Question 1

Do I have to pay a fee to post a bounty?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Posting a bounty requires a fee, based on our current fee schedule.

Question 2

When I deposit a bounty, where does the money go?

Accepted Answer

It's held in escrow by an independent third party — not by Truth Bounties. It stays there until the challenge period closes or a challenge succeeds.

Question 3

Do I need to give Truth Bounties a copy of my content when I post a bounty?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We need a fixed record of what content you've bountied. Without it, someone could post a bounty on one version of their content and then swap in something different while still displaying the Truth Bounties badge.

Question 4

What does Truth Bounties do with the copy of my content?

Accepted Answer

That's up to you. You can let us show it in full on our platform, next to your badge. Or you can keep it private, meaning we will just show a short summary next to your badge. Either way, we keep the copy so we can check that what you originally posted matches what a challenger is disputing.

Question 5

Can I edit my content while a bounty is posted?

Accepted Answer

Not exactly. As long as no challenge is in the queue, you can withdraw your bounty, revise your content, and post it again with a new bounty, at a reduced fee. If a challenge is active, you can't edit or withdraw your content.

Question 6

Can I put a bounty on private content?

Accepted Answer

No. Your content has to be accessible to the public — free, or available on reasonable terms, like through a paywall. The Truth Bounties system depends on people being able to see your content and challenge it. We also need our own access to it: if your content isn't freely accessible, you'll need to give Truth Bounties free access to it for as long as the bounty is open, so we can retrieve and check it during authenticity review. If we don't already have that access when we need it, we may get access another way and charge you for the cost.

Question 7

How long does a bounty stay open to challenge?

Accepted Answer

Six months from the day you post it. The clock runs continuously and doesn't pause, even while a challenge is underway. As that period nears its end, you'll choose to either close the bounty and get your money back, or repost it for another six months. If a challenge is still in progress when the period would otherwise end, the bounty stays open until that challenge is finished.

Question 8

What happens to challenges still in the queue when the six months are up?

Accepted Answer

They're canceled, and the challengers get their money back.

Question 9

What happens if I remove my bountied content from my own website?

Accepted Answer

That's always your choice — you can do that at any time, even after a challenge has succeeded and your badge has turned red. You can also leave the content up and just remove the badge. We don't control what happens on your own site. Whatever you do there, we keep a permanent record of what happened on the Truth Bounties platform.

Question 10

Do I have to pay a fee to bring a challenge?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The fee deters malicious actors from filing frivolous challenges just to cause trouble. The fee comes in two parts: An initiation fee (half the total), paid when you first bring the challenge. An activation fee (the other half), paid if and when your challenge moves out of the queue and becomes the active challenge.

Question 11

Do I get any money back if my challenge fails?

Accepted Answer

It depends. If the arbitrator decides against you but finds your challenge was made seriously and in good faith, your activation fee is returned (i.e., you get half your money back). If the arbitrator finds your challenge was frivolous, you don't get anything back.

Question 12

Can I cancel a challenge I've already brought?

Accepted Answer

Yes, at any point before the arbitrator issues a decision. How much money you get back depends on when you cancel. If you cancel before your challenge becomes the active challenge, your initiation fee is forfeited. If you cancel after your challenge becomes active but before it's referred to arbitration, your initiation fee is still forfeited, but your activation fee — if you've already paid it — is returned. If you cancel after your challenge has been referred to arbitration, neither fee is refunded.

Question 13

What counts as a frivolous challenge?

Accepted Answer

In general, a challenge that doesn't seriously engage with what the bountied content actually says, that's incoherent, that rests on an absurd premise, or that no reasonable person would treat as worth deciding.

Question 14

How does the authenticity check work, and what happens if there's a mismatch?

Accepted Answer

Before we do anything else with a challenge, we retrieve the content at the web address the challenger identified and compare it to the copy of the content the author submitted when posting the bounty. Small, inconsequential differences don't matter. But if we find a real mismatch — meaning the content has meaningfully changed — here's what happens: the content immediately loses its bounty status, the challenger receives 20% of the author's Truth Bounty, and the remaining 80% goes back to the author. The challenge ends there; it doesn't move on to arbitration. If we don't find a mismatch, the content we retrieved becomes the official version everyone works from for the rest of the process — even if the webpage changes again later — and the challenge moves forward into the queue.

Question 15

What is the queue, and what is an active challenge?

Accepted Answer

There's only one bounty to win, so only one challenge can proceed at a time. Once a challenge passes the authenticity check, we open a 48-hour window so that anyone else who wants to challenge the same content has a chance to join in. After that window closes, one challenge becomes the “active challenge” and moves forward. We choose the active challenge through a lottery, weighted by the challenger's track record on the platform (i.e., users with a history of bringing successful challenges get an advantage). The queue keeps challenges in order and gives everyone who wants to challenge content a fair shot. It also deters people from flooding the queue with weak challenges just to stop a serious one from ever getting its turn.

Question 16

What happens if my challenge becomes active but I don't pay the activation fee in time?

Accepted Answer

Once your challenge is selected to become the active challenge, you have 48 hours to pay the activation fee. If you miss that window, you're treated as having canceled the challenge: your initiation fee is forfeited, and the next challenge in the queue takes over as the active challenge.

Question 17

How does Truth Bounties keep the process transparent?

Accepted Answer

The platform displays information about authors’ and challengers' identities along with their evidence and arguments. In rare cases, a specific piece of evidence can be kept out of public view — for example, if publishing it would break the law or reveal private information about someone who isn't part of the case. The outcome of every challenge is public on the platform.

