The simple metaphor
Imagine you challenge a friend: “Real Madrid wins tonight, or I give you 40,000 KTK.”
Without escrow: you have to trust your friend to pay if he loses. And he has to trust you for the same reason. If either of you refuses to pay, the other one loses out.
With escrow: you both place your 40,000 KTK with a third party (a notary, for example). When the match ends, that third party hands the 80,000 KTK to the winner. Nobody can refuse to pay.
On Ktkarena, the system plays that role: both stakes are debited before the match and the pot is paid to the winner at resolution. Neither you nor your opponent has anything to pay afterwards.
How it works technically
Here are the 3 steps in the lifecycle of a stake on Ktkarena:
Step 1 - Challenge started (stake debited)
You decide to stake 40,000 KTK on Real Madrid. You tap Start challenge in the app. At that moment:
- Your 40,000 KTK leave your balance: they are locked for this challenge.
- As long as no opponent is found, you can cancel with no penalty: your stake is returned in full.
On the Wall, the same happens as soon as you post your klash. For a direct challenge, both stakes are debited when your friend accepts.
Step 2 - Challenge matched (stake committed)
The engine finds you an opponent who staked 40,000 KTK against you. At that exact moment:
- Your stake and your opponent's form the pot: 80,000 KTK.
- The challenge is committed: on a Fixed-multiplier Event, canceling it now costs a 10 to 20% penalty (Terms, Article 7.6).
- The pot stays locked until the event is resolved.
Every movement is written to the transaction ledger: the stake debited, then, at resolution, the winnings paid and the commission.
Step 3 - Event resolved (automatic release)
When the event ends and the resolution is validated (by an external source or by an administrator, depending on the event), our system, in the same operation:
- Designates the winner according to the outcome retained.
- Calculates the commission based on the tier.
- Credits the winner with the pot, minus the commission.
- Writes the winnings and the commission to the transaction ledger.
Nobody has to trigger the payment: it follows the resolution automatically.
What protects your stake
1 - Locked for this challenge
Once debited, your stake can't be used anywhere else. It comes out at settlement, or if the challenge is canceled: by you (with no penalty before matching, with a penalty after) or along with the event.
2 - Automatic settlement
At resolution, the pot is paid to the winner, minus commission, in the same operation. Who won is established by an external source or decided by an administrator, depending on the event: how escrow is released.
3 - Everything is recorded
Every movement (stake debited, winnings paid, commission collected) is a line in the transaction ledger, which the database protects against deletion and rewriting (amount, owner, type). On top of that, every balance change is logged automatically.
What the transaction ledger guarantees.
4 - Disputes are possible
If you think the resolution is wrong, the Terms (Article 7.8) give you 48 hours to dispute it, with evidence. If the dispute is upheld, the settlement is redone according to the right outcome.
What happens if something goes wrong
Problem 1 - The resolution takes a while
If no reliable result comes in, the event waits for an administrator's decision: they either resolve it or cancel it. Your stake stays locked until then.
Problem 2 - Event canceled (postponed match, etc.)
If the event is canceled, the stake leaves escrow and returns to your balance, with no commission whatsoever.
Problem 3 - Challenge with no opponent
If your challenge doesn't find an opponent, your stake is returned to you, at the latest when the event is resolved, with no commission and no penalty.
Pool phase and escrow
Pool phase and escrow: if your challenge enters the Mutualized Pool, your stake stays committed until resolution. If nobody in the pool had staked on the winning outcome, the stakes are returned, with no commission.