Dispute Resolution

Any party with evidence of validator misconduct can report a dispute. Disputes are resolved by an arbitration committee that reviews submitted evidence and renders one of three verdicts: guilty, innocent, or dismissed. Guilty verdicts slash the validator and reward the reporter. Innocent verdicts burn the reporter’s bond. Dismissal returns the bond without penalty. This page documents bond amounts, the lifecycle, and the outcomes.

The three outcomes

Reporting a dispute

function reportValidator(
    address validator,
    bytes32 resourceId,
    bytes calldata evidence
) external returns (uint256 disputeId);

Rules:

validator MUST be an active validator (stakedAmount >= 10,000 NOTA).
evidence MUST NOT be empty. It is hashed on-chain (keccak256(evidence)); raw bytes are not stored.
The reporter posts a tier-dependent bond in NOTA.

Bond amounts are determined by the accused validator’s current tier:

Dispute Level	Bond
BASIC	1,000 NOTA
ENHANCED	5,000 NOTA
INSTITUTIONAL	25,000 NOTA

Mapping from tier to dispute level:

INSTITUTIONAL or ENTERPRISE tier validator: dispute level is INSTITUTIONAL (25K NOTA bond).
PROFESSIONAL tier validator: dispute level is ENHANCED (5K NOTA bond).
BASIC tier validator: dispute level is BASIC (1K NOTA bond).

Evidence handling

Evidence is hashed on-chain but stored off-chain. The on-chain evidenceHash provides tamper-evidence; the raw bytes are not part of the contract state. Implementations SHOULD use decentralized storage like IPFS for evidence and submit the CID as the evidence payload, enabling any party to retrieve and verify the evidence independently.

Dispute resolution

function resolveDispute(uint256 disputeId, bool guilty) external restricted;

Restricted to ROLE_SLASHING_ARBITRATOR. The arbitration committee reviews evidence off-chain and renders a verdict.

Guilty verdict

The validator’s current tier determines slash rate.
slashedAmount = (stakedAmount * slashBps) / 10000.
Tokens are transferred from NotareumValidatorStaking to NotareumSlashingManager.
Slashed tokens are forwarded to burnAddress.
reporterReward = (slashedAmount * 1000) / 10000 (10%).
Reporter receives bondAmount + reporterReward.

Innocent verdict

Reporter’s bond is transferred to burnAddress as anti-spam.
Validator’s stake is unaffected.

Dismissal

function dismissDispute(uint256 disputeId) external restricted;

Authorized dismissal returns the bond without penalty. Used when a dispute is filed in error (wrong validator, wrong resource, insufficient evidence).

Dispute struct

struct Dispute {
    address reporter;
    address validator;
    bytes32 resourceId;
    bytes32 evidenceHash;
    uint256 bondAmount;
    DisputeLevel level;
    DisputeStatus status;
    uint256 createdAt;
    uint256 resolvedAt;
}

Dispute lifecycle

OPEN --> RESOLVED_GUILTY
OPEN --> RESOLVED_INNOCENT
OPEN --> DISMISSED

Disputes only transition from OPEN. Once resolved or dismissed, they are final.

Example: reporter math

A BASIC tier validator with 10,000 NOTA staked gets caught falsely attesting. The reporter posts 1,000 NOTA bond. The arbitration committee rules guilty.

Slash: 25% of 10,000 = 2,500 NOTA burned
Reporter reward: 10% of 2,500 = 250 NOTA
Reporter receives: 1,000 (bond) + 250 (reward) = 1,250 NOTA
Validator loses: 2,500 NOTA from stake

An ENTERPRISE validator with 250,000 NOTA gets caught in a coordinated collusion.

Slash: 50% of 250,000 = 125,000 NOTA burned
Reporter posted: 25,000 NOTA bond
Reporter reward: 10% of 125,000 = 12,500 NOTA
Reporter receives: 25,000 + 12,500 = 37,500 NOTA

Why innocent verdicts burn bonds

Anti-spam. If bonds were returned on innocent verdicts, frivolous dispute spam would be free and the arbitration committee would drown in noise. Burning the bond imposes a real cost on bad-faith reports while preserving ample reward for good-faith whistleblowers.

Arbitration committee

In v1.0, arbitration is centralized to ROLE_SLASHING_ARBITRATOR. This role SHOULD be held by a multisig with a minimum 3-of-5 threshold. The committee is a bootstrapping compromise on the path to fully decentralized on-chain arbitration via governance voting in later protocol versions.

Example code

Reporter (TypeScript):

const bond = 1_000n * 10n ** 18n;
await ntm.fee.approveNotaForDispute(bond);

const evidenceBytes = new TextEncoder().encode(
  "ipfs://QmEvidenceCID/dispute-evidence.json"
);
const tx = await ntm.slashing?.reportValidator(
  validatorAddress,
  resourceId,
  evidenceBytes,
);

Arbitrator:

await ntm.slashing?.resolveDispute(disputeId, true);  // guilty

Slashing for slash mechanics
Staking and Tiers for tier thresholds
Governance for progressive decentralization of arbitration
SlashingManager contract

Getting Started

Protocol

Token

SDKs

Guides

Use Cases

Smart Contracts

Reference

Resources

Dispute resolution

Dispute Resolution

The three outcomes

Reporting a dispute

Evidence handling

Dispute resolution

Guilty verdict

Innocent verdict

Dismissal

Dispute struct

Dispute lifecycle

Example: reporter math

Why innocent verdicts burn bonds

Arbitration committee

Example code

​Dispute Resolution

​The three outcomes

​Reporting a dispute

​Evidence handling

​Dispute resolution

​Guilty verdict

​Innocent verdict

​Dismissal

​Dispute struct

​Dispute lifecycle

​Example: reporter math

​Why innocent verdicts burn bonds

​Arbitration committee

​Example code

​Related pages

Dispute Resolution

The three outcomes

Reporting a dispute

Evidence handling

Dispute resolution

Guilty verdict

Innocent verdict

Dismissal

Dispute struct

Dispute lifecycle

Example: reporter math

Why innocent verdicts burn bonds

Arbitration committee

Example code

Related pages