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A tier is the public-facing dispute profile for a Justly case. It defines the security level, cost, and robustness of a dispute. It packages the main values a platform or integrator cares about, such as:
  • how many jurors are targeted,
  • how much jurors stake,
  • and the arbitration fee amounts required for each side of the dispute.
Tiers allow the protocol to adapt to different types of conflicts by balancing:
  • resolution speed,
  • required level of trust,
  • and the economic risk assumed by the parties and jurors.
Each dispute is executed within a specific tier, and all rules of the resolution process are determined by that tier.

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What changes between tiers

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1. Number of jurors

Each tier defines how many human jurors are targeted for a dispute.
  • Lower tiers use fewer jurors, enabling faster and lower-cost resolutions.
  • Higher tiers use more jurors, increasing diversity of judgment and reducing the likelihood of biased outcomes.
A higher number of jurors increases the robustness of the result against individual errors or adversarial behavior.

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2. Stakes and fees

Tiers establish the economic values for:
  • juror stakes,
  • the claimer-side funding requirement,
  • and the defender-side funding requirement.
Each side must be fully funded before the dispute activates. Higher values:
  • increase the cost of malicious behavior,
  • raise the economic commitment of participants,
  • and better align incentives when the value or complexity of the dispute is higher.

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3. Security level

The security level of a dispute increases as the tier becomes higher. This is driven by the combination of:
  • a larger number of jurors,
  • higher economic stakes,
  • and a greater total cost required to manipulate the outcome.
Together, these factors make higher tiers more suitable for:
  • higher-value disputes,
  • more complex cases,
  • or situations where an additional level of confidence is required.

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Tier system design

Tiers do not exist to segment users, but to offer security options proportional to the risk of a given conflict. For integrators, tiers are the main abstraction exposed through the SDK or API.
  • tiers are fixed and predefined by the protocol,
  • all disputes within the same tier follow exactly the same rules,
  • and outcomes are executed automatically and verifiably on-chain.
This design ensures predictable behavior for both individual users and platforms integrating Justly.