Decentralization starts to impact more and more spheres of our everyday life. The Augur platform found its niche in creating the space where online prediction of events and betting is completely decentralized.
The Reputation token (REP) is Augur's utility token that largely serves to make predictions on real-life events made by other users. Holders are also eligible to receive payments in REP by staking tokens and reporting correct and incorrect outcomes of each event.
The peer-to-peer Augur protocol launched in 2018 is among the first fully-functioning decentralized applications built on Ethereum. However, in 2020, the development team commenced using on-chain oracles to reduce Ethereum transaction costs and increase speed. Being a decentralized platform, Augur minimizes fees so that most of the profit goes to users. That essential feature makes the platform stand out among traditional betting providers. In 2022, the project introduced AugurDAO, with REP becoming a governance token.