Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the Verdict Ratings platform at verdict.finance (the "Service") — including this website, our public API, and any associated documentation or downloadable assets — you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, do not use the Service.

These terms are between you (the "User") and Verdict Capital ("Verdict", "we", "us", "our"), the operator of the Service.

We may update these terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email to active subscribers and posted at this URL with an updated "Last reviewed" date. Continued use of the Service after a change constitutes acceptance of the new terms.

2. Description of Service

Verdict Ratings is a DeFi (decentralised finance) ratings platform. We score protocols, chains, tokens, oracles, vaults, organisations, and bridges across 304 testable criteria spanning security, code quality, compliance, operations, technology, and economic factors.

The Service consists of:

• A public website (verdict.finance) showing letter grades, composite scores, and entity metadata.
• A tiered public API offering programmatic access to ratings data, with Free, Pro, and Enterprise tiers.
• A user dashboard for account management, subscriptions, API keys, watchlists, and alerts.

Ratings are produced through a combination of automated data collection, AI-assisted scoring, and human review. They reflect Verdict's analysis as of the date the rating was published.

3. Account Registration

Accounts are created via Privy authentication, supporting wallet, email, and Google sign-in methods. By creating an account, you represent that:

• You are at least 18 years old.
• The information you provide is accurate and current.
• You will keep your wallet credentials and API keys confidential.

You may link multiple wallets to a single account. Each wallet may be linked to at most one account. Wallet linking requires an EIP-191 signature proving control of the wallet's private key. The wallet you sign with at registration becomes your primary wallet; you may designate another linked wallet as primary at any time.

You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, including all API requests made with keys issued to your account. If you suspect a key has been compromised, rotate it immediately via your dashboard.

4. Subscription & Payments

Pro Tier Pricing: Pro tier is offered at four duration commitments, each with its own discount:

All prices are denominated in USDC and paid by direct USDC transfer to the Verdict-controlled multisig wallet on one of five supported chains (Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon). Payment instructions are provided in your dashboard.

No Refunds: All Pro payments are final. We do not offer pro-rated refunds, partial refunds, or chargebacks. Your subscription continues for the paid duration regardless of usage. You may cancel renewal at any time; cancellation does not refund the unused portion of the current period.

Renewal Mechanics: Subscriptions follow a sliding-window model — your current_period_expires_at is set to payment_detection_time + paid_duration. Subscriptions do not auto-renew. To continue Pro access, initiate a new payment from your dashboard before the current period expires.

Grace Period: After your subscription period ends, your Pro access enters a 7-day grace period during which you remain at Pro rate limits and can still authenticate. After 7 days without a renewing payment, your tier reverts to Free and Pro-tier API endpoints return tier_required errors.

Failed Payments: If your USDC transfer is for the wrong amount, on an unsupported chain, or to an incorrect address, the payment may not match automatically. Contact support@verdict.finance with your transaction hash for manual resolution.

5. API Usage

Free Tier: Free tier requires a "Powered by Verdict Ratings" attribution badge to be displayed prominently on any user-facing UI or page that displays Verdict data. The badge must link to https://verdict.finance. Badge SVG assets are available at /badges/light.svg and /badges/dark.svg. Embed snippets are documented at /docs.

Pro Tier: Attribution is optional but encouraged. You may use Verdict data without visible attribution in your own products, dashboards, or analyses.

Enterprise Tier: White-label rights are granted under a separate Master Service Agreement (MSA). Contact us at support@verdict.finance for details.

Rate Limits: Free tier is rate-limited to 300 requests per minute per API key. Pro tier is 1,000 requests per minute. Enterprise rate limits are negotiated under MSA. Exceeding rate limits returns 429 rate_limit_exceeded with X-RateLimit-Reset indicating when limits reset.

6. Acceptable Use & Restrictions

You may not, and you may not permit others to:

• Redistribute or resell data obtained from the Verdict API as a substitute service or competing offering. You may incorporate Verdict data into products that offer additional value (analysis, dashboards, alerts) but you may not resell the raw data feed itself.
• Republish ratings, scores, or methodology details on third-party websites without attribution and without prior written consent.
• Sublicense API access to third parties. Each API key is for the use of the account holder and their employees or service providers acting on the account holder's behalf.
• Build, train, or fine-tune machine-learning models intended to replicate or compete with the Verdict methodology, scoring, or rubric using data obtained from the API.
• Scrape ratings, evidence, or methodology data through means that bypass the public API (browser automation against the website is not a substitute for proper API access).
• Reverse-engineer the rating-generation pipeline, attempt to extract proprietary rubrics, or otherwise circumvent tier gating.
• Use the Service for unlawful purposes, to violate the rights of others, or to defame, harass, or threaten any party.

