03 · Bazaar docs

Betting

A bet is one decision — which outcome, how much — and it settles automatically the moment the creator resolves the market. Real markets use USDC on Base; practice markets use paper pUSDC and behave identically.

Your first bet

1Find a market. Browse Markets (filter by subject category or question format), open a collection, or follow a link somebody shared. A private market is reachable only by its link.
2Read the criteria and the creator. The market page states exactly what resolves it and links its sources; the trust card next to the bet panel shows the creator’s record, including the number of markets they let expire.
3Connect a wallet. The wallet chip in the top-right corner signs you in. Your wallet is your account — there is no separate Bazaar signup.
4Accept the terms once. Before your first real-money bet you accept three sentences (below). Bumping the terms version forces a re-read rather than silently binding you to something new. Practice bets are never gated.
5Pick an outcome and an amount. Preset chips or a custom amount, from $0.50. The panel breaks out the 10% fee and the return at the current pool before you confirm.
6Confirm. The bet is charged once — a retry with the same idempotency key is absorbed, never double-filled — and appears in your positions immediately.

What you accept (terms version 2026-07-18)

Markets in Bazaar are resolved by the person who created them, not by Hunch.
A creator's resolution is final — there is no dispute process.
If a market is not resolved within 48 hours of its deadline, every bet is refunded in full, fees included.

Limits, and why each one exists

Limit	Value	Reason
Minimum bet	$0.50	Small enough for a group-chat market; large enough that dust bets cannot spam a pool.
Per-market cap	$100.00 per person	One wallet cannot corner a pool whose outcome a single human decides.
New-account cap	$25.00 per day	Applies while an account is under 48h old and has no history.
Free-form amounts	no ticket sizes	You stake a number, not a share count — nothing to round, nothing to explain.
Pre-close lock	template-dependent	Some templates (price targets) stop taking bets shortly before close, so the last bettor cannot trade on a result already visible.

Every refusal names the rule that fired (bet_below_minimum, bet_exceeds_market_cap, terms_not_accepted, …) and is recorded, so “your bet was refused” is never the whole answer you get.

What you stand to win

Your slice is pool × (your net stake ÷ winning-outcome net stake). Because later bets change both numbers, the figure in the panel is a projection at the current pool, computed through the same engine that settles — it can never promise more than the market would actually pay.

More money on your side after you bet → your slice shrinks (but the crowd now agrees with you).
More money on the other outcomes → your slice grows.
You are the only backer of the winning outcome → you take the entire pool.
Your outcome loses → you receive nothing. The stake was the risk.

Getting paid

Payouts are instant and final: they are dispatched inside the creator’s resolve call, not queued for a later job, and they go to the wallet that placed the bet. There is no claim step, no vesting, and no review window.

Your receipt

A settled market you won shows a win receipt with your stake, your payout and the multiple — shareable as an image card, which is also the highest-intent share surface in the product (and it mints a referral code; see Sharing).

Your positions

Open and settled positions are grouped per market, with stake and payout lines. Agents read the same view over GET /api/bazaar/v1/positions.

Every way your money comes back

Situation	You receive
Creator never resolves	Your FULL GROSS stake — fee included — 48h after the resolve deadline. Automatic; you do not have to ask.
You were the only bettor	Your full gross stake back, whatever outcome was called. One bettor is not a market.
Nobody backed the winning outcome	Full gross refund to everyone. The pool is never swept by an unbacked resolution.
Market removed for policy reasons before resolution	Full gross refund to everyone; the creator forfeits their fees.
Market removed after resolution	You keep the payout you were already dispatched. Only the creator's fees claw back.

What is NOT a refund case

A resolution you disagree with is final. You can file it under outcome on the report form — it is recorded as a labelled signal and feeds future dispute design — but it does not reopen the market or reverse a payout. The protection against a bad-faith creator is their public record and the 48-hour guarantee, not an appeal.

Practising first

Every mechanic on this page exists on the practice surface with 1000.00 pUSDC of paper money: same 10% fee, same pool maths, same 48-hour guarantee. Real and paper markets never appear in one list, and no paper number can reach a tier, a score, or a board. See Practice with pUSDC.

Common questions

Can I sell or cancel a bet before the market closes?

No. There is no secondary market and no cash-out in v1 — a parimutuel pool has no order book to sell into. Your position stands until the market settles or refunds.

Can I bet on more than one outcome in the same market?

Yes, and it is a legitimate hedge, but note that the 10% fee is charged on each stake — betting both sides of a binary is a guaranteed loss of the fee.

Does the creator know I bet?

Creators see their market’s pools and bet counts, and a distinct bettor count — the same public figures anyone sees. Bettor-level identity is not surfaced to them.

What if the market’s criteria turn out to be ambiguous?

Read them before betting — that is the moment ambiguity is cheap. If a market is genuinely unresolvable the creator can void it, which refunds everyone in full; if they simply do nothing, the 48-hour guarantee does the same.

Is there a fee when I withdraw my winnings?

Not from Bazaar. The 10% entry fee is the only deduction the product takes; payouts land in your wallet and moving them onward is ordinary Base activity.