Getting Started on catnip
This tutorial assumes that you have never used a decentralized app. As you’ll see, the experience is not so different from using any web app. You will just need a standard browser like Firefox or Chrome and a browser extension.
Once you have read this tutorial, you will be ready to trade on the catnip election market with the free $200 worth of shares you’ll be gifted as part of this promotional campaign.
What is catnip?
catnip is a new prediction market site. It’s built with crypto tech but unlike other crypto apps, it’s simple to use and trading is done with a stable coin instead of a volatile cryptocurrency.
catnip is built on top of Augur, a decentralized prediction market platform that runs on Ethereum. catnip is a community powered and open source project. For more context on Ethereum and Augur, see this.
What are the benefits of catnip?
No limits - trade as much as you want!
Zero fees on profit, zero withdrawal fees, and very low transaction fees
Fully non-custodial - you are never trusting anyone else with your funds
Trading can never be halted
How does catnip trading work?
On catnip, you trade using DAI, a digital currency that tracks the US dollar. One DAI equals ~one dollar.
catnip is starting off with just one market that asks “Will Trump win the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election?”
catnip lets you use DAI to buy YES shares also called yTrump tokens or NO shares, called nTrump tokens. You can also trade yTrump for nTrump or vice-versa.
If Trump wins, each yTrump token will be redeemable for 1 DAI (1 USD) while each nTrump will pay out nothing. If Trump does *not* win, each nTrump will be redeemable for 1 DAI (1 USD) while yTrump tokens will pay out nothing.
Under the hood, catnip uses an automated market maker. This means that prices are automatically adjusted, based on supply and demand.
As part of this tutorial, you will be gifted 200 yTrump and 200 nTrump. At the time of writing, 1 yTrump is worth ~0.36 DAI, meaning the market gives Trump 36% odds of winning the election.
Think this is mispriced and want to make money? Sell your yTrump for nTrump. Don’t know, don’t care, just want to cash out the free $200? Exchange your yTrump and/or nTrump shares for DAI and withdraw that in USD to your bank account.
Whatever you do, you’ll know how to use catnip and will be ready to bet on this market or others it supports in the future.
Make your first trade…
Note: please use desktop to access catnip
1. Install Metamask browser extension
Metamask basically enhances your browser so that it can speak the Ethereum language. It also serves as a wallet for your funds on Ethereum.
a. Download metamask here.
b. Once installed, click on the fox icon at the right of your address bar. This will open the Metamask flow for creating a new wallet. Follow the steps, and don’t forget to back up your seed phrase in a safe way as it suggests.
2. Claim your FREE shares
Once your Metamask is set up, click on the fox icon to view your account. Then copy your wallet address as depicted below.
Now, join this discord and message the metamask address to catnip#4485. $200 worth of yTrump and nTrump tokens will be sent to you along with some ETH to cover transaction fees so that you can try out Catnip.
Please note: this part is done manually, so it may take some time. You’ll be notified on Discord once your gifted funds have been sent.
Once your funds have been received, you can move on to the next step.
3. Connect to catnip
Now, go on catnip.exchange.
Click the blue “Connect Wallet” button. This lets your metamask account interact with catnip.
You should now see something like this (note: this is in dark mode which you can toggle on at the top right)
4. Select outcome and amount to trade
You have equal parts yTrump and nTrump, so whichever outcome you do *not* want, you can now swap for the other outcome or for DAI.
For example, if you you believe Trump will win the election or that his current market odds are too low, you can swap your nTrump tokens for yTrump at the current market price.
In this case, select NO in the “From” section of the swap UI. And select YES in the “To” section.
Now, enter the amount of nTrump you want to swap. This will automatically populate the lower field to tell you how much yTrump you can get in exchange.
At the bottom it will also show you the price per share, in this case the amount of nTrump per yTrump. The greater the amount you are swapping in, the higher the price per share. Below that it will show the implied odds.
5. Approve trading
Click the “Swap” button.
If you’re doing this for the first time, Metamask will open asking you to allow catnip to spend your nTrump or yTrump (if it doesn’t open, just click on the fox icon).
This simply means that because you are in full custody of your funds, you have to approve the transfer of your holdings by catnip.
All transactions on Ethereum require a network fee to process, also called “gas,” paid in ETH, the currency of the Ethereum network. Metamask will display the maximum gas cost you will pay. You’ll already have ETH in your wallet from us to cover this and other transactions, so you should be good to go.
Click “Confirm” and wait for the transaction to be confirmed by the Ethereum network. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to minutes, but generally no more than a few minutes. If need be, you can speed up the transaction by paying more gas.
Once the transaction is confirmed, you’ll see a confirmation in the top right of the screen.
6. Make the trade!
Click “Swap” a second time. Now Metamask will pop open — if it doesn’t just click on the metamask icon.
You’ll see something like this:
Click the “Confirm” button, and wait for the transaction to process.
Once your transaction is confirmed, you’ll see your balances update on the upper right of the page. You can also click “show in wallet” to display them in metamask.
You’ve now made your first trade on catnip, congrats!
Keep trading
These steps are the same whether you want to swap nTrump<>DAI or yTrump<>DAI.
For example, imagine you have bought yTrump with DAI at 0.35 per yTrump and the market is now pricing these tokens at 0.60 per because Trump’s polls have gone up. You may be happy with that +70% profit and want to exit the market now without waiting for the market to settle. You can follow the instructions above to sell your yTrump for DAI and then withdraw your DAI for USD to your bank account using one of the major reputable crypto exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken.
You may refuel your Metamask account with some ETH via credit card and exchange these ETH for DAI, or use Coinbase to buy ETH and DAI via a wire transfer at lower fees. You can then send funds from coinbase to your metamask wallet.
For more questions on catnip, visit our Discord.