Voting on Disputes

Step-by-step walkthrough of the commit/reveal voting flow on a disputed market.

When a market outcome is disputed, neutral $AURA stakers settle it through a commit/reveal vote. This tutorial walks through the voter’s experience from start to finish.

If you haven’t read the conceptual overview yet, start with Resolution & Disputes. For the rules that govern voting power and slashing, see Staking & Vaulting $AURA.

Before you start

You need:

• An Alephium wallet connected to Aura (passkey or extension).
• At least the Iron tier — 60,000 vaulted AURA. See [Staking & Vaulting AURA](/tokens/staking).
• No position in the disputed market — you must not have placed an order on it. The contract enforces this when you commit.

You should also know:

• Voting is not free. If you back the wrong outcome, 0.1% of your vaulted $AURA is slashed per vote. Vote on markets you’ve actually researched.
• The flow is two transactions on two separate days: a commit in phase 1, and a reveal in phase 2.

Step 1 — Find a disputed market

1. Open the Voting tab

   From the top navigation, click Voting, then select the Outcomes sub-tab.

2. Pick an active dispute

   Each disputed market shows the question, the proposed outcome, the challenger’s position, and the current phase (Commit / Reveal / Finalizing).

3. Read the resolution rules

   Open the market detail and read the original resolution rules and sources. Your job as a voter is to determine which outcome the rules support — not which outcome you’d prefer.

Step 2 — Commit your vote

The commit phase locks in your choice without revealing what it is. This prevents later voters from copying earlier ones.

1. Pick a choice

   • YES — the rules clearly resolve the market YES.
   • NO — the rules clearly resolve the market NO.
   • TOO EARLY — the underlying event hasn’t happened yet, the data source isn’t out, or the question is malformed. If this wins, the market is canceled and traders are refunded.
2. Click Commit

   Aura generates a random salt (a one-time secret), hashes your choice with it (keccak256(choice || salt)), and sends the hash on-chain. The salt is stored locally in your wallet — do not clear your browser data before the reveal phase, or you’ll lose the ability to reveal and your $AURA will be slashed for not revealing.

3. Sign the commit transaction

   Confirm in your wallet. The on-chain commit records:

   • Your hashed vote
   • Your tier weight at commit time
   • Your address (so the contract can match it on reveal)

You can commit any time during the commit window, but only once per vote round. If you change your mind after committing, you can’t re-commit — but you can choose not to reveal, which costs you the same 0.1% slash as voting wrong. Generally, only commit when you’re confident.

Step 3 — Reveal your vote

Once the commit window closes, the reveal phase opens. You have a shorter window (typically about an hour) to prove what you committed.

1. Return to the dispute

   Open the same disputed market under Voting → Outcomes. The UI will show that the reveal phase is active and prompt you to reveal.

2. Click Reveal

   Aura reads the salt from your local storage, sends both your original choice and salt on-chain, and the contract verifies that keccak256(choice || salt) matches the commit hash you submitted earlier.

3. Sign the reveal transaction

   Confirm in your wallet. Your tier-weighted vote is added to that outcome’s tally.

If you committed but don’t reveal in time, you’re slashed the same 0.1% as a wrong-side voter. The contract treats silent commits as bad-faith participation.

Step 4 — Wait for finalization

After the reveal phase, the protocol checks whether any single outcome cleared the 65% supermajority of revealed weight:

• Cleared 65% — the market resolves to that outcome, traders are paid out, and the penalty pool is ready for claims.
• Did not clear 65% — a new commit/reveal round starts immediately. You can commit again in the new round.

If TOO_EARLY clears 65%, the market is canceled, all traders are refunded their collateral, and both bonds (proposer + disputer) go to the disputer.

Step 5 — Claim your reward

If you backed the winning outcome:

• Your proportional share of the penalty pool is calculated from your tier weight relative to the total winning weight.
• Rewards are paid in $AURA and distributed automatically to your vault balance — no separate claim transaction is required from you.

If you backed the losing outcome (or didn’t reveal):

• 0.1% of your vaulted $AURA is slashed and added to the penalty pool for the winners.

Things to know

What “tier weight” means at vote time

The contract reads your tier from the Vault at the moment you commit, not at the moment you reveal. So if you stake more $AURA between commit and reveal, your additional stake doesn’t increase your weight for that round — but it does for the next round.

Why the reveal window is shorter than the commit window

Once commits are locked, the only thing left is bookkeeping. A long reveal window adds delay without improving security — anyone who genuinely intended to vote should be able to reveal within the window. Stakers who never reveal are signaling they wanted to influence the hash count without actually voting, which is exactly the bad-faith behavior the slashing penalty deters.

What happens if my position changes during the dispute

You can’t add a position to the market during the dispute window (stake-holder eligibility is checked at commit time). If you already held a position when the dispute opened, you’re permanently ineligible to vote on that specific market — there’s no way to “neutralize” yourself.

Quick checklist

• I’m at Iron tier or higher.
• I have no position in the disputed market.
• I’ve read the resolution rules.
• I’m confident enough to put 0.1% of my vault on the line.
• I’ll be able to reveal within the reveal window.