How Many Verdikta Arbiters Should You Run? Capital, Costs, and ROI Math

Here’s an opportunity most people are missing: you can earn real money by running software that makes fast, trustless decisions for smart contracts. Verdikta arbiter nodes are your seat on a decentralized AI panel—a commit–reveal AI oracle that resolves escrow disputes, content checks, and policy calls in minutes. The more the network is used, the more you earn. Simple.

Let’s break down how arbiters get paid. Each request pays in LINK on Base L2. You earn a base fee when you commit, and a 3× bonus if your answer lands in the consensus cluster (total 4× base for winners). Defaults keep things moving even if someone drops: K=6 polled, M=4 promoted to reveal, N=3 aggregated. Worried about copycats? Commit–reveal shuts that down. You first hash your answer with a random salt; later, you reveal. If the reveal doesn’t match the on-chain commit, it’s rejected. That’s how a trustless, verifiable decision lands on-chain.

Capital requirements are straightforward. You stake 100 VDKA per arbiter to register. That stake aligns incentives; underperformance can lock you out, and severe cases can trigger slashing (configured low by default, but it exists). You don’t pre-fund user payouts—requests are user-funded in LINK—but you do need working capital for your own gas and AI compute. Base L2 keeps on-chain costs low with fast finality.

Your ongoing costs are practical and predictable:

• AI usage: API calls (OpenAI, Anthropic) or GPU if you run open-source models
• IPFS I/O: fetch evidence CIDs, upload justification CIDs
• On-chain gas: timely commit + reveal inside the 300-second window on Base
• Uptime discipline: missed deadlines hurt Verdikta reputation scoring more than they save money

Now the Verdikta arbiter ROI math. Expected revenue per request per node ≈ P(selected)×BaseFee + P(clustered)×(3×BaseFee). Selection odds are a weighted random draw that clamps weights based on Quality, Timeliness, and your fee. Cluster winners typically gain +60 Quality and +60 Timeliness; non-clustered answers get −60 Quality; timeouts −20 Timeliness. Drop below −300 and you’re temporarily locked; below −900 and slashing can apply.

Illustrative example (not promises; context-dependent): if average base fee is 0.01 LINK and your P(selected) is 20%, with a 60% cluster rate when selected, expected earnings per network request are: 0.20×0.01 + 0.12×0.03 = 0.0056 LINK. Multiply by eligible request volume, and you’ve got a simple, transparent decentralized dispute resolution ROI model.

So, how many nodes should you run? Start with one. Earn reputation before you scale. Reputation boosts selection and clustering; poor performance just locks you out and idles your stake. Once stable, add nodes by class. Different 64-bit classes let you serve frontier-model jobs and open-source lanes without diluting performance. Each node requires 100 VDKA, and weights are clamp-capped—five reliable, high-rep nodes usually beat twenty weak ones. If you have language or regional strengths, lean in. Context accuracy lifts earnings.

What drives your volume? Real businesses:

• Freelance escrow disputes that need fast, credible outcomes
• Content moderation and appeals with explainable policy checks
• DAO grants and milestone unlocks that want automated, auditable reviews

Here’s the kicker for your wallet: sub-2-minute finality and roughly $0.60 per dispute is a no-brainer for builders. More adoption = more requests = more LINK fees. That’s Verdikta’s aligned incentives working for you.

Bottom line: capital = VDKA staking (100 tokens per node) plus your compute/gas; earnings = LINK base + 3× bonus when clustered; reputation is the multiplier. Ready to run a node Verdikta-style? Start with one on Base, keep uptime high, use the right models for your class, then scale smart. Get started at Run a Node, read How it Works for the commit–reveal flow, and plug into the SDKs on Developers. Don’t wait—earn your rep, then expand.