Thanks to the integration, incentives for participating in and monitoring Polkadot governance decisions will grow. This should drive greater decentralized voting by token-holders, maximizing community engagement. It will also add some spice to the outcome of decisions, giving Zeitgeist users a direct financial incentive to keep tabs of Polkadot activity.

Transforming the Zeitgeist for Polkadot Governance

Zeitgeist features dozens of prediction markets covering everything from the likelihood of blockchain exploits to the outcome of sporting events. Current markets include whether Tyson Fury will beat Oleksandr Usyk in their February 17 bout; whether Blast Bridge will be exploited; and whether SBF will be sentenced to 50 years or more.

Polkadot governance decisions are also now eligible for the prediction market treatment. Governance-related markets are already live on Zeitgeist. One concerns whether Referendum 385, a community memecoin marketing campaign, will pass and if so whether the proposers will deliver on the promises made in the proposal. So far, the market has accrued 3.35K in DOT volume.

Another governance market that’s live concerns whether Lunar agency will deliver on Proposal 385 concerning $DED marketing. As Polkadot activist Giotto De Filippi urges, “The implied probability is that the delivery is 90% likely. If you’re a critic of Lunar I encourage you to bet against and take the money.”

Gamifying Governance One Vote at a Time

Within any blockchain ecosystem, governance decisions create winners and losers. While some proposals pass virtually unopposed, others are highly contentious. For example, the “whale wars” that were ignited over Polkadot OpenGov saw major stakeholders clash in governance decisions. Thanks to Zeitgeist, more members of the Polkadot community can participate in governance indirectly through having skin in the game.

Zeitgeist CEO Logan Saether explains:

“The integration allows easy access to ongoing referenda, with an added feature for making predictions on the proposal’s outcome. We’re aiming for most of these markets to be denominated in DOT, facilitating participation for the Polkadot community.”

Zeitgeists’s prediction markets will be directly integrated into the Polkassembly user interface. This means that users of the Polkadot OpenGov system will be able to leverage their insights to make predictions and be rewarded every time they accurately call the outcome.

There’s money to be made from mastering the art of prediction markets. The Zeitgeist leaderboard charts the top earners for the year to date. Top of the leaderboard is Valkyrie, who has participated in 10 markets and won almost $1,000. The next entrant has participated in an impressive 26 markets and earned more than $500 so far.

The teams at Zeitgeist and Polkassembly are now finalizing the integration which is expected to be completed soon, heralding a new era for Polkadot governance.