Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the Verdict 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 is a due-diligence-as-a-service platform for DeFi (decentralised finance), operated by Verdict Capital. We provide independent risk ratings scoring protocols, chains, tokens, oracles, vaults, organisations, and bridges across 300+ testable criteria spanning security, code quality, compliance, operations, technology, and economic factors; paid engagement services (rating commissions, improvement consultancy, the Pre-Launch Risk Assessment, the Pen Test); and a security partner marketplace for audits, monitoring, and penetration testing.

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.
• WhiteHat, a commissioned smart-contract scanning service available from the dashboard, described in the WhiteHat Scans section below.
• Verdict Cover, a peer-to-peer parametric cover marketplace (pools scheduled to open in September 2026), described in the Verdict Cover section below.

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.

The paid engagement services above are booked from the dashboard. The Pre-Launch Risk Assessment and Pen Test are governed by engagement letters as described below.

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" 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.

AI and automated access: The API may be consumed by AI assistants, agents, and other automated clients on the same tiers and terms as any other client. Where an automated client has no user-facing surface on which to display the attribution badge, attribution is satisfied by naming Verdict as the source and, where the medium allows, linking to verdict.finance. An assistant or agent answering individual user queries from Verdict data, with attribution, is permitted use and is not redistribution. Operating an automated client as a substitute or competing data service, including bulk retrieval for republication, remains prohibited under the Acceptable Use & Restrictions section, regardless of the technology used.

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 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. WhiteHat Scans

WhiteHat is a commissioned smart-contract scanning service available from the dashboard. A scan runs a versioned ensemble of static detectors and an AI triage layer against the target you specify: a source repository at a pinned commit, or a deployed contract address. Findings are ranked, explained, and delivered as a report to your dashboard.

Authorisation: By commissioning a scan you represent and warrant that you are authorised to submit the target for analysis. WhiteHat scanning is passive static analysis of the submitted code or address; it does not probe, transact against, or otherwise interact with live systems. Commissioning a scan of a target you are not authorised to submit is a violation of these terms.

Not an audit: A WhiteHat scan is automated analysis. It is not a manual security audit, not a penetration test, and not a guarantee that the scanned code is free of vulnerabilities. A scan that reports no findings does not mean the target is secure. Findings are informational and do not constitute advice.

Fees: Scan fees are displayed in the dashboard at the time of commissioning and are payable in USDC. Once a scan has run, its fee is final and non-refundable.

Ratings evidence: Where a scanned target corresponds to an entity Verdict rates, scan results may be incorporated into the evidence base for that entity's rating.

11. Verdict Cover

What Cover is: Verdict Cover is a peer-to-peer parametric cover marketplace. For each covered entity, CLAIM and NOCLAIM are on-chain instruments (ERC-20 tokens) that trade against USDC through an automated market maker. Pools are scheduled to open in September 2026.

Not insurance: Cover is not insurance, and CLAIM and NOCLAIM are not insurance policies. Verdict is not an insurance company, insurer, insurance broker, or underwriter, and does not offer insurance products as defined by applicable laws or regulations. Cover is also not a discretionary mutual: no person, committee, or vote exercises discretion over payouts.

Verdict's role: Verdict does not underwrite risk, does not provide cover, does not act as counterparty to any cover position, and does not manage or custody premiums or pool capital. Verdict's only role in Cover is to set the initial premium seed as a deterministic function of the published rating; the market determines every price thereafter. Coverage seekers, coverage providers, and liquidity providers transact peer-to-peer, and the risk of loss sits entirely with them.

Claims: Cover claims are determined by a bounded on-chain parametric process: autonomous multi-source detection, an optimistic-oracle dispute window backed by economic bonds on both sides, a governance backstop window for anomalous cases, and automated settlement. Verdict has no ability to change, reverse, or invalidate any claim outcome, and no Verdict employee or committee decides claims. By using Cover you accept the on-chain process as the exclusive claim-determination mechanism. The Governing Law & Jurisdiction section governs contractual disputes with Verdict; it does not apply to claim outcomes.

Risk of loss: Cover positions carry risk of total loss. A stated pool size or coverage limit does not guarantee that funds will be available at the time of an event; payouts depend on pool state and the parametric trigger, not on Verdict. Coverage providers and liquidity providers may lose the entire value of their positions. All figures in Cover marketing materials, including worked examples and yields, are illustrative only and are not a promise of performance.

Protocol dependencies: Cover operates on third-party infrastructure, including oracle networks, optimistic-oracle adjudication, automated market makers, and cross-chain messaging. You accept the smart-contract, oracle, and bridge risks of those external protocols.

Ratings and Cover are separate: A Verdict rating is not a recommendation to buy, sell, provide, or underwrite cover on any entity. The rating seeds the opening price of a cover market; it is not advice about that market.

Eligibility: Cover is not offered where prohibited by law. You are responsible for compliance with the laws of your jurisdiction, and additional eligibility requirements may apply when pools open.

12. 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. This applies equally to Cover: nothing in Cover, including the rating-seeded premium, worked examples, or illustrative yields, is financial, investment, legal, or tax advice, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instrument.

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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. Contact

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