Offer states, and the rule that surprises everybody

How offers work, why only one can be active per piece, what accepting actually does, and why the fee is not refundable.

An offer is a way to say «I would pay this much for that piece» to someone who has not put it up for sale. Two things about it are unusual enough that they are the whole point of this page.

An offer is off-chain and non-binding

Placing an offer does not lock your funds and does not commit you to anything on chain. It is a message with a price attached.

What it does cost is the fee for publishing it: 80,000 sats, charged when you place it, whatever happens afterwards. It is not refunded if the offer is rejected, if it expires, or if you cancel it. You are paying to put the offer in front of the owner, not for the outcome.

Only one offer per piece can be active — across everybody

This is the rule that surprises people. A piece has at most one active offer at a time, from anybody. When someone places a new offer on a piece, every previous active offer on it is deleted — including yours, and including offers from other people.

Last offer wins. So if your offer disappeared without being rejected, this is almost certainly why: somebody else offered after you.

The states

State How it got there Can the owner accept it?
Active You placed it and nobody has offered since yes
Accepted The owner accepted it is already done — see below
Rejected The owner rejected it no
Cancelled You withdrew it no
Expired Seven days passed no — an expired offer cannot be accepted, even if it is still on screen
Deleted Somebody offered after you it no longer exists

Every offer expires seven days after it is placed.

The state is a badge on the offer itself, next to how long it has left. These are all of them, side by side — on a real offer you only ever see one:

ACTIVE ACCEPTED COMPLETED EXPIRED REJECTED
The badges of every state. A copy of the real ones, kept in step with them.

And this is where it sits:

Zoide Nº 7 · #12
0.02 ($0.31) 4 days
From anotheruser To thecollector
ACTIVE
An active offer. The badge is the state; the clock is what is left of the seven days

What accepting actually does

Accepting does not transfer the piece and does not charge anybody. What it does is put the piece up for sale at the agreed price, and notify you so you can complete the purchase with one click.

That sounds like an extra step, and it is — but it is what lets the whole thing work without Zoide ever holding your piece or your money. The lock the piece sits in is a contract, not custody: the piece can only leave it by paying the seller the agreed amount, and the seller can cancel whenever they like. Once they have accepted, the seller does not have to be around any more: you buy when you want.

Because accepting is really listing, the owner has to sign it with their wallet, like every other on-chain action. It is not a plain button.

Hidden offers

Verified users can place a hidden offer: only the owner of the piece sees it, not other bidders.

If you are not verified, the hidden flag is ignored and your offer is stored as visible. It is not rejected and you are not warned in the offer itself — so if being seen matters to you, check your verification status first.

Where to look

  • Offers you made and offers you received, in the offers section of the market.
  • Received offers are matched against the pieces in your wallet, so if your wallet is out of sync you may be shown a warning: what you are looking at could be incomplete until it finishes syncing.