How Vaultion resolves disputes
If a buyer and seller can’t agree, someone has to decide — but it shouldn’t be the platform holding the stakes. Vaultion offers two ways to settle a dispute, and you choose per escrow: decentralized Kleros arbitration, or Vaultion-assisted human review. Here’s how each works — and exactly what you’re trusting in each.
Start an escrowDecentralized, or Vaultion-assisted
Kleros arbitration
Trustless. The dispute leaves Vaultion entirely.
- Randomly-drawn, staked jurors from the independent Kleros protocol review the evidence and vote.
- Vaultion can’t pick the jurors, reach them, or reverse the outcome — it runs on its own contracts.
- Appealable to a larger panel, and a Kleros arbitration fee applies (paid by the disputing party).
- Available on the Ethereum path. Best when you want zero reliance on Vaultion.
Vaultion-assisted review
Trusted and windowed. A Vaultion review panel decides.
- Not decentralized — you are trusting Vaultion’s reviewers to weigh the evidence fairly.
- A freeze-only guardian can pause a ruling, but can never redirect funds — Vaultion holds no key that moves your money.
- Disputes on this path are fee-less and decided by the panel, not jurors — no staking, no appeal fees.
- AI helps prepare and organize the case; people make the decision. It is never automated “AI arbitration.”
What makes a Kleros verdict trustworthy
On the Kleros path, disputes are handed to an independent arbitration protocol that has decided cases for many separate projects. Vaultion plugs into it; it isn’t something we run or control. A panel of randomly-drawn jurors reviews the evidence and votes, and the escrow contract enforces the result.
Independent of Vaultion
Kleros runs on its own contracts. Vaultion can’t pick the jurors, can’t reach them, and has no key to reverse a ruling. Once a dispute opens on this path, the outcome is out of our hands by design.
Randomly-drawn jurors
Jurors lock the Kleros token to be eligible and are selected at random for each case. Neither side can choose, predict, or line up the panel that will rule on their dispute.
Skin in the game
Jurors who vote with the eventual majority earn a fee; those who vote against it lose part of their stake. The rational move is to vote the way the evidence honestly points — guessing or selling a vote costs real money.
Appealable by design
A party who believes the panel got it wrong can appeal, escalating the case to a larger group of jurors. That raises the cost of an incorrect outcome and gives a genuine error a path to be corrected.
What you’re trusting — and what you’re not
Some deals want a faster, fee-less resolution, or run on a chain where Kleros isn’t available. For those, Vaultion offers an assisted path. It is honest about its trade-off: it is trusted, not trustless — but never custodial.
A human panel, not a juror pool
A Vaultion review panel reads the evidence both sides submit and issues a ruling the escrow contract then enforces. This path is trusted, not trustless — you are relying on those reviewers to be fair.
Freeze, never redirect
A separate freeze-only guardian can pause a pending ruling if something looks wrong, but it can never move or redirect funds. No single Vaultion key can both decide a case and touch the money.
AI-assisted, human-decided
AI helps gather and organize the evidence into a clear case file so reviewers can rule quickly and consistently. The decision is always made by people — Vaultion does not run “AI arbitration.”
See the contracts for yourself
The arbitrator and the escrow aren’t claims — they’re contracts. Open them on the block explorer and confirm the arbitrator is a separate system, alongside the escrow contract that enforces its rulings and holds the funds on both paths.
Frequently asked
Which path settles my dispute?
It depends on the escrow. Escrows created on the Ethereum/Kleros path are settled by independent Kleros jurors; escrows created on the Vaultion-assisted path are settled by a Vaultion review panel. You can see which arbitrator an escrow uses before you fund it.
Can Vaultion take or move my funds?
No. On both paths the funds sit in the escrow smart contract, and Vaultion holds no key that can send them to itself or anyone else. On the assisted path a guardian can pause a ruling, but it cannot redirect funds — the only thing that releases them is the contract enforcing the arbitrator’s decision.
Is the Vaultion-assisted path decentralized?
No, and we don’t claim it is. On the assisted path you are trusting Vaultion’s reviewers to weigh the evidence fairly. What you are NOT trusting them with is custody — they can rule and pause, but never take or redirect the money. If you want a fully trustless outcome, choose the Kleros path.
Does the assisted path use jurors or arbitration fees?
No. Assisted disputes are fee-less and decided by the Vaultion panel — there is no juror staking and no appeal fee. Kleros-specific fees and juror mechanics only apply on the Kleros path.
Is this “AI arbitration”?
No. On the assisted path, AI is used only to help prepare and organize the case file. The ruling is always made by people. On the Kleros path there is no AI at all — human jurors decide.
Why should I trust Kleros jurors I don’t know?
You are trusting their incentives, not their identities. Jurors lock the Kleros token to be eligible, are drawn at random per case, and are paid for voting with the eventual majority while losing part of their stake for voting against it. The profitable move is to vote the way an honest reading of the evidence points.
Ready to lock a deal?
Set up an escrow in a few steps and pick the dispute path that fits. Funds stay locked in the contract until the deal is done or arbitration decides.
Create an escrow