GateLive AMA Recap-Azuro

Q1. Why do you think prediction markets and crypto recently became so connected?

The answer here is quite simple—it’s time. Prediction markets were all the rage in 2017. One of the three main primitives in the ETH whitepaper. And then—ghost town, seemingly forever. But not anymore.

Polymarket has made peer-to-peer prediction markets work for the biggest social events like the US election. It’s taken them six years. They even got funded by Vitalik, as recently announced, and they’ll keep going. It’s one of the first wide-market signals of what’s coming. And Azuro is making peer-to-pool prediction markets work. That was thought impossible just two years ago. Sports markets. Onchain. With passive liquidity. All liquid, priced, resolved, and settled on Azuro. Sports have been the prediction markets’ holy grail since day one, actually.

Using EVM-compatible blockchains finally provides the needed infrastructure. Azuro has already shown it can thrive on these platforms, becoming the fastest-growing protocol and leading in revenue for months. This broad compatibility ensures seamless scalability and security, allowing Azuro to integrate into diverse ecos and drive blockchain-based prediction market adoption.

Q2. Tell us more about your personal vision of Azuro protocol and the main problems it solves.

Azuro is all about making prediction markets simple and accessible. It’s an on-chain protocol that provides advanced tools, oracle solutions, and a unique liquidity model. Developers can whip up apps quickly without any upfront costs. Think of it like a Lego set for prediction markets—you just snap the pieces together and you’ve got a business in hours instead of months.

Azuro tackles the big challenges of traditional prediction markets by being fully permissionless and secured by smart contracts. This means no gatekeepers and no hassles, just a smooth, secure way to build and participate in prediction markets. We are breaking down barriers and making the whole process efficient and transparent. It might sound cliche, I know, but it’s true.

Q3. Tell us more about the key data and numbers we should know about Azuro.

The protocol has been on a constant growth path since launch. To date, we support 28 user-facing applications. Out of these, 5 apps have pulled in their own revenue exceeding $100,000, with the top app raking in over $2 million. The protocol itself has hit a total predictions volume of over $377 million, with 28,000+ unique users coming from Azuro-run applications.

Azuro has processed a whopping 5M transactions, with 400K+ transactions just in the last month. Football and basketball dominate the sports prediction volumes, making up for nearly 70% and 19%, respectively, which matches global sports prediction market trends.

Q4. What do you think are the main features and functionality that make Azuro stand-alone?

One of the biggest hurdles we tackled at Azuro is liquidity. We came up with a peer-to-pool model that smartly allocates liquidity across various markets without putting LPs at risk. LPs don’t have to manually create markets or take on specific risks anymore.

Azuro runs completely permissionless, with all transactions and market activities handled by smart contracts. This means total transparency for everyone involved, from LPs to end users.
The peer-to-pool model is not just a great innovation for liquidity providers, it also expands the possibilities of what can be predicted overall.

By default, prediction markets relied upon a peer-to-peer model, meaning that you need counterparty liquidity to place a bet on a specific scenario. That’s incredibly limiting, as you might not find organic liquidity for all events. Azuro solves that through the peer-to-pool model, which can seamlessly allocate resources where needed.

Moreover, Azuro can roll with any EVM-compatible blockchain. We’ve already integrated with networks that get the on-chain prediction market game. Since its integration, Azuro has become one of the fastest movers on Gnosis and a multi-month revenue champ on Polygon PoS. We recently added support for Chiliz Chain, so we’re waiting to see how that plays out.

Q5. This April Azuro raised 11M from notable VCs. Tell us how you plan to use these raised funds.

Yeah, this April we announced an $11M raise, and we’ve got some heavy hitters backing us like SevenX Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Arrington Capital, Polymorphic Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Dewhales, and G1 Ventures. A lot of these guys have been with us since the seed round, so it’s awesome to see their ongoing support as we gear up for big milestones ahead.

We’re planning to use these funds to turbocharge eco development and expand Azuro’s offerings. There are still tons of untapped niches in the predictions industry that could bring in major revenue streams for Azuro-run businesses.