Augur rewards bettors for correctly forecasting a given event.

To participate in Augur, bettors need to place a stake on a certain market of their choosing. That market asks a question that can be answered simply by either yes or no. Participants can place their bets by purchasing shares from either answer using Ether (ETH).

"Crypto Prediction Market Augur Is Gearing Up for Its First Major Upgrade" by @davidfloyd512 via @coindesk https://t.co/BOmktRGmef
— Augur (@AugurProject) October 5, 2018

Interested bettors have only two months remaining before placing a wager on several year-end prediction markets available on Augur. These markets vary from cryptocurrency-related predictions to sports, and even politics. Here are the three most popular ones on the platform.

Ether’s Year-End Price

The top market on Augur, active since January 1, asked whether ETH—the fuel running the Ethereum network—would surpass the US$500-level at the end of this year.

ETH was still the second-biggest virtual coin on the market, only behind the first-ever crypto, Bitcoin (BTC). As of October 30, ETH was trading at US$199.46 against the US dollar.

The last time ETH touched the US$500 mark was during a brief moment in July before the crypto eventually spiraled down to its current level. The odds were in favor of a negative answer.

Reputation Token’s December 31 Value

The second-biggest market asked a similar question to the first, except that this time, the question is about Augur’s Reputation token (REP). Bettors on this market can place a wager on whether REP can surpass US$32 before the calendars turn to 2019.

At the moment, REP is valued at US$14.18—a value more than half away from the price defined by the market. Similar to ETH, REP was also last trading around that given level in July. The odds suggest that REP would fail to reach US$32 come 2019.

US House Politics

The third largest is a query on which of the Republican or the Democratic parties will dominate the United States House after the upcoming midterm elections in the country. On November 6, registered voters from each of the 435 congressional districts in the US will elect a representative.

As of the moment, the Republicans have a majority stranglehold of the House, with around 35 seats more than the Democrats. However, many analysts predict that there would be a shift in dominance in this election. Statistics website FiveThirtyEight, for example, forecasted that there is an 80 percent chance the Democrats would win around 20 to 61 new seats, and an 86.4 percent chance that this Party would control the House.