Terms of Service

Unsolved.lol is a place to post things you want solved, back them, add money to bounties and submit solutions. It is run by MURFIN LTD (trading as Unsolved.lol) ("we"). By using the site you agree to these terms.

Who can use it

• You must be 18 or over to add money, submit a solution for a reward, or claim one.
• You must not use the site where doing so is against the law where you live.
• You're responsible for the email address you give us being yours.

Posting problems

• Posting is free. You keep ownership of what you post, and you let us show it on the site and in our emails and social posts.
• Problems must be legal and safe. No harassment, finding private people, doxxing, hacking, fraud, fake reviews or engagement, spam, or anything dangerous. See the full list in our prize rules.
• A problem must ask for a useful outcome (something built, found, researched, explained, designed or improved), not pay someone to perform an arbitrary action, dare or errand. Completing it must never require interfering with members of the public, private property, or businesses or institutions without their permission.
• We use AI to help word problems and to check them for safety and fit before they're published. Some wait for a person to check them first. You can edit the wording before posting. We may edit, demote, hide or remove problems that break these terms.
• Being free to post doesn't guarantee a spot on the homepage or in emails.

Solutions

• You can submit solutions without an account. Submit only work you have the right to share.
• By default, solutions stay private until a winner is chosen. The person who posted a problem can choose to make answers public, in which case anyone can see and upvote them.
• For a winning solution, you agree that the person who posted the problem may use it for what they asked for. For the naming contest, the winner transfers the rights to the name to us (see the prize rules).

Bounties and money

• You add money to a bounty by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Payments are processed by Stripe, and bounty money is held in our Stripe account until it is paid to a winner or refunded. We don't use it for anything else, and money given to one problem is never moved to another.
• When you add money, you pay the amount plus a service fee of 6% + $0.30. The full amount goes to the bounty; the fee goes to us and covers running the problem and processing your payment. The fee is the same whichever way you pay.
• Adding money is a contribution to a bounty, not a purchase, investment or donation to us. You don't get anything in return except the chance of the problem being solved.
• Money is collected in funding rounds. A round starts with the first contribution and lasts 75 days. Everyone who adds money during that time joins the same round, and the problem page shows how long is left.
• A bounty is only paid out if it reaches at least $50. Below that, a winner is still named but backers are refunded instead.
• By paying, you ask us to start providing the service straight away. You can cancel within 14 days by emailing joe@unsolved.lol, and we'll refund your contribution (and the fee, less the part of the service already provided), unless the bounty has already been paid to a winner.
• Contributions and bounties may be capped. The current limits are shown when you add money.

Choosing winners

• Each problem says how the winner is chosen: the first valid solution, the best result by a deadline, the first to hit a target, or the creator's choice.
• A problem’s success criteria lock when it first receives money or a solution, and solutions are judged only against those locked criteria.
• The person who posted the problem accepts the winning solution, or rejects a solution by stating which locked criterion it doesn’t meet. If they don’t review a solution within 72 hours, it is checked independently (including by automated review) and, if it clearly meets the criteria, may be paid out after a 48-hour window in which they can object. Larger bounties and anything unclear are decided by us.
• A solver can dispute a rejection or a failed check once, within 7 days. Disputes are decided by us, and may in future be decided by a panel of independent reviewers. Our decision on whether a solution meets the locked criteria is final, but you can always ask us to look again at joe@unsolved.lol.
• Winners claim their reward by choosing their country and setting up payouts with Stripe, where they add their own bank details (we never see them). The bounty is sent to their Stripe account and paid into their bank. Stripe can currently pay winners in the UK, US, Canada, Switzerland and the European Economic Area. Stripe may ask for ID, and we can refuse or reverse an award if we find fraud, copying or rule-breaking.
• If a winner doesn't set up payouts, we'll remind them. We never give a won bounty to someone else just because the winner is slow to claim it.

Refunds

• If a funding round ends without a winner, everyone who added money in that round gets the bounty part of their contribution refunded to the card they paid with. If a decision is still in progress when the round ends, we wait up to 14 more days before refunding.
• The service fee is not refunded when a round simply ends without a winner, because the service has been provided. If we cancel a problem, or a round ends because of something we did, we refund the fee too.
• Card refunds usually take 5 to 10 days to show up, depending on your bank.
• After a round ends, the problem stays open. A new contribution starts a new round.

Taxes

• You are responsible for any taxes on rewards you receive. Stripe may ask for tax details when you set up payouts.

Our responsibility

We provide the site as it is. As far as the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect losses, for the quality or legality of problems and solutions posted by others, or for losses caused by payment providers or other third-party services. Nothing here limits rights you have under consumer law that can't be limited.

Changes and contact

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows the latest version. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Questions or complaints: joe@unsolved.lol.