Challenges and Disputes
A Challenge opens formal review when a provisional claim-met delivery is disputed. Any party may challenge during the three-day public Challenge Window by posting the required Challenge Bond.
Public Challenge Window
Buyer Acceptance settles Buyer payment under the transaction’s routing rules and waives the Buyer’s financial recourse, but the public Challenge Window remains open. The Buyer may still file a protocol-level Challenge on the same terms as any other participant.
A public challenge notice exposes the execution ID, governing Capability version and Defined Claim, provisional result, deadline, and a claim-relevant evidence commitment or summary. Raw Delivery Evidence remains access-controlled and is admitted to the Resolver under the review rules.
A Challenge must identify the execution and disputed criterion. Requiring a Challenge Bond gives the objection economic weight and discourages spam or abuse.
Once a valid Challenge is filed, pending payment remains held and later Buyer Acceptance cannot settle it. If Buyer payment already settled through Acceptance, the settlement is not reversed; the Challenge still determines the Creator Bond, final history classification, delivery burn, and financing eligibility. Any active financing share remains reserved for finality-based routing, and the Creator Bond exposure attached to the execution remains locked through protocol finality.
Evidence Review
The Resolver evaluates admitted evidence against the governing Defined Claim. Evidence Review also applies when initial Verification returns claim not met or indeterminate; those paths do not require a Challenger.
Evidence Review returns the same three result states as initial Verification. A final claim not met result is classified as a confirmed breach.
| Final outcome | Buyer payment | Creator Bond | Challenge Bond | History and burn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim met | Pending payment is released; accepted payment remains settled | Unchanged | Burned when a Challenge was rejected | Enters Verified Delivery History; reserved delivery burn executes |
| Claim not met: breach confirmed | Pending payment is refunded; accepted payment remains settled | Slashed | If challenged: returned with a capped reward funded from the Creator slash; otherwise not applicable | Recorded as an adverse outcome; no delivery burn |
| Indeterminate | Pending payment is refunded; accepted payment remains settled | Unchanged | If challenged: returned without a reward; otherwise not applicable | Recorded as indeterminate; no delivery burn |
Protocol finality occurs only when the public Challenge Window closes unchallenged, or when Evidence Review and every applicable appeal period or proceeding have closed. A final claim-met delivery enters Verified Delivery History and executes its reserved delivery burn.
A review failure is recorded as indeterminate unless the transaction rules invoke a retry or replacement Resolver.
Dispute record
The Challenge Record contains:
- the execution and purchase;
- the governing Capability Version and Defined Claim;
- the disputed criterion and admitted evidence;
- the Challenger and Challenge Bond;
- the Resolver and review timeline; and
- the final resolution and financial consequences.
Review rules address evidence access, reviewer selection, conflicts, appeals, deadlines, and duplicate or abusive Challenges. Parameters and framework details are published before mainnet. Protocol-wide authority and upgrades are covered in Governance and Upgrades.