What is Kleros?

Kleros is the blockchain dispute resolution layer that provides fast, secure and affordable arbitration for virtually everything. Watch this explainer video:

What are some use cases of Kleros?

Kleros is a multipurpose arbitration system able to handle a large number of disputes:

● Alice claims that the good she bought from Bob in an e-commerce platform is defective. The jury votes for Alice and she is reimbursed.

● Alice raises money with a crowdfunding campaign. The jury votes that she failed to meet critical milestones. Buyers are reimbursed.

● Alice flags Bob for an inappropriate comment in a decentralized social media platform. The jury decides that Bob violated the terms and conditions. He loses reputation points and the content is removed.

● Alice flags Bob’s song for plagiarism on a decentralized music platform. The jury determines that the song was plagiarized. Revenue from the song is redirected to Alice.

● Alice flags Bob for cheating in an online gaming tournament. The jury analyzes the recording of the game and votes that Bob is guilty. Bob is banned from the platform.

Kleros provides fast, secure and affordable arbitration for many different use cases.

Do you have a prototype?

Yes, we have a prototype running on Kovan test net. Here you can see a contract creation interface for escrowed payments, and here you can see the interface where jurors rule disputes. In this video you can see an explainer of the proof of concept:

What’s the name of your token?

The protocol token is named pinakion (PNK). The name comes from the bronze ID plaque used to select jurors for popular trials in Ancient Athens.

A pinakion, the bronze ID plaque used to select jurors for popular trials in Ancient Athens.

Why do you need a token?

PNK is required to protect the system against the sybil attack and to provide jurors an incentive to adjudicate disputes honestly. Users adjudicating disputes honestly will, on average, earn money. Users trying to game the system will, on average, lose money. PNK cannot be replaced by ETH as this would greatly increase the risk of a 51% attack on Kleros. To learn more about the token, read our white paper.

How many tokens will be created?

1 billion PNK will be created. We will sell 16% in a first token sale. Another 50% of the tokens will be kept in reserve for selling in future rounds tied to milestones and for incentivizing early jurors in the platform.

Which currency can I use for my contribution?

We only accept contributions in Ether (ETH). If you hold any other currencies, you can convert them into Ether on an exchange.

Is there a minimum contribution for the KYC?

There is no minimum contribution.

What is the KYC process?

Please see the link here for full details.

What’s your token sale method?

We’re using the Interactive Coin Offering (IICO), a new token sale protocol advocated by Vitalik Buterin, Jason Teutsch and Christopher Brown that seeks to make token sales more egalitarian for large and small buyers.

Why are you using the Interactive Coin Offering?

In capped sales, a fixed amount of tokens is sold at a fixed price. Buyers know the valuation of the project. However, participation isn’t guaranteed. In uncapped sales, on the contrary, valuation is not fixed. The pro is that everyone can participate. However, buyers cannot be sure of the valuation at which they will buy the tokens and can be diluted more than what they would be comfortable with. By letting participants choose a personal cap, the IICO provides buyers of every size two desired properties: certainty of participation and certainty of valuation. To learn more about our token sale strategy, read this article.

How does the IICO work?

When making your bid, you can choose a personal cap. This puts a ceiling on the valuation at which you will participate in the sale. Thanks to this, you can be certain that you won’t have to pay a higher price than the one you selected. If you want to be 100% sure to participate in the sale, the interface gives you the option not to select a personal cap. Find out exactly how the IICO works here.

How do the stages of the token sale work?

Following the IICO protocol, the Kleros token sale will take place in a number of phases optimized for price discovery and convergence towards an equilibrium price for PNK:

In the first phase of the sale (the “Full Bonus Phase”), participants can make contributions that take advantage of the sale’s full bonus and withdraw them with no penalty.

In the second phase of the sale (the “Partial Withdrawals Phase”), participants can make contributions and also withdraw them, but this time, with a penalty. The bonus also starts decreasing linearly at this phase, while the penalty for withdrawals increases linearly.

In the third phase of the sale (the “Withdrawal Lockup Phase”), voluntary withdrawals are no longer permitted. Also, new contributions must have a personal cap that is strictly more than or equal to the current valuation.

At the end of the sale, tokens are distributed to participants who stayed in the sale and ETH is refunded to participants whose personal cap was exceeded. In some cases, the cut-off contribution might receive a partial ETH refund and some tokens.

To understand how the mechanism works in more detail, see this post: https://medium.com/kleros/how-interactive-coin-offerings-iicos-work-beed401ce526

Don’t you think it’s too risky to be the first to use an unproven token sale method?

It’s clear that the current model of token sales is broken and the IICO is a step forward to fix it. Kleros is seeking to modernize justice and the IICO reinforces this principle in token sales. We think it’s the right thing to do.

Why are you running your token sale in more than one round?

Instead of doing one large sale at the beginning of the project, when our product is in an early stage, we believe it’s more responsible to conduct our sale in a number of rounds, as we can prove our ability to deliver on our promises. We will sell 16% of the tokens in the first round and conduct other rounds as we achieve critical milestones. To learn more about our token sale strategy, read this article.

What will you do with the 50% of the tokens you are not selling in the first round?

Part of these tokens will be sold in further rounds as we complete critical milestones. Another part will be used as an additional incentive for early jurors in the platform.

How much do you want to raise?

