Protocol general properties

• Permissionless - the protocol is public infrastructure for commerce which anyone can use.

• Simple - the protocol is simple enough for end users and understandable enough for developers.

• Reliable and available - in order to be used as ubiquitous commerce infrastructure, the protocol is built natively in the Web3 ecosystem.

• Open and fair - the protocol has been designed and built to enable progressive decentralization. As a result all early design decisions have taken decentralization into account.

• Efficient -the protocol minimizes the cost and number of on-chain transactions.

• Optimistic - the protocol makes optimistic assumptions that the happy path will be followed.

• Automated - the main dispute resolution payload is handled by the Mutual Resolution game theoretic mechanism, with escalation to a semi-trusted third party (sTTP) Dispute Resolver by exception only.

• Trust-minimized - involves, for escalated disputes only, an Escalated Dispute Resolver (EDR) who is a commoditized service provider with minimal market power.

• Cost-mutualized - the cost of the escalated disputes is mutualized across multiple Seller transactions to reduce the cost impact, especially on low value transactions