This is how Numera’s custom markets settle. Continuous markets settle even faster: the moment a round closes, the result is decided automatically against a fixed rule, with nothing to propose and nothing to wait on.
The whole process at a glance
Two ways a result gets proposed, one challenge window that applies to both, and one outcome: the market settles and winning shares become claimable.The stages
1
Awaiting a result
Trading has closed and nobody has proposed the answer yet. Your position is recorded and safe throughout. There is no rush and no deadline on this step.
2
Result proposed
Someone has said what the answer is. A challenge window opens, during which anyone who disagrees can say so. The length of the window is set on the contract and shown on the market.
3
Settled
The window closed with the result unchallenged, or a challenge was decided. The winning outcome is confirmed on the blockchain and winning shares become claimable immediately.
4
Or voided
If the question turned out to be unanswerable, everyone is refunded instead. Nobody wins and nobody loses.
Every market says how it settles
Before any of this matters, the market itself tells you the rule: what the source of truth is, when it is read, and what happens if the event does not occur as described. It is written when the market is created and shown on the market page. It also cannot be changed afterwards. The rule is part of the market’s permanent on-chain record, so rewording it later would no longer match the market it claims to describe. Anyone can check that for themselves. That matters more here than it would elsewhere. If anyone can propose a result and anyone can challenge one, everybody has to be reading the same rule book, and be able to prove it is the one that was published when they placed their bet.Anyone can propose the result
Once trading closes, you can say what the answer was. So can anyone else. Proposing puts down a deposit. If nobody disagrees before the window closes, the market settles to your answer, you get the deposit back, and you are paid a share of the fees that market earned for doing the work. If it turns out you were wrong, the deposit is forfeited. The deposit is the same on every market, so you know what taking part costs before you open one. The exact figure is shown before you commit to anything, along with what being right pays.Proposing is private, like everything else
This is the part that makes taking part possible at all. Proposing an answer would normally reveal something about you. Whoever says “Argentina won” is, more often than not, someone holding Argentina, and saying it from your own wallet would tell anyone reading the blockchain which side you are on. That single correlation would survive every other precaution. On Numera it does not happen, because your proposal is sent from the same private account that placed your bets. It costs you no network fee, it needs no balance, and it reveals nothing that your trades did not already reveal, which is nothing at all. Your position stays private right through settlement, whether you take part in it or not.Anyone can challenge
If a proposed result is wrong, you can say so, by putting down the same deposit and naming what the answer actually is. Challenging is private in exactly the same way proposing is. A challenge goes to a signer group for a decision. The number of approvals required is set on the contract itself and visible to anyone. Once it is decided:
That is the whole mechanism. Being right is worth money, being wrong costs money, and neither requires anyone to know who you are.
The operator can propose too
To keep straightforward markets moving, Numera can propose a result itself, without a deposit. This makes settlement quicker. It does not make it final. An operator proposal opens exactly the same challenge window as anyone else’s, and can be overturned by exactly the same process. If we get one wrong and you can show it, you are paid for showing it and the market settles to the right answer. That is deliberate, and it is worth being plain about: the fast path exists for convenience, and the check on it is real.Getting paid
Once a market settles, each winning share is worth exactly $1. Claim it whenever suits you. There is no deadline, no expiry, and no fee, including no network fee. It goes straight to that market’s account, and from there back into your private pool. The claim is a direct action you take against the blockchain, so there is nothing to request and nobody to approve it.An account that loses a challenge keeps everything it won before. The forfeited deposit and the loss of trading access are the penalty; positions already held still settle at the honest result and can still be claimed in full.