What “non-custodial” actually means here
- We do not store private keys. Not yours, not in escrow, not “encrypted at rest just in case.” There is no key vault for user wallets, because we don’t have user wallets — you have your wallet, and you connect it to our app.
- We do not store seed phrases. We will never ask for one. Anyone who does is an impersonator and should be reported.
- We do not have a “user balance” database. The number you see on Prediction Arena is read directly from on-chain contracts, not from a row in our database that we could edit.
- We cannot move user funds. There is no admin function, no support tool, no internal dashboard, and no key combination that lets any Prediction Arena employee transfer funds out of a user wallet or out of an active round.
- We cannot freeze user funds. Funds locked in an active round are released by the contract when the round settles, automatically, without us. Funds in your wallet are in your wallet. We have no relationship to either.
What this protects you from
- Exchange-style insolvency. Several large “trustworthy” centralized platforms have collapsed in the last few years. In every case, the proximate cause was custody — they held user funds, and then they didn’t have them anymore. Prediction Arena cannot have this failure mode because we never had your funds in the first place.
- Internal compromise. A rogue employee, a compromised admin laptop, a phishing attack on our team — none of these can result in user funds being moved, because no internal credential exists that can move user funds.
- Regulatory seizure. A subpoena to Prediction Arena is a subpoena to a company that does not hold your assets. We cannot freeze what we do not hold.