Trophies as collateral

This is the key concept that makes the Rivalizer economy work: trophies behave like house-controlled cash collateral. At face value, a trophy is interchangeable with cash when you bet. The house (the contract issuer) controls trophy supply, so it can always pay winners by minting fresh trophies.

Bet with any mix of cash + trophies

When you place a bet on a contract, your stake can be:

• Cash from your in-app balance (counted 1:1), and/or
• Trophies from your case (each counted at its face value).

Your total stake value is simply cash + Σ(trophy face value × quantity). You can stake all cash, all trophies, or any blend.

Stake = $200 cash + 1× Iron Crown ($100) + 2× Cobalt Coin ($20)
      = $200 + $100 + $40
      = $340 stake value

When you place the bet, those exact trophies and that exact cash are pulled into escrow — they leave your balance and case and are held inside the bet until it settles.

What you win

Bets pay out at the contract's posted odds. On a win, settlement does two distinct things:

1. Your stake comes back in kind. The specific trophies you staked and the cash you staked are returned to you exactly as they were.
2. Your winnings (profit) are paid in freshly minted trophies. The house mints new trophy denominations to cover your profit, after the platform fee is skimmed.

profit  = payout − stake
fee     = profit × protocolFee
winnings = profit − fee   ← paid in minted trophies (+ tiny cash remainder)

Best-fit minting

Winnings are minted largest denomination first, packing your profit into the fewest trophies that fit while respecting each type's remaining supply. Whatever is left over that is smaller than the smallest available denomination (under $10) is paid as cash to your balance.

Winnings of $1,265, supply permitting →
  1× Sapphire Saber  ($1,000)
  1× Ruby Ringmaster ($750)? — no, exceeds remaining $265
  ... packs down: 1× ... + change
  Final sub-$10 remainder → paid as cash

This is why trophies behave like house cash: the house never runs out of "money" to pay winners — it mints trophy denominations on demand.

Outcomes at a glance

Result	Your staked cash	Your staked trophies	Winnings
Win	Returned	Returned in kind	Profit (minus fee) paid in freshly minted trophies + sub-$10 cash remainder
Loss	Goes to the house (issuer)	Go to the house (issuer)	None
Push / refund / cancel	Fully refunded	Fully refunded in kind	None

On a loss, your staked cash and trophies transfer to the house (the contract's issuer), who backed the line with posted collateral. On a push (no resolved winner) or a cancelled contract, every bet is fully refunded in kind — no stake is ever stranded.

House capacity and collateral

The issuer backs each contract with posted collateral. A bet only raises the house's liability if its outcome wins, so the book limits new stake on an outcome to what the posted collateral can still cover:

allowed iff  (current liability + new stake × (odds − 1)) ≤ collateral

If a bet would exceed the house's remaining capacity on that outcome, it's rejected ("This bet exceeds the house capacity left on that outcome."). This guarantees the house can always pay out winners — with minted trophies — up to the collateral it has committed.

Peer-to-peer trophy wagers

Separately, you can open or accept P2P wagers (/trophies/wagers) where two users stake against each other on opposing outcomes. Here:

• Both sides stake any mix of cash + trophies (trophies at face value).
• The acceptor's stake value must exactly match the opener's.
• The winner takes the whole pot — both stakes, returned/transferred in kind (no minting; nothing is skimmed).
• Unmatched or cancelled wagers are refunded in full.

Implemented in markets/house-book.service.ts (house book) and trophies/trophy-wagers.service.ts (P2P).