IICO is a market based method. This means that the revenue from the token sale will be determined by market forces. We are not targeting a specific amount.

Can I participate in Kleros presale?

There is no presale.

Why didn’t you do a presale?

While many teams do a presale before the public sale, we didn’t feel it was the right move for us. We wanted to have a working prototype before accepting outside resources. Moreover, presales usually have large discounts which favor large scale buyers. We wanted all buyers, big and small, to participate in equality of conditions during the public sale.

How was the project funded?

The entire project was self-funded by the team.

How can I get a bonus in the token sale?

In order to incentivize price formation, the Interactive Coin Offering rewards participants making their contribution early in the sale with a 20% bonus. The bonus decreases smoothly down to 10% at the beginning of the second stage of the IICO, and then down to 0% by the end. To have a larger bonus, you should make your contribution at an early stage in the sale.

How do the three stages in the sale work?

Stage 1. May 15 to June 15. 20% bonus and the contributor can manually withdraw the contribution without penalty.

Stage 2. June 15 to July 1. The bonus starts to decrease linearly and the contributor can manually withdraw the contribution WITH penalty.

Stage 3. July 1 to July 15. The contributor cannot withdraw the contribution manually. Only automatic withdrawals.

What happens if you raise a big amount of money in the first round? Will you still do the others?

The IICO allows buyers to select a personal maximum valuation and be reimbursed if it is exceeded. This is why it’s unlikely that Kleros’ token sale will generate a extremely high amount of money. Should that event happen, we would increase the tokens to allocate to the Juror Incentive Program.

How would that Juror Incentive Program work?

Users have to stake PNK in order to be drawn as jurors in the platform. Jurors who vote coherently with the majority are transferred the PNK lost by jurors who vote incoherently. The Juror Incentive Program will reward jurors who vote coherently with extra PNK. It’s as if jurors who voted coherently would “mine” PNK with their honest vote.

How will people acquire PNK after the initial offering?

Users will be able to buy tokens in the secondary market.

In which exchanges will PNK be listed?

It’s likely that PNK will be listed on the decentralized exchanges. We expect to make some announcements about the listing of PNK on well known exchanges.

When will I receive my PNK?

You will be able to withdraw your PNK immediately after the end of the token sale.

Why can’t I have my tokens right after I send my contribution?

Because of the mechanics of the Interactive Coin Offering, you will not be sure whether you will actually get PNK before the end of the token sale. If you select a personal cap, there is a chance you will be refunded your ETH and not get any PNK. If you selected no Personal Cap, the amount of PNK you will receive will only be determined at the end of the sale. When the token sale ends, you will be able to redeem your PNK and have them transferred to your wallet.

Is there a lock up period for the tokens after the token sale is over?

Buyers will be able to use and transfer the tokens as soon as the token sale ends.

What will be the price of PNK at the beginning of the sale?

Because of the dynamics of the IICO, the price of the PNK will be defined during the sale.

How can I get a bonus?

Since an IICO is designed to create price formation over time, early participants are incentivized with a bonus. This bonus starts at 20% and decreases linearly to 0 over the duration of the token sale. For a detailed look at how the IICO mechanics work, click here.

Who wrote the code for the token sale?

We wrote the code ourselves.

Who audited the code?

The code is being audited by a bounty program and will be audited by an external audit. At the time of this writing, the code was already reviewed by at least 21 people.

How will tokens be allocated?

Team Members: 18%

First Round of Token Sale: 16%

Airdrop: 4%

Subsequent Rounds and Juror Incentive Program: 50%

Kleros Cooperative Development Reserve: 12%

How will you spend the money raised in the token sale?

We estimate to use the revenue from the token sale for product development (45%), research (25%), ecosystem development (10%), communication (10%) and legal & operations (10%).

What are your product milestones?

At this moment, we already have an MVP running on Kovan test net with escrow disputes. The next milestones in our product roadmap are the following.

July 2018: First Pilots. We will test the Kleros MVP with artificial disputes solved by traditional methods and see how results compare. This first version will have real economic incentives for jurors but not enforcement. In order to conduct this test, we have already started our Early Jurors Program with 5,000 jurors.

October 2018. First Version with Real Enforcement of disputes. We will use Kleros to adjudicate disputes with real enforcement on the Ethereum main net.

April 2019. Release of a version with multiple sub-courts. We will implement subcourt hierarchy to allow jurors to specialized in some particular kind of disputes.

How do I know you’re legit?

You can take a look at the Kleros prototype, code, conference presentations, publications, and of course, the Kleros team. To see the achievements of Kleros’ team since the beginning of the project in April 2017, read this post.

Are American participants allowed in the sale?

US non-accredited investors are not eligible to participate in the sale. Citizens of countries in the EU sanction list are not eligible. Buyers will be checked against lists of restricted individuals. If you’re an American accredited investor, you can contact us at contact@kleros.io.

What is Kleros’ legal entity?

Kleros is incorporated as a Société Coopérative d’Intérêt Collectif (SCIC), a type of cooperative under French law. Governance is shared between three colleges: founders, producers (contractors and employees) and users (jurors, parties in disputes, partners). All revenue from the token sale will be kept as an unshareable reserve. Funds can only be used for project development and cannot be distributed as dividends. To learn more about Kleros’ legal entity, read this.