Disputes

Who can open one, and when

• The buyer, during the challenge window, if the domain isn't in their account.
• The seller, before the transfer deadline, if they delivered but no registry proof can pass.

The arbitration fee

The court charges an arbitration fee: about $2 for deals up to $2,000, and about $12 above that. It is paid in ETH, and the deal page shows the exact amount. On deals up to $2,000, Yescrow pays it for a side whose wallet has no ETH (once per side, within a daily budget) and gets it back if that side wins; the deal page says when it does. The side that opens the dispute pays it straight away. The other side must pay the same fee before the fee deadline, or loses by default and the side that paid gets its fee back. This stops anyone stalling by going quiet. When both have paid, the case goes to the court, and at the end the winner gets back what the court didn't use: normally their whole fee, less only if the court raised its fee after the dispute was opened.

What jurors decide

Jurors answer one question: was the domain in the buyer's account at the buyer's chosen registrar at any point after the deal became active? They follow the Yescrow juror policy. What happens to the domain after the deal closes is out of scope.

Which court

• Deals up to $2,000 go to a fast court where three AI agents are the jurors. The deal usually pays out within a day; once anyone funds an appeal, up to about a day and a half. Human jurors see the case only on appeal, and reaching them costs far more than the first fee.
• Larger deals go to a court where people are the jurors. With its evidence, voting and appeal periods, a case takes days to weeks while the price stays locked.

Appeals

Once the jurors have voted, the case has an appeal period. Anyone can fund an appeal, in ETH, for any ruling, on the deal page or the court's own case page. If both sides are funded, new jurors decide in a new round. If only one side is funded by the deadline, the court rules for that side, whatever the jurors voted, but the escrow ignores such a ruling and pays on the jurors' vote; the payout then waits until the appeal period ends instead of its halfway point. So nobody needs to fund the side that won, and an appeal that wants new jurors needs both sides funded: whoever wants one funds both at once, with the deal page's “Ask for new jurors”, and gets back everything but the new jurors' fee, whichever way they rule.

Don't fund one side alone. It changes nothing for the deal, and the court pays every round's stakes to the ruling it finally names, which a later appeal funded by one side alone can set: that side then takes the stakes, even if it lost on the merits. If you staked in an earlier round and the other side then funds an appeal alone, fund the jurors' ruling before the period ends to keep your stake; the deal page shows how.

Deals in older test escrows work as before: one side funded alone wins, so Yescrow funds the jurors' own ruling, and the deal page and the alerts say if it couldn't, so you can fund it yourself before the deadline.

Evidence

Submit it on the deal page; files are stored publicly and permanently. Strongest first:

1. The registry proofs the deal already holds (you don't need to add them).
2. A tamper-proof copy of your registrar account page.
3. An email from a registrar about the transfer or the push.
4. Screenshots.

Evidence is public and permanent. Never include passwords, transfer codes or other secrets.

If the court can't decide

The court may refuse a case: it stops taking cases from the service that opens them for Yescrow, a court changes, or the fee rises above the escrow's cap on it (about $25 a side in the AI court, about $125 in the human court). A case can also stall with no final ruling. Then Yescrow's judge decides the deal instead: when the court refuses the case, or when a case has no final ruling 90 days after it opened.

• The judge answers the same question as the jurors, on the same evidence, and has 14 days. If it doesn't rule in time, the deal is split 50/50.
• The money stays in the escrow and goes only to the buyer or the seller. Yescrow takes no fee on a deal it judges; on a refused case it keeps the losing side's arbitration fee, half of each on a split, as the court would.
• The judge publishes its written reasons on the deal page, and the ruling records a fingerprint of them, so they can't be changed later.
• You can still settle or concede while the judge decides.

The court's own “refuse to rule” is a ruling: the deal is split 50/50, and Yescrow doesn't overrule it.

Settling or conceding

At any point before the ruling, the two sides can agree a split. One side signs an offer on the deal page and sends the link; the deal closes when the other side signs the same amount. The offer must be signed within 24 hours, and it lapses sooner when the dispute moves on: once the dispute is answered, or once the case moves to its next period, so nobody can hold an offer until the jurors' votes are visible. It counts only once the escrow has recorded it, so an offer both sides signed just before a period ends can still lapse. While the jurors vote, no offer can be made or accepted: their votes are public as they are cast. Settling opens again when voting ends. Either side can also give in: the buyer pays the seller, or the seller refunds the buyer. Arbitration fees are then returned as the settlement rules describe.