Time-Value Mechanics

1. Bonding comes first

Every new poll spends its first 5 hours in bonding. The bookie chart stays locked — “Bonding: odds unlock at graduation” — so early 2× stakes aren't crowd-biased. A ring in the corner fills toward the $500 floor as money enters.

The poll graduates into open trading when all of these are true:

• Combined pool at least $500
• Both sides have dollars and at least one vote
• The minority side is at least 20% of the pool and 20% of the votes

If the deadline passes unmet, the poll fails as a DRAW and stakes are refunded. Hidden (v3) polls keep sides off-chain until resolve; the same bonding bar still applies.

During bonding: 2× time weight · flat 1% fee · $1 minimum · atomic side switches locked

You can still exit and come back on the other side. That is two actions, and the trailing side pays leave-behind. A one-tap flip is blocked until the poll graduates.

2. After graduation, early conviction still earns double

The time-weight clock starts at graduation, not at create. At the tick you keep the full 2× and the 1% fee. Then weight falls toward zero in the final 10 minutes (or the last 10% of a short poll), and the fee climbs toward 2%.

A final-minutes stake that wins gets its money back minus the fee, and no share of the pool. Late money can't free-ride on early conviction, and it can't dilute the people who committed first.

3. $15 is one full vote

Votes are no longer one-wallet-one-vote once a poll has a vote floor. $15 of net stake is 1.0 vote. Smaller stakes count as a fraction — $3 is 0.2 of a vote. That is what bonding's 20% vote test uses, and what decides the winner at resolve.

Same-side add-ons stack on that share. Exiting zeroes your vote on that poll.

4. Exits are at face value — leave-behind is the brake

You can exit any position before the poll closes, at face value, never at a crashed market price. Leave-behind applies only if you leave the trailing side (fewer votes; pool dollars break a tie). The leading side pays the fee only.

Bonding worst case for an attentive trailing exit is about 11%. A late trailing exit after graduation can cost about 22%. Holding a loser to resolve is still −100% (Loser Recovery can soften that if you engaged). Compare that to prediction markets, where a wrong-side exit can cost 50–80%.

5. Bookie odds, not a live scoreboard

During bonding the chart is a placeholder. After graduation, b⁴ shows a bookie price, not a vote race:

• YES / NO lockups that always add to 100%. 71¢ YES means 29¢ NO.
• The live ribbon — the same detail-view chart — moves with new stakes, exits, and time weight.
• Personalized multiples after you vote: “Your $25 on NO → est. $85 if NO wins.”
• Total volume and the bonding cup (until $500).

Exact vote counts stay off the live UI. On hidden (v3) polls, sides stay off-chain until resolve. One thing to remember: odds reflect money, not votes. 85¢ doesn't mean an 85% chance of winning. It means the other side pays more. A lopsided book is an opportunity, not a verdict.

6. Switches and alerts

• Bonding: no atomic switch. Exit first, then you may enter the other side as a new $15+ stake.
• After graduation: one switch per poll (YES↔NO). The sell leg pays leave-behind if you were trailing. The new side gets the time weight of the moment you switch.
• Exiting forfeits your resolve claim. Holding to resolve keeps your full entry-time weight.
• Tap the bell next to share on any live poll to get alerts when volume moves, the poll graduates, or it resolves.

7. The final window: trusted members only

The last 10 minutes (or last 10% of a short poll) have one flat rule, for new entries and switches:

Gold reputation or above · no time bonus

• Gold requires real history: at least $1,000 of lifetime staking volume held to resolution, and an account at least 2 weeks old.
• Same-side add-ons keep the normal $1 minimum. Exits are never gated.
• Below Gold? Your window closes 10 minutes before the poll does. Stake earlier. It pays better anyway.

8. The reputation ladder pays for itself

Reputation levels are earned with real history: staking volume held to resolution (exited positions don't count), account age, wins, and quality comments. Higher tiers give back a share of the fees you've paid.

Platinum perks

• 0.05% rakeback: five hundredths of a percent of the stakes you place, rebated monthly in USDC (5% of the 1% base fee).
• 1.25× time-pool boost on your early-holder claims.
• Higher Loser Recovery ceiling when you hold, lose, and engage.
• Platinum name color, profile flair, and pinned comments.
• Priority support and higher send limits.

Diamond perks

• 0.1% rakeback of the stakes you place, paid monthly in USDC (10% of the 1% base fee).
• Creator access: create markets and earn creator fees on every poll you launch (0.25% of the winning pool plus 0.5% of the losing pool).
• Diamond club access: vote on upcoming market topics, shape the roadmap, and get a direct line to the team.
• High-roller markets: Diamond-only polls with deeper pools.
• IRL events and merch.

9. Fair play policy

Coordinated vote manipulation (flooding a side with sybil wallets, mass-switching at the buzzer, faking momentum) is detected after resolution by reviewing clusters of coordinated wallets. Penalties are published; detection thresholds are not.

• Strike one: demotion by one tier, and your volume clock restarts from the strike date.
• Strike two: permanent exclusion from final-window staking.
• Coordinated clusters lose platform access entirely (staking, Loser Recovery, leaderboard, referrals).
• Poll outcomes are never reversed. Penalties apply to accounts, not results.

One honest stake per person: wallets are bound to a physical device, one wallet per device, for the life of the market.

10. The numbers at a glance

11. Why we built it this way

The old pattern was bad for everyone honest: nothing happened for most of the poll, a bandwagon formed in the last minutes on a visible leader, and losers switched off before close. Early conviction was punished; late certainty was free.

Bonding forces a real book before anyone sees the line. Graduation unlocks the bookie chart. Time weight still pays the people who showed up first. Leave-behind keeps the losers' pool from going to zero. And the endgame belongs to members with real history.

Stake early. Stake what you believe.