Ship it or pay your holders.

By default, a council of three AI judges decides. Each runs on a frontier model from a different company: OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. Each judge reads the terms and evidence on its own, no ruling is made until two agree, and every opinion is published. Each judge also says how confident it is; that figure is published, but every vote counts the same. A creator can instead name a person or team to judge, or rely on a check that reads the result straight from the chain, and can add that check to the council or to a named judge. Whoever a bond names to rule on it, the council or a person or team, is called its verifier. That choice is public from day one, so holders can decide whether they trust it before they buy. If no two judges reach the same ruling, the bond is settled as if nobody ruled: a backup judge rules if the bond names one, and otherwise the bond does what its terms say for that case, which by default is to pay holders. A bond can also name an appeal panel. If it does, anyone can appeal a ruling, the council’s included, by putting down a deposit within the appeal window the bond sets, and the bond pays out only once that window closes. The deposit comes back if the ruling is overturned and goes to the panel if the ruling stands.

The judges are instructed to treat evidence as something to weigh, never as instructions to follow. If a page tries to tell them what to decide, each judge reports it in its opinion as an attempt to manipulate the ruling and decides on the rest of the evidence. Every link is fetched once and saved, so all three read the same copy, and they rule only on public evidence anyone could check. Shipped operates the three judges, but the council’s members were fixed when it was set up, so nobody, Shipped included, can add, remove or replace one. Every opinion names the model that wrote it and the version of the instructions it followed. No single judge decides: two must agree, and every opinion is published with its fingerprint recorded on chain, so anyone can confirm it hasn’t been changed after the fact.

Only if the creator gives up. Before the deadline, the verifier can only accept delivery; a rejection has to wait until the date has passed. A creator who knows they won’t make it can concede early, which pays the bond to holders straight away instead of at the deadline.

Not on their own. Once a bond is posted, its money is held in escrow by a smart contract until the bond settles. The only way it returns to the creator without a ruling is if the bond’s public terms say so and nobody rules in time. That outcome is stamped “unruled” and never counts as shipped.

No. The contracts can’t be upgraded, and no one, Shipped included, can withdraw a bond’s money, change its terms, or rule on a bond they weren’t named on. Shipped’s settings (which assets a bond can hold, the fee on new bonds, and whether new bonds can be posted) apply only to bonds that haven’t been posted yet. Shipped does have one role in a payout: it calculates every holder’s share from the project’s public transfer history, using the rules in its docs, then publishes the list and gives anyone two days to check it before claims open.

Each bond sets how long its verifier has to rule after the deadline, and what happens if that time passes without a ruling. Paying holders is the default. A creator can choose otherwise when they post the bond, and that choice is public like every other term. A bond that pays its creator when nobody rules is stamped “unruled” and never counts as shipped.

The project’s holders, weighted by how much they held and for how long between the day the bond was posted and its deadline. The creator and any wallets they name are left out. A wallet that buys in at the last minute receives almost nothing, so the bond goes to the people who held while the promise was open.

Once the bond settles, Shipped calculates each holder’s share from the project’s public transfer history, publishes the list and leaves two days for anyone to check it. Anyone who finds a wrong share can report it within those two days (the docs explain how). Shipped then cancels the list and publishes a corrected one, which gets its own two-day check. After that, holders claim their share whenever they like, and claims never expire.

Shipped

The creator delivered, and the bond was released to them.

Partial

The verifier ruled it partly delivered and split the bond between creator and holders, as the bond’s terms allow. It counts as partial, not shipped.

Not shipped

The creator missed, and the bond was paid to holders. It counts as a miss.

Conceded

The creator gave up, and the bond was paid to holders. It counts as a miss.

Expired

Nobody ruled, and the bond was paid to holders. It counts as a miss.

Unruled

Nobody ruled, and the bond was released to the creator. It never counts as shipped, or as a miss.

Void

After the deadline, the verifier ruled that the promise could no longer be judged, so the bond was divided as its public terms set out. It never counts as shipped, or as a miss.

A bond is held in WETH or USDG on Robinhood Chain. Anyone can add to a bond while it’s open, and a launch can pledge part of its creator fee, which adds to the bond as it’s earned. Shipped takes its fee only from what’s released to the creator, never from holders’ payouts.