UMA, an acronym for Universal Market Access, is a decentralized financial contracts platform that strives to enable universal market access. It is an optimistic oracle (OO) that has the potential to record any verifiable truth onto a blockchain. This unique feature has led to UMA's OO being referred to as a "human-powered truth machine". It is designed to be flexible enough to handle ambiguity and expands the design space possible in web3. UMA's OO is used in a diverse ecosystem of web3 applications, including cross-chain bridges, insurance protocols, prediction markets, and customizable DAO tooling products.

UMA operates through an optimistic oracle system that verifies data in stages. Initially, a statement is proposed as true and submitted along with a bond. This bond acts as a bounty for anyone to dispute it if they have evidence to the contrary. If the statement is not disputed during the challenge period, it is accepted as true. If a dispute arises, UMA token holders resolve the dispute within 48 hours. If the disputer is right, they receive a portion of the proposer's bond; if the disputer is wrong, they lose their bond, a portion of which is given to the proposer. This system introduces the opportunity for human intelligence to weigh in, which is crucial for Web3 projects as they require arbitrary data that is not always possible to turn into code.

UMA's optimistic oracle system may have a range of potential use cases. It can be used to enable more trustless forms of DAO governance, as seen in the first product using this, oSnap, which is a trustless method to execute the results of a Snapshot vote on chain. UMA can also be used in prediction markets, insurance protocols, cross-chain communication, and real-world assets. Furthermore, UMA's smart contracts can be used by developers building decentralized applications, and UMA token owners have the ability to participate in UMA’s optimistic oracle.

UMA was founded in 2018 by Allison Lu and Hart Lambur, two ex Goldman Sachs traders. Their goal was to make global markets universally fair, accessible, and decentralized. The team drew inspiration from traditional finance derivatives to define an open-source protocol that allows anyone, anywhere, to design and build trustless financial contracts. The optimistic oracle design concept has been in development since 2014, when Vitalik Buterin first published on the matter. Over the years, there have been several iterations leading to the current design of UMA's optimistic oracle. As of September 2022, there was a supply of 108,858,567 UMA tokens with 68,947,415 in circulation.

UMA, short for Universal Market Access, allows users to construct their own financial contracts and create synthetic assets. Synthetic assets are designed to mimic the financial outcomes of various aspects in the world of cryptocurrencies, facilitating engagement with previously inaccessible assets. UMA strives to foster a decentralized architecture that enables universal market access within the DeFi space. It replaces traditional oracles with a Data Verification Mechanism (DVM), where bots collect prices and other bots raise objections to proposed prices in real-time. If objections are raised, UMA token holders are prompted to vote on the correct data within 48 hours. In the absence of objections, the proposed price is then implemented. This core technology of UMA is called the “Optimistic Oracle.” This system provides users with the capability to fully define their own contracts, providing them with the tools to create their own synthetic assets.

UMA strives to provide a platform for creating, managing, and trading synthetic assets on the blockchain. One of its distinctive characteristics is the "priceless" synthetic asset design. Unlike traditional synthetic asset protocols that rely on oracles for real-time price feeds, UMA creates "priceless" synthetic assets that do not rely on external oracles for determining the asset’s price. Instead, the system employs a concept called "empowered price feeds" where disputes about the correct value of an asset are determined by the community. This approach is intended to contribute to the trustworthiness and functionality of UMA’s decentralized contract platform. Another characteristic of UMA is its focus on decentralized governance. Decisions regarding protocol upgrades, parameter adjustments, and policy changes are made by UMA token holders, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility among UMA token holders. This approach is designed with the intention of allowing the protocol to evolve in a decentralized and community-driven manner, with the aim of contributing to the long-term sustainability and growth of UMA.

UMA employs smart contracts and a "provably honest oracle" mechanism to enable users to establish financial contracts on their own terms. This platform allows users to create their own tokenized derivatives, akin to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), using ERC20 tokens. These derivatives provide short, long, or leveraged exposure to real-world assets. One of the main aspects of using UMA is that it strives to increase the adoption of cryptocurrency in the derivatives market by providing retail investors with a method to acquire synthetic assets that represent the underlying value from a transparent, open-source protocol. By utilizing Ethereum's smart contracts and incentive mechanisms, UMA provides a method for users to create custom financial contracts and launch ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, independent of legal frameworks or intermediaries. This can introduce a different approach to participation opportunities by creating a digital version of real-world assets that are difficult to acquire.

UMA's approach includes a distinct method to decentralized oracle solutions, with a focus on an optimistic oracle design. This design is based on game theory, aiming to coordinate honestly to find the true outcome and maintain trustlessness as a key feature. The cost of corrupting the oracle outweighs the potential benefit, a characteristic not shared by all oracle solutions. UMA's oracle, unlike many others, can be used to verify any kind of data, not just price feeds for assets. This flexibility allows for a wide range of use cases, from verifying the price of ETH at a specific time to determining whether it rained in a certain location. UMA's oracle solution aims to minimize the number of oracle calls, reducing potential attack vectors and keeping fees low. UMA's oracle system is designed to aim for economic guarantees, with the intention that it will cost more to corrupt the oracle than the potential profit from doing so.

Developers have the ability to utilize UMA's open-source protocol to create financial products tailored to their needs. UMA, an acronym for Universal Market Access, provides an open framework for the creation of synthetic assets. This framework encompasses the tracking of counterparties, margin accounts, economic terms, contract interactions, and an oracle mechanism. The oracle mechanism, referred to as UMA's DVM, is powered by UMA token holders and includes economic guarantees against corruption. Developers can use this framework to create financial products that aim to track the value of virtually any asset. UMA's protocol provides the capability for customization, which can be particularly useful for creating products that cater to specific market needs or niches. UMA's protocol includes the feature of creating financial contracts that are self-executing and self-enforcing.