The Stox prediction market platform is an open source platform based on decentralised, blockchain technology on the Ethereum network.The Stox prediction market platform provides a social, peer-to-peer trading experience, where users can create events and make predictions via the platform, in respect of those events. Essentially, as an open source platform, Stox enables users to forecast events based on the wisdom of the crowd, about almost anything including sports, politics and crypto markets. Stox offers users an easy way to join cryptocurrency markets with the STX digital token powering the Stox prediction market platform. The STX token is at the centre of all activity on the Stox network and serves to pay fees, collateral and as the currency for investing in event outcomes. Significantly, the supply of STX tokens is fixed and was generated entirely during the token launch event. We were impressed to see that Stox is compatible with all interfaces and major operating systems. The objective of the Stox project is to see Stox become the leading decentralised prediction market platform in the industry. Especially with a thriving ecosystem of users, creating events and predicting event outcomes. The Stox website and trading platform are operated by Stox Technologies Ltd registered at Suite 23, Portland House, Glacis Road, GX11 1AA Gibraltar.
Account Features
To set a Stox trading account, users need to give a name, nickname, email address and a password. Following account registration, in order to wager with ‘real money’ on the trading platform, traders go to the ‘my account’ page to create a smart wallet contract. Towards the end of this review, we describe exactly how the Stox smart wallet contract is set up under the heading ‘Stox prediction market platform funding methods’. We saw that a Stox smart wallet contract utilises STX tokens for wagering on the prediction market platform. The STX token is the primary digital token on the Stox open source platform and traded on several cryptocurrency exchanges indicated on the Stox dashboard under the ‘Resources’ tab. At the time of writing this review, the list included Liqui, Bancor, CEX.com, gate.io, HitBTC, KUCoin, coinexchange.io, EtherDelta, Hong Kong Shangya Exchange, Quoine and changelly. After funding their Stox accounts, users may go to the predictions page, where a broad range of events and questions associated with those events are posted. They can choose to wager on any number of events with STX tokens, by harnessing the wisdom of the crowd or based on personal intuition.
Trade for Fun with Demo Funds on the Stox Platform
Traders can register with the Stox platform and before setting up a smart wallet contract with funds, they can try out the market prediction platform for free. Users are allocated demo STX tokens for fun trading and can proceed to setting up a STX wallet for funded trades only if they are happy with the fun trading experience.
Trading Software & Assets
By registering an account with Stox, anyone can connect to the open-source, decentralised platform and post a trade by submitting a prediction and wagering with STX tokens. Traders who profit from making predictions on the Stox platform, pay a trading fee on the eventual profits. The fee is shown clearly with each event on the prediction page and appears to be around 1%.
We saw that ‘events’ on the Stox prediction market platform are defined as speculative questions about the future, across almost any imaginable category. As long as events have ‘discrete and well-defined numbers of potential outcomes,’ they can be included on the Stox platform. Users trade on the Stox platform by submitting predictions about the outcome of numerous everyday events posted there, including weather, sports, finance, TV series and political events. Interestingly, the Stox platform is aimed at regular people who don’t have special knowledge or expertise in any of the event categories. As users come to the platform and submit predictions, STX token reserves are allocated to each event.
How Does the Stox Platform Create Prediction Patterns?
The Stox market prediction platform creates prediction patterns through an algorithm that is constantly assessing what ‘the crowd’ is thinking about every specified event posted on the platform. The algorithm is dynamic, which means that the assessments of events and subsequent prediction patterns and constantly evolving. Importantly, new assessments of the events posted on the platform, are made based on daily occurring events, and subsequent changes in crowd thinking. Updated assessments lead to new prediction patterns for each specified event and revised wagering prices. The platform indicates the percentage of users who have the same opinion about an event and creates trading prices for each event posted on the platform. As the opinion of the crowd changes, the expected results are adjusted on the platform. When the event date arrives, the closer the predictions are to the final result, the greater the reward paid out to traders who submitted predictions. Significantly, when a prediction is initialized, a reliable person is chosen to act as an oracle and block-chain report the final result of the prediction. Anybody who wants to challenge the result has 24 hours to appeal against the oracle’s report. However, the person filing the complaint must pay some STX tokens to show that the complaint is not false. We found the straightforward complaint process demonstrates transparency and the reliability of the Stox market prediction platform.
How are Events Added to the Stox Prediction Market Platform?
Stox has a unique ecosystem of providers, operators and users. Providers drive traffic into the ecosystem and develop new apps based on the original open source app developed by Stox. Operators are more visible as they create manage and resolve events on the blockchain, whilst users simply submit predictions on the platform. The platform potentially incentivises everybody participating in the ecosystem, with STX tokens. From the people who provide events on the platform in different markets and categories, to the users who wager on events using the wisdom of the crowd.
What is the Stox Cup?
An exciting aspect of trading on the Stox prediction market platform is the fun, community spirit generated on the platform by the monthly Stox Cup tournament. Stox lets traders test their brain power and prediction capabilities against other players in the Stox community. It does this by placing traders who make the most profit every month from placing predictions, on a leader board accord to the profits generated. Every STX token made in profit is converted to one Brain Power credit and the total number of BP points contribute to the ranking on the leader board. At the end of each month, Stox rewards the top 150 positions on the Stox Cup leader board with real STX digital token prizes for wagering on the platform. Importantly, to qualify for the Stox Cup tournament, players need to make correct predictions on events with ‘Win Real STX Tokens’ written across them or be placed within the winning ranks on the leader board.
What is the Stox Peer-to Peer App?
Stox is busy developing a fully functional prediction market app, which will be open source, to give everybody in the Stox ecosystem, on-chain access to Stox smart contracts over Ethereum. Importantly, the app will provide access to everything on the website, including content and listings from a decentralised cloud storage.
Support Information
Users can make enquiries about the site and/or the platform, to the team at Stox Technologies Ltd. The email address is provided in the terms and conditions on the Stox website.
Banking & Company Information
Importantly, traders cannot wager on the Stox blockchain prediction market platform with traditional currency or any type of cryptocurrency other than the STX digital token. To fund a trading account on the Stox market prediction platform, users are required to have a personal Ethereum wallet and a Stox smart contract wallet. The Ethereum wallet can be set up on the Stox ‘my account’ page. Subsequently, a Stox smart contract wallet is immediately created for the user, so that funds can be transferred between the Ethereum wallet and the Stox smart contract wallet. The Ethereum wallet is automatically converted into STX tokens when it is transferred to the Stox smart contract wallet. We saw that the Stox wallet is created quickly in an easy, intuitive process, using the customer’s input. Notably the user must copy the private Ethereum wallet address and paste it into the box indicated during the Stox smart contract wallet creation process. After the user confirms the Ethereum wallet address, the personal Stox smart contract wallet is created and ready for use. Essentially, the Stox smart contract wallet is needed for sending STX tokens to and from the Stox trading platform. Moreover, profits made from trading on the Stox platform are paid in STX tokens and placed automatically in the user’s personal Stox smart contract wallet.