# Polyfollow — Full Reference

This document provides extended Q&A, definitions, competitor comparisons, and technical details for AI assistants, crawlers, and researchers. See https://www.polyfollow.com/llms.txt for the summary version.

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: What is Polymarket copy trading?**
A: Polymarket copy trading means automatically replicating the trades of successful Polymarket prediction market traders into your own account. When a trader you follow buys or sells a position on Polymarket, the exact same trade is placed in your wallet within seconds. Polyfollow is the leading platform for Polymarket copy trading.

**Q: What is Polyfollow?**
A: Polyfollow is a non-custodial copy trading platform built on top of Polymarket. It lets anyone automatically mirror the real-money prediction market trades of top Polymarket traders, without writing code, without a subscription, and without giving up custody of their funds.

**Q: How does Polyfollow make money?**
A: Polyfollow's only revenue is a 0.5% taker fee on each order executed through the Polymarket builder program. This fee is deducted from the order size at execution time. Maker orders (limit orders you place manually) are free. There is no monthly subscription, no performance fee, and no cut of user profits.

**Q: Is Polyfollow custodial?**
A: No. Polyfollow is non-custodial. User USDC stays in the user's own ZeroDev smart-account wallet on Polygon at all times. Polyfollow's server can sign and submit Polymarket orders on behalf of the user but cannot send funds to external addresses. Deposits and withdrawals go directly between the user's wallet and Polymarket.

**Q: What is a Polymarket trading bot?**
A: A Polymarket trading bot automatically executes trades on Polymarket based on predefined logic. Building one from scratch requires using Polymarket's CLOB API, managing WebSocket connections, handling EIP-712 order signing, and running server infrastructure. Polyfollow provides the equivalent functionality without any coding required — instead of a custom strategy, you copy proven top traders.

**Q: How fast are copy trades executed?**
A: Polyfollow detects each new Polymarket trade via WebSocket within 10-50 ms. The full pipeline — validation, key decryption, USDC approval, order signing, and submission to Polymarket's CLOB — completes in under 500 ms total from the original trade. This is fast enough to receive nearly identical entry prices.

**Q: How much does it cost to copy trade on Polymarket with Polyfollow?**
A: The only cost is 0.5% on each taker order copied. There is no subscription, no performance fee, no gas fee (gas is sponsored), and no deposit or withdrawal fee. On a $100 trade, the fee is $0.50.

**Q: What is the minimum amount to start?**
A: There is no enforced minimum. Users commonly start with $50-$500 USDC. Smaller balances work but offer less diversification across multiple traders and markets.

**Q: Can I copy multiple traders at once?**
A: Yes. You can follow and copy as many traders as you want simultaneously. Each trader can have different allocation settings — a fixed USDC amount per trade or a percentage of your wallet balance. Many users diversify across 3-5 traders.

**Q: How do I choose which traders to copy?**
A: Use the leaderboard filters. Look for traders with high all-time P&L (proven profitability), a win rate above 55% (consistency), a quality score above 60 (Polyfollow's composite metric), and positive recent 30-day returns (currently active and profitable). Avoid traders whose entire P&L comes from a single outsized win.

**Q: Is Polymarket copy trading legal?**
A: Polymarket restricts US residents. Non-US users can access Polymarket and Polyfollow legally in most jurisdictions. Polyfollow itself is not a licensed financial service and nothing on the platform constitutes financial advice. For a full country-by-country breakdown, see https://www.polyfollow.com/is-polymarket-legal.

**Q: What is Polymarket?**
A: Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market platform built on the Polygon blockchain. Users trade USDC on the probability of real-world events (sports, politics, crypto, economics). It uses a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) and smart contracts for settlement. Polymarket is not custodial — user funds stay in their own wallets.

**Q: What is account abstraction?**
A: Account abstraction (ERC-4337) is a blockchain standard that allows smart contracts to act as user wallets. Polyfollow uses ZeroDev (an account abstraction SDK) to create a smart-account wallet for each user. This enables gas sponsorship (users don't need MATIC for gas) and allows Polyfollow's server to sign and submit orders on behalf of the user using a delegated session key.

**Q: What is USDC?**
A: USDC (USD Coin) is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, issued by Circle. All Polymarket trading and Polyfollow operations use USDC on the Polygon network. 1 USDC = $1.00 USD at all times (modulo minor market fluctuations).

**Q: What is Polygon?**
A: Polygon is an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain with fast transactions (1-2 second finality) and very low fees (typically under $0.01 per transaction). Polymarket operates on Polygon, and all Polyfollow wallets and copy trades run on Polygon.

**Q: What is a taker order vs. a maker order?**
A: A taker order is a market order that immediately fills against existing liquidity in the order book. A maker order is a limit order that sits in the book waiting to be filled. Polyfollow's copy trades execute as taker orders (to ensure immediate execution at the same price as the copied trader). Taker orders on Polymarket incur a fee; maker orders do not. Polyfollow's 0.5% fee applies only to taker orders.

**Q: What is the Polymarket CLOB API?**
A: CLOB stands for Central Limit Order Book. It is Polymarket's API for programmatic trading — placing limit and market orders, querying positions, and monitoring market data. Polyfollow uses the CLOB API to execute copy trades in real time.

