Oracle and resolution: how an outcome is announced

This article is about the mechanism of resolution — the timeline and the rules common to all participants. For the duties and risks of the oracle itself there is a separate article, Oracle; here we look at how a market gets from betting close to payouts.

The gist in two paragraphs

A market can only be resolved after betting closes (betting_expiration) — while bets are still coming in, announcing an outcome is pointless. A market has a result_expiration deadline by which the oracle must announce the result (pm_resolve_market). On resolution, payouts to those who called it right are credited automatically (virtual pm_payout), losing outcomes are zeroed out and their money goes into the winners' prize pot.

If there is no outcome — the event was cancelled, the source disappeared, a draw with no winner — the market is closed as no-contest (pm_no_contest): bets are refunded, nobody wins and nobody loses. And if the oracle stayed silent past the deadline and the grace period, the market dies as missed-resolution (the oracle is penalised). There is also an early path: markets with allow_early_resolution can be closed sooner if the outcome is already known for sure.

Market timeline

1. Open. Bets are coming in, the price floats along the curve. Resolution is forbidden.

2. Betting closes (betting_expiration). Bets are no longer accepted. The window opens in which the oracle can (and must) announce the outcome.

3. Resolution (pm_resolve_market). The oracle announces the winning outcome. The node splits the pool: payouts are automatic, there is nothing to claim by hand. For the resolution the oracle gets its fee (capped by a median parameter).

4. Dispute window. After the announcement comes the grace period (pm_dispute_grace_sec) in which the outcome can be challenged (see Disputes). Until the dispute is finalised the payouts are not final.

5. Settlement. The confirmed outcome is settled: LP liquidity is returned (principal-protected) and the prize pot is distributed.

Special paths

Early resolution (allow_early_resolution). If the market was created with this flag and the outcome is already known for certain, the oracle closes it early. result_expiration then shifts to the moment of resolution (the dispute window collapses to "now + grace"), but disputers still keep the full pm_dispute_grace_sec from the announcement. A late resolution (after result_expiration), on the contrary, does not extend the window.

No-contest (pm_no_contest). There is no outcome — the market is cancelled and bets are refunded. This is not a penalty on participants: their money does not "burn" because a source went quiet. The oracle must declare no-contest in time if there is not going to be a result.

Missed-resolution (void on deadline). The oracle did not announce an outcome and did not declare no-contest before result_expiration + grace → the cron voids the market and the oracle is slashed. Important: the void only fires after result_expiration + pm_dispute_grace_sec (the same cutoff as the settle-sweep) — so that the oracle has a real resolution window rather than a race against the deadline (this was fixed by the reachability fix; otherwise a fixed-deadline market without the early flag was impossible to resolve).

What to understand

• Resolution only after betting closes. Not before; the early path is a separate market flag.
• Payouts are automatic. No "claim", no buttons: winnings and refunds arrive on resolution/cancellation.
• Silence is punished. No outcome → no-contest in time. Simply "doing nothing" = missed-resolution and a slashing of the oracle.
• The outcome is not final until the grace period ends. Within the dispute window payouts can be recomputed.
• Leverage does not wait for resolution. Leverage positions are closed at the price as of betting_expiration, independently of the oracle's verdict — see Leverage trader.

Roles and links

• Oracle — who announces the outcome and what they answer with.
• Disputes — how to challenge an announced result.
• Bettor — what resolution looks like from the bet's side.
• Specification — the formal deadlines and cutoffs.