// GLOSSARY

UMA oracle

The optimistic oracle Polymarket uses for resolution: a proposer posts the outcome with a bond; if unchallenged through a dispute window it stands, and disputes escalate to a vote of UMA token holders. "Optimistic" = assumed correct unless challenged.

UMA's optimistic oracle resolves questions the cheap way: assume honesty, punish dishonesty. Someone proposes an answer and posts a bond; the answer becomes final if nobody disputes it within a window; a dispute escalates to UMA's decentralized vote, and whoever was wrong loses their bond.

How Polymarket uses it

When a Polymarket market's real-world outcome is knowable, a resolution is proposed to the oracle under the market's stated criteria. Most markets resolve without dispute — the bond makes frivolous proposals expensive. Contested or ambiguous markets go through the dispute process, which adds days and, occasionally, controversy. Bond sizes, window lengths, and process details have changed over time — treat UMA and Polymarket's current docs as authoritative rather than any cached summary.

What it means for traders

Resolution on Polymarket is a process with a clock, not an instant: budget for the dispute window in any strategy that needs capital back quickly (see settlement), and remember that markets resolve per their written criteria as interpreted through this process. Contrast with Kalshi's exchange-rule model in oracle resolution.