Prediction Markets Platform Becomes First Dapp on xDai Sidechain

Helena goes live on the xDai sidechain to speed up transactions, reduce gas cost, and revamp Ethereum UX

Helena, an Ethereum-based platform that leverages the power of global prediction markets to deliver real-time quantified blockchain insights, is proud to announce that it is now the first full decentralized application (dapp) to go live on the xDai sidechain, significantly improving the user experience by making transactions faster and cheaper. The average block time on the xDai sidechain is 5 seconds, and gas price is fixed at 1 Gwei and paid with the xDai stablecoin.

The xDai Chain is an Ethereum-based blockchain, created by POA Network in partnership with MakerDAO, that uses USD-stable xDai (a representation of Dai token) as the native coin of the network and leverages the Proof of Autonomy consensus model, in which the validator set is managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). xDai was recently used at ETHDenver as a platform for the burner wallet, which allowed thousands of attendees to seamlessly buy food and transfer funds.

Ethereum User Experience 2.0

“With xDai, we wanted to create an Ethereum 1.0 complimentary network without launching a highly volatile and competing token,” said Igor Barinov, Tech Lead of POA Network. “We love Ethereum and our aim is to see it grow as much as possible. Helena is an early adopter that is reaping the rewards of the xDai Chain as it is cost-efficient, fast, and serves effectively as a USD stable network. We look forward to seeing more dapps like Helena join the xDai ecosystem.”

Users can now go to the Helena interface and sign up with MetaMask. Users’ accounts will be whitelisted within 24 hours and they will receive 2000 xP+ tokens to participate in prediction markets. xP+ tokens are essentially zero value reputation tokens used to track performance on the xDai sidechain. Helena will also send the first 500 users 1 xDai each. xDai is the USD stablecoin that is a representation of DAI but lives on xDai Chain, instead of Ethereum Mainnet. 1 xDai would allow a user to pay for more than 1000 transactions.

“We spent the past days since our beta launch exploring various options to solve the high gas fee problem and improve the user experience. After careful consideration, we decided to go with a sidechain solution for daily transactions while syncing key data with Ethereum Mainnet on a frequent basis,” said Mark Ziade, CEO of Helena. “Given its recent success, strong commitment to the Ethereum ecosystem, and future plans for decentralization, we have partnered with the xDai Chain, becoming the first full dapp live on xDai. In fact, not forgetting that we are still in beta mode, we believe we now have one of the best dapp UX in the Ethereum ecosystem today.”

Helena now has 10 active prediction markets in which users can participate. The markets cover everything, from topics about the ETH hash rate to the total capacity of the Bitcoin Lightning Network to total DAI in circulation. At the end of each month, the total score of each user will be stored on Ethereum Mainnet as an immutable reputation score and compensation will be distributed on Ethereum Mainnet to the top performers.

Load Balancing and Decentralization

Helena’s move to the xDai sidechain keeps the Ethereum Mainnet interaction limited to essential data and improves user experience by speeding up transactions and reducing gas cost, which allows the platform to scale. Helena remains fully committed to decentralization and will be working with the xDai Chain and POA Network team to further decentralize the sidechain.

Follow us on Twitter at @HelenaNetwork for updates on the platform and the latest blockchain predictions. If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to us via email at helena.network@helena.network. We can’t wait to see what the cryptosphere predicts.