ARBITERS
Most bounties settle clean — PR merges, payout fires, everyone moves on. The hard cases need judges. Arbiters are staked $BOUNTY holders who vote on disputes. Vote correctly, earn from fees and slash pools. Vote wrong, get slashed yourself. The game forces honesty over time.
01Stake to qualify
Lock minimum 500 $BOUNTY. Your stake is the bond that backs your vote. Bigger stakes get assigned the high-value disputes (and earn more per case).
02Get assigned
Disputes route to a random 7-arbiter panel weighted by stake size and reputation. You're notified onchain. You have 48 hours to review and vote.
03Review
You see the issue, the locked bounty, the PR, the maintainer's stated reason for not merging, the hunter's counter. Pure evidence — no name reveal until vote closes.
04Vote
HUNTER-WINS / MAINTAINER-WINS / INSUFFICIENT-EVIDENCE. Majority decides. Tied panels expand to 13 arbiters and revote.
05Earn or lose
Vote with the majority → earn a share of the dispute fee + slashed-stake pool. Vote against the majority → lose 1-5% of your stake (severity scales with how blatant the disagreement is).
06Reputation
Every correct vote raises your arbiter rep. Higher rep → bigger disputes assigned → bigger earnings. Bad arbiters slowly bleed out. Good arbiters compound.
why staking matters
Without a real bond, voting becomes noise. The slash mechanism keeps it honest.
Honest arbiters
Read the evidence, vote with the truth, earn from the dispute fee + slashed pool. Stake is preserved + grows. Over 100 cases, expected return is positive and compounding.
Sybil / lazy arbiters
Vote randomly or against the obvious answer → eat 1-5% slashes per wrong vote. Expected return is sharply negative. Cheaper to never stake than to vote badly.