Resolution and voids
A market resolves from the rules frozen before entry and evidence from the sources named in those rules. This page says who signs, how many, and what happens when they cannot.
Who decides
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Who proposes a result | A resolver set of three signers per chain, operated by Pools Markets. Addresses are published in Contracts and addresses. |
| Quorum | 2 of 3, on Robinhood Chain, BNB Chain and Solana alike. |
| What a signature binds | The market id, the outcome, the hash of the evidence, and the resolver epoch. A signature cannot be reused on another market, another outcome, or after the set has been rotated. |
| Delay before it pays | 30 seconds between the proposal and finalisation. During that window a wrong proposal can be discarded. |
| Who finalises | Anyone. After the delay, finalisation is permissionless, so payment does not depend on Pools Markets being online. |
| Deadline | Each market has a resolution deadline at least one hour after its observation ends. |
| If no valid result by the deadline | The market voids. Anyone can trigger it. Every stake is refunded in full and no fee is charged. |
| Can discovery or planning change an open market | No. The backend that proposes questions has no write path into an open market’s rules, outcomes or settlement. |
| Can a result be changed after finalisation | No. |
Resolvers are trusted to report honestly from the evidence. That is a real assumption, and it is stated rather than dressed up. What limits it: the evidence hash is committed on chain, two independent signers must agree, a wrong proposal can be pulled for 30 seconds, and a missing result can only ever refund, never pay the wrong side by default.
Evidence
| Question type | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Graduation, launch success | Finalized launchpad contract events on the chain the token lives on. |
| Price rise X% (four.meme on PancakeSwap V2, pump.fun on PumpSwap) | The venue’s swap logs replayed from finalized blocks over the observation window, giving a complete price path rather than samples. |
| Up 15% or more (pools.xyz, Pons) | Venue observations sampled at fixed times around entry close and at expiry, each anchored to a confirmed block. |
A page screenshot, a DOM reading, an API response that cannot be tied to a block, or a model’s statement is not evidence.
Lifecycle
| Stage | What happens | Your position |
|---|---|---|
| Proposed | The engine has a question for this token; nothing is on chain | You can be the first to enter |
| Collecting | The market exists on chain and accepts entries, but has not reached its activation minimum | Open |
| Active | Minimum met; entries continue until the deadline | Open |
| Locked | Entry deadline passed | No new entries |
| Observing | The measurement window is running | Pending |
| Resolving | Window closed; resolvers gather evidence and sign | Pending |
| Resolved | A result is final | Payable |
| Cancelled or Void | Rules require a refund | Refundable |
| Complete | Payout or refund delivered | Done |
A countdown that reaches zero moves the market to Locked or Observing. It never restarts the same market.
When a market refunds
Every stake is returned in full and no fee is charged when:
- the activation minimum was not met at the entry deadline (two participants, two funded outcomes, minimum pool);
- the winning outcome holds no stake;
- the resolution deadline passes without a valid signed result;
- the required source is unavailable beyond the allowed recovery window, two required sources stay irreconcilable, chain finality or a reorganisation invalidates the observation, or the metric cannot be interpreted under the frozen rule;
- a protocol safety condition requires cancellation.
No silent reinterpretation
An ambiguous market is not rescued by changing its meaning after entry. A market with unresolvable terms is either rejected before it opens or voided under its published rules. The title never overrides the rule.