In a genius marketing move, Polymarket – an Ethereum blockchain-based prediction platform made a bet to the Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, challenging him regarding the progress on his own platform. The bet is simple and asks the following question. Will Cardano support smart contracts on Mainnet by October 1st, 2021? It started with Mr. Hoskinson first quoting the Polymarket bet page and saying how these people make him laugh.
You people really make me laughhttps://t.co/f0W1hULrBw
How did Polymarket Respond?
Polymarket responded by placing the actual bet on July 15, declaring that more funny than the bet is Cardano still not having any smart contract functionality. Cardano has been in development since 2015 and is slated to have smart contracts supported by this year’s end. That wasn’t all! They also bet the billionaire $50,000 to actually “put his money where his mouth is!” by taking the opposite side of the bet that the blockchain isn’t likely to feature smart contracts by Oct 2021.
You know what's really funny, Charles? @Cardano still not having smart contracts
We'll bet you $50,000 on Polymarket that you won't have live smart contracts for Cardano $ADA by Oct 1st
Time to put your money where your mouth is, Charles. Winnings go to charity of choice https://t.co/PPDN5oJCEb
Mr. Charles Hoskinson hasn’t responded so far, not a very confident tell, as far as the reaction goes. Since his foundation directly oversees the development of the blockchain, it could mean that he’s not certain if smart contracts functionality can come as early as a year. Polymarket team also said that the winnings can go to the charity of the winner’s choice, turning the bet into something more than a “competitor’s spite”.
Polymarket Quick Stats
So far, there’s more than $283,000 trading volume on the bet and it has total liquidity of $47,000+. This might be a genius move to draw attention to the betting platform by getting a winning outcome, regardless of which way the bet goes. If Cardano founder wins, Polymarket loses $50,000 and If he loses, Polymarket wins $50,000. However marketing-wise, they get the supreme attention either way. The betting page defines the parameters of the bet as under:
This is a market on if Cardano Mainnet will be live and supporting smart contract deployment and functionality by October 1st, 2021, 12 PM ET. In Cardano’s official roadmap, this is referred to as Goguen. This market will resolve to “Yes” if it is possible to create and execute functional smart contracts on the Cardano network on a “Mainnet” by the resolution date. This includes token deployment, and does not include staking functionality or consensus mechanisms. In the event of ambiguity in terms of the market outcome, the market will be resolved in good faith at the sole discretion of the Markets Integrity Committee (MIC).
Will Charles Hoskinson take the bet on his own platform?