Violation of these terms will result in immediate revocation of API access without refund and may result in legal action.

7. Bulk Export Watermarking

Bulk exports (CSV and JSON) include a hidden __export_id column or field that uniquely identifies the export request. This watermark allows redistribution of exported data to be traced back to the originating account. Removal or alteration of the watermark before redistribution is a violation of these terms.

8. Methodology IP

The Verdict Ratings methodology — including question catalogues, weighting schemes, rubrics, scoring criteria, and evaluation procedures — is proprietary intellectual property of Verdict Capital. Letter grades, composite scores, and per-question scores produced by this methodology are licensed to you for use under these terms; the methodology itself is not.

You may publicly cite specific ratings (e.g., "Aave V3 has a Verdict rating of AA") with attribution. You may not reproduce the rubric, criteria, or scoring logic in your own published documents, code, or models.

9. Pre-Launch Risk Assessment and Pen Test engagements

Verdict offers two engagement-led services in addition to the rated data products described above: the Verdict Web3 Pre-Launch Risk Assessment, and the Verdict Pen Test. These engagements involve review of, and (in invasive Pen Test mode) active probing of, systems specified by the Customer. They are governed by a separate engagement letter — not by these website Terms of Service.

Authorisation: Verdict's authorisation to test any system is granted only via a countersigned engagement letter executed before the engagement begins. Each engagement letter schedules the specific systems, scope, modes (invasive or report-based), and timing. The website Terms of Service do not authorise testing. No statement on this website, in marketing copy, or in dashboard interfaces constitutes authorisation to test.

Customer authority: The Customer represents and warrants that, at the time of commissioning an engagement and at the time the engagement letter is countersigned, the Customer has full authority to commission testing on each system listed in the engagement letter, including (where applicable) written authorisation from the system owner. Verdict will request evidence of authority before invasive testing begins and may refuse an engagement at its discretion if the Customer cannot produce adequate evidence.

Customer indemnity: The Customer shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Verdict Capital, its officers, employees, agents, and affiliates from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, costs, expenses, or liability arising out of or relating to unauthorised commissioning of an engagement, including but not limited to commissioning testing on systems the Customer does not own or has not been authorised to test. This indemnity survives termination of these terms and of any engagement letter.

Invasive testing — backups warranty: Invasive Pen Test engagements may cause downtime, data corruption, transaction reversion, or other operational impact. Before invasive testing begins, the Customer represents and warrants that confirmed backups of all in-scope systems and an incident-response runbook are in place. Verdict will not proceed with invasive testing without this representation and may pause or terminate an engagement if it believes the representation is no longer accurate.

10. Disclaimers

No Financial Advice: Verdict ratings are informational. They are not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Ratings reflect our analysis at a point in time and may change as new information becomes available. You are solely responsible for any decisions you make based on Verdict data.

No Warranty: The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, and non-infringement.

Third-Party Risk: Ratings reflect our assessment of third-party DeFi protocols, chains, tokens, and other entities based on publicly available information and our own research. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the entities we rate. Our ratings do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Verdict Capital, its officers, employees, agents, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising from:

• Your use of or inability to use the Service.
• Decisions made or not made based on Verdict ratings or data.
• Unauthorized access to or alteration of your data.
• Bugs, errors, or inaccuracies in ratings or methodology.
• Service interruptions, downtime, or data loss.

In any event, Verdict's aggregate liability arising from or related to the Service shall not exceed the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or USD $200 if no payment was made.

12. Termination

By You: You may terminate your account at any time via the dashboard or by emailing support@verdict.finance. Termination does not refund the unused portion of any current Pro subscription.

By Us: We may terminate or suspend your account immediately, with or without notice, for:

• Violation of these terms.
• Suspected fraudulent activity.
• Chargebacks or payment disputes.
• Behaviour that harms other users, Verdict, or third parties.
• Legal or regulatory requirement.

Upon termination, your API keys are disabled, your subscription ends, and your data may be retained or deleted per our Privacy Policy.

13. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of the British Virgin Islands, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising from these terms or the Service shall be resolved in the courts of the British Virgin Islands, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms? Contact us at support@verdict.finance.