DOCS / INTRODUCTION / VERDICTS

Verdicts and receipts

The answer to a claim is a receipt. Replay it and you get the same verdict. The proof is a STARK, so checking it does not require trusting who ran it.

What is in a receipt

The claim, in the words that were posted.
The verdict, and the reason in words.
Every read the program made: the source, what was asked of it, and the bytes that came back.
A hash of that bundle. The hash is what gets committed. The bundle is what anyone replays.

If a replay does not produce the same verdict, the receipt is not an answer. It is not proposed, and it is not paid.

What each verdict pays

verdict	what it means	what is paid
TRUE	The program proved the claim.	The side that staked TRUE is paid by the side that staked FALSE. The miner is paid the bounty.
FALSE	The program proved the claim is not so.	The other way around. The miner is paid the bounty.
Refusal	The program could not prove either, from the sources it is allowed to read.	Nobody. The question stays open for a proof that can.
Undetermined	The evidence cannot reach an answer.	Nobody. Stakes and the bounty are refunded.
Expired	No TRUE or FALSE proof arrived in time.	Nobody. The bounty returns to the asker. Stakes are refunded.

A refusal is an answer about the proof, not a “no” about the world. There is no way to be paid for failing to prove it.

Checking someone else’s answer

You do not read a dashboard and decide to trust it. You replay the receipt. The same records and the same program produce the same verdict, for you, later, on a different machine. That is the whole product.

A dispute is a second proof that reaches a different verdict. It is not an argument and it is not a lost bet. If that second proof wins, it becomes the answer.

Before the receipt exists

You can see this shape before you post. Simulation runs the program and shows the verdict and the money, and it spends nothing. The receipt above is what exists after a miner has proved a live claim.