The Market Resolution Process
Before we can understand how the Astros vs. Dodgers market misresolution happened, it's important to review how the resolution process works.
The Market Resolution Process
Polymarket markets resolve through UMA’s optimistic oracle system. The process follows these steps:
Proposal: A user submits an answer and stakes a bond (usually $750).
Challenge Window (2 hours): Anyone can challenge the proposal during this period by staking the same bond (usually $750).
If Not Challenged: The proposal is automatically accepted.
If Challenged: The proposal undergoes a vote in the next voting cycle.
This system is designed to resolve quickly and efficiently, assuming someone is available to dispute any incorrect proposals.
Market Proposal Notifications
For the system to function properly, users must notice new proposals during the short dispute window. There are four primary ways a user is notified when a market has been proposed:
Polymarket Discord
UMA Discord
UMA Oracle
Polymarket Interface
Each channel serves a different type of user, but all of them assume users are actively monitoring during the short dispute window.
Polymarket Discord
Polymarket runs a Proposal Alerts bot that automatically posts to the #proposals channel whenever a new market proposal is submitted. The alert includes the market question, proposed outcome, and a link to the market. This channel keeps Polymarket users informed but does not include a direct link to the UMA Oracle proposal.
UMA Discord
UMA maintains a dedicated channel called #oo-events, which logs every submitted proposal. These notifications include technical details such as the proposer address, timestamp, and ancillary data, and the channel is typically used by experienced UMA participants and bot operators.
Additionally, a proposal thread is created for every incoming proposal. These threads are intended to help the community verify whether the proposed outcome is correct and to coordinate a dispute if one is necessary.
UMA Oracle
In the UMA Oracle anyone can view incoming proposals, their proposed outcomes, and the remaining time in the challenge window. The interface is primarily used by advanced UMA participants who assess proposal accuracy and decide whether a dispute is warranted.
Polymarket Interface
On the Polymarket interface, proposed markets display the status as "In Review."
The proposed outcome is shown in the Rules section of the market page, along with the challenge window and a dispute button. However, this information is generally inaccessible or hidden to most users and is not clearly surfaced elsewhere.
Summary
Market proposals can be viewed in four places: the Polymarket Discord, the UMA Discord, the UMA Oracle interface, and the Rules section of each Polymarket market page.
The Polymarket Discord is geared toward regular users and provides basic alerts, but it doesn’t offer direct access to the dispute process. The UMA Discord is mainly used by experienced participants who track proposal details and coordinate disputes. The UMA Oracle is where proposals can be directly disputed and is typically used by advanced users familiar with the oracle system. The Rules section on Polymarket shows the proposed outcome and remaining challenge window but is hard to find and often overlooked.
Each of these channels serves a different type of user, but no single one offers clear and accessible coverage for the broader Polymarket community.
Coming Up
In the next chapter, we'll take a closer look at the stakeholders involved in the market resolution process, including the verification team.
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