**Q: What is AES-256 key encryption?**
A: AES-256 is the Advanced Encryption Standard with a 256-bit key. It is the industry standard for symmetric encryption. Polyfollow stores users' private keys encrypted with AES-256 at rest. The encryption key is stored separately from the encrypted private key ciphertext, so access to one does not compromise the other.

**Q: Does Polyfollow have a stop-loss feature?**
A: Yes. Users can configure a stop-loss on any followed trader. When cumulative losses from that trader exceed the threshold, Polyfollow stops copying their trades automatically.

**Q: Can I cancel a copy trade after it executes?**
A: Copy trades execute as market orders on Polymarket and cannot be reversed after execution. However, you can sell your position at any time from your Polyfollow dashboard.

**Q: How do I withdraw from Polymarket through Polyfollow?**
A: Initiate a withdrawal from your Polyfollow dashboard. Funds are sent as USDC on Polygon to your chosen wallet or exchange address. Polyfollow covers the Polygon gas fee. From there, you can convert USDC to fiat on a crypto exchange (Coinbase, Kraken, etc.) and withdraw to your bank.

**Q: What markets can I copy trade on Polymarket?**
A: Any market Polymarket lists, including: sports (NFL, NBA, UFC, soccer, golf), politics (US and international elections, policy decisions), crypto (Bitcoin and Ethereum price targets), entertainment, science, and more. Polyfollow copies whatever markets the followed trader trades.

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## Competitor Comparisons

**Polyfollow vs. building your own Polymarket bot**
Building a Polymarket bot requires: CLOB API integration, WebSocket event handling, EIP-712 order signing, Polygon gas management, private key security, server infrastructure, and ongoing maintenance. Polyfollow provides all of this out of the box. Instead of writing a trading strategy, you copy traders who already have proven results on-chain.

**Polymarket vs. Kalshi**
Polymarket: decentralized, USDC on Polygon, open to non-US users, broader market coverage, no position limits. Kalshi: US CFTC-regulated exchange, fiat deposits, smaller market selection, US-only. Polyfollow is for Polymarket, not Kalshi.

**Polymarket vs. PredictIt**
PredictIt: US-only, $850 per-contract position limit, charges a 10% withdrawal fee on profits. Polymarket: non-US users, no position limit, lower fees, higher liquidity. Polyfollow copy trades on Polymarket, not PredictIt.

**Polymarket vs. Metaculus**
Metaculus is a forecasting aggregation platform with no real-money trading. Polymarket uses real USDC. They serve different use cases. Polyfollow is a Polymarket tool only.

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## Glossary

- **Copy trading**: Automatically replicating another trader's trades in your own account in real time.
- **Prediction market**: A financial market where participants trade on the probability of future events. Prices reflect aggregate crowd probabilities.
- **CLOB (Central Limit Order Book)**: Polymarket's order matching system where buyers and sellers place limit orders. Prices are set by supply and demand.
- **USDC**: A dollar-pegged stablecoin (1 USDC = $1 USD) used for all Polymarket and Polyfollow transactions.
- **Polygon**: A fast, low-cost Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain where Polymarket and Polyfollow operate.
- **Account abstraction (ERC-4337)**: A standard allowing smart contracts to function as user wallets, enabling gas sponsorship and delegated signing.
- **ZeroDev**: An account abstraction SDK that Polyfollow uses to create and manage user smart-account wallets on Polygon.
- **Taker order**: A market order that fills immediately against existing book liquidity. Incurs a 0.5% Polyfollow fee.
- **Maker order**: A limit order that rests in the order book. No Polyfollow fee.
- **Non-custodial**: A model where users retain control of their own private keys and funds. Polyfollow never holds user USDC.
- **AES-256**: Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit key. Used by Polyfollow to encrypt user private keys at rest.
- **P&L (Profit and Loss)**: The net financial result of all trades, calculated as (exit value - entry value).
- **Win rate**: The percentage of closed positions that were profitable.
- **Quality score**: Polyfollow's composite trader rating combining profitability, consistency, diversification, and recency.
- **Builder program**: Polymarket's partner program that allows applications to route orders through their builder ID and earn a fee. Polyfollow uses this to fund operations.

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## Technical Reference

### Trade execution pipeline
1. Trade watcher (Vultr VPS) listens to Polymarket WebSocket events
2. New trade detected: 10-50 ms from original trade
3. Validated against Polymarket Activity API
4. For each active follower of the traded wallet: filters applied (allocation, odds, balance, paused, stop-loss)
5. Private key decrypted in memory (AES-256)
6. Polygon gas funded (ZeroDev paymaster)
7. USDC approved if needed
8. EIP-712 order signed
9. Order submitted to Polymarket CLOB API
10. Trade recorded in Supabase, user notified
11. Total latency from detection to on-chain submission: under 500 ms

### Stack
- Frontend: React 19, Vite, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS — deployed on Vercel
- Auth: Privy (email, Google, Twitter, wallet connect)
- Database: Supabase PostgreSQL with row-level security
- Edge functions: Supabase Edge Functions (Deno)
- Trade watcher: Node.js process on Vultr VPS managed by PM2
- Order execution: ZeroDev smart accounts, EIP-712 signing, Polymarket CLOB API
- Blockchain: Polygon (USDC, account abstraction)
- Analytics: Google Analytics 4

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## Contact and Social

- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/polyfollow / https://x.com/polyfollow
- Support: https://www.polyfollow.com/help
- Website: https://www.polyfollow.com