Lifecycle and deadlines

The three timestamps every bounty carries, who may act in each window, and what happens when nothing settles.

A bounty carries exactly three timestamps, all fixed at creation and never movable afterwards.

Timestamp	How it is derived	What it opens or closes
`submission_deadline`	The Poster's frontmatter value	Submissions close. Submission keys become time-lock-releasable
`judging_deadline_at`	`submission_deadline` + half the Guardian review window	Verdict revisions close. Settlement opens
`settlement_timeout_at`	`submission_deadline` + the full Guardian review window	Settlement closes. The full-refund timeout path opens

The review window is protocol configuration, read from the Hub at creation and then frozen onto the bounty. Changing it later does not move an existing bounty's deadlines.

The judging schedule

Who may act, and when. Solid arrows are on-chain calls; dashed arrows are work an actor does off-chain, on its own machine.

Before the deadline

Solvers compete; nothing can be read yet.

sequenceDiagram
    participant P as Poster
    participant S as Solver
    participant H as ElgoraHub

    rect rgb(240, 238, 232)
    Note over P,H: Open · until submission_deadline
    P->>H: createBounty() · escrows the reward, pins the roster
    S-->>S: builds the package, encrypts to the pinned roster
    S->>H: submit() · records the commitment
    Note over S,H: A Solver may replace its own Submission<br/>any number of times, until the deadline
    Note over P,H: Keys are time-locked. Nobody — Solver, Poster,<br/>Guardian or Elgora — can open a Submission yet
    end

    Note over P,H: ▼ submission_deadline · Submissions close, the time-lock releases

After the deadline

Guardians judge, and the bounty reaches one of its final states.

sequenceDiagram
    participant G as Guardian roster
    participant C as Coordinator / anyone
    participant H as ElgoraHub

    rect rgb(240, 238, 232)
    Note over G,H: Judging · until judging_deadline_at
    G-->>G: fetches and decrypts every eligible Submission
    G-->>G: publishes its written Verdict
    G->>H: commitVerdict() · revisable in this window only
    Note over G,H: Settlement is impossible here even if the roster<br/>already agrees: no result may become final while<br/>a Guardian could still change its mind
    end

    Note over G,H: ▼ judging_deadline_at · revisions close, settlement opens

    rect rgb(240, 238, 232)
    Note over G,H: Settlement · until settlement_timeout_at
    G->>H: commitVerdict() · a silent Guardian may still cast a first Verdict
    alt a coordinator is configured
        C->>H: settle() · coordinator only, for its grace period
    else no coordinator, or the grace period has passed
        C->>H: settle() · anyone may call
    end
    H-->>H: re-tallies the pinned roster, settles at two-thirds
    end

    Note over G,H: ▼ settlement_timeout_at · nothing can be awarded any more

    rect rgb(240, 238, 232)
    Note over G,H: Timed out · only if nothing settled above
    C->>H: timeoutSettlement() · queues the Poster's full refund, no fees
    end

    Note over G,H: After finality, on no schedule at all: the winner claims<br/>the reward and the Poster claims any refund, whenever<br/>each chooses. A queued balance never expires.

A bounty either settles inside the settlement window or times out after it — never both.

The windows

Open — up to `submission_deadline`

Solvers may submit and replace Submissions. One active Submission per Solver; a replacement overwrites, it does not append.
Nobody can decrypt anything. The keys are locked to a randomness beacon round that has not been published yet.
Guardians have nothing to do.
The bounty's status is open.

Judging — `submission_deadline` to `judging_deadline_at`

Submissions are refused by the contract.
The time-lock releases, so each pinned Guardian can decrypt eligible Submissions.
Guardians publish written Verdicts and record on-chain Verdicts, and may revise a recorded Verdict freely inside this window.
Settlement is not yet possible, even if everyone already agrees. This is deliberate: no result can become final while a Guardian could still change their mind.

Settlement — `judging_deadline_at` to `settlement_timeout_at`

Revisions stop. A Guardian who has recorded a Verdict can no longer change it.
A Guardian who never recorded one may still cast a first Verdict, as long as the bounty is still open. A late first voice can complete a quorum; it cannot retract an existing one.
settle becomes callable. It re-tallies live and settles whatever the pinned roster currently agrees on.

Timed out — after `settlement_timeout_at`

settle reverts. Nothing can be awarded any more.
timeoutSettlement becomes callable by anyone, and queues the Poster's full escrow refund, with no fees taken at all.

Who calls settlement

Settlement is a transaction someone has to pay gas for. Two arrangements exist:

Permissionless. If no coordinator is configured, any address may call settle as soon as the settlement window opens.
Coordinator-first. If a coordinator is configured, it gets an exclusive window: from the later of first agreement and judging_deadline_at, plus a configured grace period. After that, anyone may call.

The coordinator improves liveness and nothing else. It supplies no result, and cannot change the tally — settle re-derives the outcome from the Guardians' recorded Verdicts every time, so whoever calls it gets the same answer.

Elgora runs a coordinator for its own deployment on a short heartbeat, so in practice a bounty settles on its own shortly after it becomes settleable.

First agreement is recorded, but never trusted

The contract stamps the moment the tally first crossed the threshold, and that stamp never moves even if Guardians later disagree and re-agree. It is used to start the coordinator's window — not as the result. Settlement always re-tallies from scratch.

What each state means for you

Status	Poster	Solver
`open`	Wait	Submit, or replace
`awarded`	Retrieve the winning work	If you are the winner, claim
`no_valid_submission`	Claim the full refund if nobody submitted; otherwise minus the Guardian fee. No treasury fee	Nothing
`timed_out`	Claim the full escrow, no fees	Nothing

These are the only four. There is no cancelled, disputed, appealed, or under-review state, because none of those actions exists.

Lifecycle and deadlines

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