Built on Ethereum, Kleros (
https://kleros.io/) is a decentralized dispute resolution protocol that believes in fair, unbiased, decentralized justice through community driven arbitration. By leveraging game theory to have crowdsourced jurors, Kleros offers a reliable mechanism for adjudicating disputes without the need for traditional intermediaries.
Here are a couple of videos to help you visualize how it works:
https://youtu.be/wZZ2ipS-jZw https://youtu.be/NuSps_2wMQ4 The Role of PNK in KlerosIn ancient Athens, a bronze tablet known as a ‘Pinakion’ was used as a form of identification for citizens. These tablets were inserted into a ‘Kleroterion’, a device that randomly selected jurors for court cases, ensuring fairness and reducing the risk of corruption. Inspired by this, Kleros named its native token ‘Pinakion’ (PNK).
To become a juror, PNK holders would need to stake their tokens. Jurors are selected randomly, ensuring fairness and impartiality.
Here are a few reasons why PNK is important:
Protects against sybil attack: To be eligible as a juror, you would need to stake PNK tokens. An attacker would need to buy 51% of the total staked tokens, which would be difficult as this could dry out the liquidity from the market.
Makes attacks expensive: If an attacker successfully buys 51% of total staked PNK, they risk devaluing their own holdings by undermining Kleros’s credibility.
Contingency: In an extreme situation of a 51% attack, it would be possible to fork PNK, removing malicious actors and preserving the integrity of the platform.
Juror Rewards: Kleros empowers game theory incentives. Jurors are rewarded with arbitration fees in ETH and additional PNK tokens for aligning with the majority verdict.
Penalty for unfair ruling: Those in the minority may lose a portion of the staked PNK, discouraging dishonest behavior and promoting fair judgements.
Governance: PNK holders can participate in voting to propose changes in core contracts of the ecosystem.
Real World ImpactKleros has resolved over 1600 disputes, with about 711 active jurors. Jurors have collectively received over 400 ETH, and over 3.5M PNK have been redistributed for fair ruling. The platform is experiencing continuous growth, with an increasing number of platforms integrating Kleros and more jurors onboarding to support its mission of decentralized justice. Anyone holding and staking PNK can participate as a juror, however, juror selection is randomized to ensure fair rulings.
One of the most popular ruling was case #532 (
https://klerosboard.com/1/cases/532) concerning the 2020 US Presidential Election on Omen Prediction Market in December 2020. The market posed the question ‘Will Joe Biden win the 2020 United States Presidential Election?’. This outcome was challenged, and ended up being adjudicated by Kleros. An overwhelming majority of Kleros jurors (96.6%) ruled in favor of ‘Yes’ outcome, leading to payouts exceeding $2.5M at the time.
This ruling, and Kleros’s impact on decentralized arbitration, has been acknowledged by prominent industry figures like Vitalik (
https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1348894491793494018).
Kleros gives you the opportunity to participate as a juror and pass your unbiased verdict based on evidence that is presented to you in the case, rather than depending on unreliable sources. This has also been pointed out by Balaji Srinivasan in one of his x posts (
https://x.com/balajis/status/1285896526355562503).
Bottom LineKleros continues to deliver decentralized justice through community driven arbitration and has been operating since 2018. As online interactions grow, Kleros will continue to play an important role in ensuring that justice remains fair and unbiased, while empowering the community to deliver decentralized arbitration.