Question 18

What is concession, and how does it work?

Accepted Answer

Concession is when an author decides not to fight a challenge. If an author concedes before the challenge goes to arbitration, the challenger gets half the bounty, and the author gets the other half back. If an author concedes after the challenge goes to arbitration, the challenger gets 75% of the bounty, and the author gets the remaining 25%. In both cases, the author has a chance to give reasons for conceding, which we'll publish alongside the record of the challenge.

Question 19

What happens if I win my challenge?

Accepted Answer

You receive the author's truth bounty, and the content loses its bounty status.

Question 20

Who decides a challenge?

Accepted Answer

An independent arbitrator, appointed through the American Arbitration Association. Larger bounties are decided by a panel of three arbitrators; smaller ones by a single arbitrator.

Question 21

What does a challenger have to prove to win?

Accepted Answer

That it's more likely than not that the content is materially false or materially misleading. If the evidence is evenly balanced, the challenge fails.

Question 22

Can a statement of opinion be false or misleading?

Accepted Answer

An opinion can't be false. However, it must be a genuine opinion. If the author says it's an opinion but a reasonable person would understand it to be a statement of fact, then it's treated as a statement of fact. Furthermore, an opinion can be misleading if it's phrased in a way that leaves a reasonable person with a false impression of the facts.

Question 23

What happens during arbitration?

Accepted Answer

The arbitrator reviews everything both sides have submitted. From there, the arbitrator may send written questions to either party, and in some cases may schedule a live conversation or hearing with the parties if that would help resolve things fairly. The process aims to be fast, but not at the expense of getting it right.

Question 24

Will the arbitrator explain their decision?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The arbitrator writes an opinion explaining the basis for the decision, and Truth Bounties publishes it in full. If any part of the reasoning touches on evidence that had to be kept confidential, the opinion will describe it in general terms rather than reproducing it directly.

Question 25

Can the public see the evidence?

Accepted Answer

In general, yes. The evidence and arguments submitted in a challenge will appear on the platform for anyone to review. However, there are some exceptions. Evidence can't be publicized when, for example, it would expose someone’s private information without their consent, or hand a competitor sensitive business information. The public might see a redacted version or a summary of such evidence. The arbitrator sees all the evidence, and the arbitrator's written decision explains the reasoning without exposing anything sensitive.

Question 26

Why use the American Arbitration Association?

Accepted Answer

The AAA is a long-established, fully independent arbitration organization, with no stake in who wins any individual challenge. Truth Bounties pays the AAA a flat fee to resolve challenges, regardless of the outcome — arbitrators aren't paid more or less depending on which side they rule for.

Question 27

What happens in a really close case?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes the truth is genuinely hard to pin down, and that's okay — courts and juries make close calls like this every day, and society generally trusts that process to get it right. AAA arbitrators are experienced professionals who follow a similarly careful approach. If a case is truly a toss-up, with the evidence balanced on both sides, the tie goes to the author.

Question 28

How fast is the process?

Accepted Answer

The goal is to keep things moving without sacrificing accuracy. As a general matter, an author has 14 days to respond to a challenge, with extra time available for good cause — for example, a documented emergency or a challenge complex enough to require expert or technical evidence. After being appointed to a challenge, arbitrators aim to reach a decision in 30 or 45 days, depending on the size of the bounty. If an arbitrator genuinely needs more information from either side, it can take a longer to reach a decision.

Question 29

What happens to the bounty after arbitration?

Accepted Answer

If the challenger wins, they receive the author's truth bounty, and the content loses its bounty status. If the author wins, the bounty stays right where it is, attached to the content, and remains open to challenge for the rest of its six-month period.

Question 30

Is the arbitrator's decision final?

Accepted Answer

Yes. There's no appeal process built into Truth Bounties. The arbitrator’s decision resolves the challenge.

Question 31

What is the Truth Bounty badge?

Accepted Answer

A visible sign that a piece of content has (or had) real money behind it — proof that the author was confident enough to back it financially. Different versions of the badge mean different things.

Question 32

What do the different badge colors mean?

Accepted Answer

A vibrant badge means the bounty is currently open and available to challenge. A gold badge means the challenge period closed without anyone successfully challenging the content. A red badge means a challenge succeeded — the content was found false or misleading, and the bounty was paid out.

Question 33

What are the halos around a badge?

Accepted Answer

The halos represent failed challenges. The more halos a badge has, the more scrutiny the content has withstood — a stronger signal of credibility. All halos disappear the moment a challenge succeeds, so you'll never see a halo around a red badge.

Question 34

Where does the badge appear?

Accepted Answer

Always on the Truth Bounties platform, next to the author's content or a summary of that content. An author can also choose to display the badge on their own website, right next to the content it applies to. To do this, the author may have to coordinate with the technical team at Truth Bounties.

Question 35

Can I put the badge next to content that isn't bountied?

Accepted Answer

No. The badge must track the specific content to which it's attached.

Question 36

What are user scores, and what does it tell people?

Accepted Answer

We keep track of each user's history on the platform — bounties posted, challenges brought, how each one turned out, etc. Over time, that builds a track record. For example, if an author has posted many bounties in the past and never lost one, that pattern itself is a meaningful signal of credibility when they post something new.

How It Works

Post a Bounty

Share the Badge

Active Bounty

Closed Bounty

Successful Challenge

Invite a Challenge

Respond to Challenges

Resolve with Arbitration

The Reward

Arbitration by the gold standard

Independent and not-for-profit

Held to the highest standards

The record speaks for itself

Frequently asked questions