Rounds
Every duel has six scheduled round closes a day. After the first round, rounds last four hours. A round may have a winner or none; a winning side can be bought back and burned within the buyback price ceiling.
When rounds end
Rounds end on the same boundaries for every duel, every four hours: midnight, 4 AM, 8 AM, noon, 4 PM and 8 PM UTC. A new duel's first round runs to the first boundary that leaves at least four hours of trading, so it lasts between four and eight hours; every round after it lasts exactly four hours.
Who wins
The hook integrates the logarithm of A’s price in ETH divided by B’s price in ETH, using the difference of the two ETH pools’ ticks, second by second. Its time-weighted average decides the winner. Both the size of a lead and its duration matter; the displayed average converts that average tick back into a share. It is not an arithmetic average of percentages. A late lead counts only for the remaining time, but can still change a close result. The A/B pool’s price does not count.
There is no winner when:
- nobody traded in ETH during the round, and no switch through the A/B pool moved an ETH price;
- the absolute time-weighted average of the ETH price-ratio tick is less than one tick and rounds toward zero. One tick is a roughly 0.01% change in the price ratio, not 0.01 percentage points of the split.
In either case, the pot carries over.
What resets and what carries over
| At the close | |
|---|---|
| The split | Carries over. It is a market price: nobody's position changes at the close. |
| The round's average | Resets. The next round averages its own four hours only. |
| The pot | Carries over whatever the buyback could not spend (see The pot and the burn). |
| Burned tokens | Gone for good: the winner's supply shrinks. |
The side ahead at the close keeps that live price lead into the next round. A buyback can move the winning side’s price, which need not be the side ahead at the close. The next round starts a fresh average; winning it depends on both the size and duration of the price lead.
Why every four hours
- Regular closes. Six scheduled closes a day give every time zone several opportunities to follow a result.
- More buyback opportunities. A buyback cannot pay more than about 10% above its reference price (its 30-minute exponential average, or its price when that is lower). Six rounds allow up to six opportunities a day; they do not guarantee a winner or that a large pot will be spent.
- Streaks of wins. Three consecutive wins mean three winning settled rounds, not twelve hours continuously ahead. Quiet rounds do not break a streak, and the first round may last four to eight hours.
Settling a round
A round is settled by the first swap after its close, before that swap runs. The result uses the ticks held until the close; if there is a winner, the pot can buy it back within its price ceiling, then the user’s swap proceeds. That swap cannot change the result it settles.
Until it is settled, the duel's page shows the round's result: its average stops at the close, so nothing that happens
after it can change it, however late the settlement comes. If the round has a winner and nobody trades after the
close, anyone can settle it with Settle the round now on the duel's page (the hook's settle function).
Rounds that pass without a swap are skipped: a duel that sleeps for three days wakes up in the current round. A round awaiting settlement keeps its result; unspent pot ETH carries over and remains subject to the price ceiling at later winning settlements. Quiet rounds do not break a side’s streak: it ends only when the other side wins.