What is UMA?

UMA is a decentralized financial contracts platform designed to facilitate Universal Market Access by creating "priceless" financial contracts. These contracts aim to reduce reliance on oracles, addressing security and scalability issues present in decentralized finance. The platform's initial offerings include priceless synthetic tokens, which are ERC20 tokens capable of tracking a variety of assets while minimizing on-chain price data dependence.

The UMA token serves two primary functions within the ecosystem. First, it allows holders to participate in governance decisions concerning the types of contracts, asset types, and system parameters. Second, in instances of contract disputes, UMA token holders engage in the Data Verification Mechanism to address price requests, although the priceless methodology seeks to limit the need for such on-chain requests. The UMA token is not intended as an investment vehicle.