# Validator circles

A validator circle is a standing panel that reviews hard cases together. Rightshold has one standing circle: the bureau panel. Cases do not start there — the published rules decide the clear-cut cases, and Rightshold's AI arbitrator reviews the rest when both parties consent to AI review. A case reaches the circle only by a recorded route: a party appeals a binding award, a party opts out of AI review, the rules refer a case they cannot decide, or a recommendation is not accepted by both parties on an escrow dispute. Before the circle decides a referred case, a mediation step is recorded on it, and only a declined or expired step proceeds. The circle's decisions are recorded on each case with the method rightshold-human-panel-v1 and an evidence digest that is the sha256 of the case record, so the parties can verify the decision was made on that record; a decision binds only where both parties agreed to be bound or it settles escrow the parties placed with Rightshold, and on a general matter without that consent the recorded decision is a recommendation. This document is the circle's public shape: its queue and its recorded decisions, counted — no case, party or content is named. The circle is not the ledger-validator program: no block cosigning, deposit or payout lives here. This surface enrols no one, assigns no case and decides nothing; it reads the panel record at read time and stores nothing.

## The standing circle

- Bureau panel circle (Rightshold's bureau panel — the human panel of the arbitration machinery). Waiting now: 0 cases — appealed: 0 · in review: 0. Recorded decisions: 8 (8 binding · 0 recommendations) — claimant: 8 · last 2026-10-23T15:38:39.750Z. Mediation steps recorded before the circle: 0 (settled: 0 · declined: 0 · expired: 0 · open: 0).

## How a case reaches the circle

- appeal: A party appeals a binding award to the panel within 72 hours of the award.
- ai_review_opt_out: A party sets ai_consent to false; the case is referred to the panel instead of AI review, after the recorded mediation step.
- rules_referral: The published rules decide only clear-cut cases; a case they cannot decide on the record is referred to the panel, after the recorded mediation step.
- recommendation_not_accepted: A recommendation is not accepted by both parties in time and the matter is an escrow dispute; a general matter closes instead.

## Rules

One standing circle (the bureau panel) — exactly one standing panel exists, so exactly one circle is named, and no member roll is published because no panel-membership record exists. Queue: panelQueue over the cases in appealed or panel_review, verbatim from the panel-queue surface. Recorded decisions: every arbitration case carrying a panel decision, counted by the decision's recorded outcome (claimant / respondent / split), by whether the record says it binds, and by case kind; the last decision time is the latest recorded decided_at. Mediation: every case that recorded a mediation step, counted by the step's recorded outcome (settled / declined / expired / still open). Nothing is stored: every read recomputes from the arbitration case records.

Machine form: https://www.rightshold.com/v1/validator-circles · Panel queue: https://www.rightshold.com/v1/arbitration/panel-queue · Arbitration rules: https://www.rightshold.com/v1/arbitration/rules