How a Valtrums battle works, from opening to prizes

Every Valtrums battle follows the same seven stages. A battle needs at least two communities with real deposits to start, and it always ends with exactly one winning community. Step through the stages below, or read the details that follow.

1. Open

Anyone can open a battle. The creator picks:

• One scoring mode for the whole battle, including any overtime rounds. See Scoring modes.
• A start time between 1 minute and 7 days from now.

Opening a battle is free: there is no bond. Communities are not invited. The creator must make a real deposit in one of the communities before the battle locks.

2. Join and deposit

Until the start time, anyone can join with one of the supported tokens: CASHCAT, WALLET, GOOD, VLAD or DEGEN. Joining with a token adds that token's community (crew) to the battle. Players then deposit that token to back it.

A deposit only counts after Valtrums confirms the tokens actually arrived and the community has fresh safety and backing approvals. Until then it shows as In escrow. See Join a battle and deposit.

3. Lock

At the start time, joining and deposits close. If two or more communities have deposits, the battle locks: the communities, every deposit amount, the scoring mode and the fee settings are frozen. Communities without deposits are left out.

If fewer than two communities have deposits, the battle can't start. Anyone can cancel it, and every depositor gets their exact deposit back. See Get a refund.

4. Rounds

Each round lasts exactly 30 seconds. Valtrums records prices at the start and end of the round (and during it for the drawdown mode) and scores every community with the chosen mode. Prices are point readings, not averages.

If one community has the best score on its own, it is the final winner.

5. Overtime

If two or more communities tie for the best score, only those tied leaders play another 30-second round. Every input resets for the new round, and earlier scores don't carry over. There is no limit on the number of overtime rounds.

During overtime, deposits stay closed and every deposit stays locked, including those of communities that were already eliminated.

6. Settlement

Once a single winner exists, each losing community's deposit is split:

When the protocol itself created the battle, it receives the full 0.1%. Rewards are the original losing tokens. They are not swapped. See Rewards and fees.

7. The winners' vote

The winning community's own deposit doesn't go back automatically. It is held in escrow while the winning backers vote on what share to burn and what share to return. Rewards from the losing communities don't depend on this vote. See The winners' vote.