Rulebook

Purpose

Rulebook is the on-chain ruleset of DelfiN that defines how question objects are resolved in Oracle and how disputes on them are handled in Court.

The base lifecycle of a question through Rulebook is:

Rulebook -> Question -> Answer -> Challenge -> Dispute -> Settlement

All question objects created under the same Rulebook inherit:

• Reward;
• Bond Answerer;
• Bond Disputer;
• the Liveness challenge window;
• the parameters of the selected court.

Place in the System

Rulebook serves several functions at once:

• standardizes how question objects behave inside one scenario;
• fixes economics and time windows without manual tuning for each case;
• connects Oracle and Court through one rule set;
• acts as the attachment point for the dispute mechanism in Court.

The specific dispute resolution system is chosen in Rulebook in advance and fixed in the rules.

Lifecycle

1. Any participant may create a Rulebook.
2. Roles, timeframes, economic parameters, and the selected resolution mechanism are written into it.
3. The Rulebook becomes active immediately after creation.
4. All question objects in Oracle are created only from an active Rulebook.
5. Policy Oracle and Policy Court texts are generated from the Rulebook parameters.

Rulebook Parameters

General Parameters

Parameter	Meaning
Rulebook Name	Short name shown in Rulebook lists, Oracle, and Court.
Rulebook Description	Description of the scenarios and event types this Rulebook is meant for.
Rulebook Expiration Date	After this date no new questions may be created, but existing ones keep working and may still be disputed.

Oracle Parameters

Parameter	Meaning
Reward (SUI)	Reward for answering. Paid by Asker when the question is created.
Bond Answerer (SUI)	Bond that Answerer must post when publishing an answer.
Bond Disputer (SUI)	Bond that Disputer must post to open a dispute.
Liveness (second)	Duration of the challenge window after an answer is published.

Model constraint: Bond Answerer and Bond Disputer must not be lower than Cost court.

Court Parameters

Parameter	Meaning
Name Court	Name of the court that will handle disputes for questions under this Rulebook.
Description Court	Description of the court model and decision logic, such as participant arbitration, expert court, or DAO voting.
Evidence submission period	Window during which parties may submit evidence.
Appeal period	Window during which an appeal may be filed.
Appeal price (SUI)	Cost of filing an appeal.
Max appeals	Maximum number of appeals for one case.
Cost court (SUI)	Cost of hearing a case in court.

What a Question Inherits from Rulebook

Because every question in Oracle is created from Rulebook, the following values are auto-filled:

• Liveness;
• Reward;
• Bond Answerer;
• Bond Disputer;
• Name Court;
• the remaining court parameters required for a dispute.

Once auto-filled, these parameters cannot be changed manually. That makes Rulebook a strict behavioral template rather than a descriptive reference.

Policy Oracle and Policy Court

The system uses two policy texts generated automatically:

• Policy Oracle for question and answer handling in Oracle;
• Policy Court for case handling in Court.

Their practical purpose is to:

• make the rules transparent before any dispute starts;
• lock economics and deadlines in advance;
• reduce the risk of conflicting interpretations.