VAULT legal
TERMS OF SERVICE
Effective September 5, 2026. VAULT is a neutral marketplace and escrow agent. Sponsors and creators carry full responsibility for their own challenges, content and conduct.
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TERMS OF SERVICE
Beta draft — have a licensed attorney review before App Store submission.
1. The service
VAULT is a technology platform that lets sponsors post funded photo and video challenges and lets creators submit entries for a chance to win a cash prize. VAULT provides the software, challenge listings, escrow tracking, voting tools and messaging. VAULT is a neutral marketplace only. VAULT does not create, commission, direct, supervise, sponsor, endorse or verify any challenge, entry, message or other user content, and is not a party to any agreement between a sponsor and a creator.
2. Eligibility & accounts
You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, to use VAULT. You are responsible for the accuracy of your account information, for keeping your login credentials confidential, and for everything that happens under your account. One person may not operate multiple accounts to vote, enter, or evade a suspension.
3. Challenges are between users
Every challenge is an arrangement solely between the sponsor who funds it and the creators who enter it. The sponsor is solely responsible for the legality, safety and terms of the challenge. The creator is solely responsible for how an entry is produced. VAULT does not guarantee that any challenge is lawful, safe, or that any prize will be paid beyond the escrowed funds described in these terms.
4. Sponsor responsibilities
Sponsors are solely and fully responsible for: the challenges they create and their legality in every jurisdiction where participants may act; participant safety; any required permits, licenses or advertising disclosures; the accuracy of the prize, rules and deadline they publish; selecting a winner fairly where sponsor-pick mode is used; and all tax, employment or regulatory obligations arising from the prizes they fund.
5. Creator responsibilities
Creators are solely and fully responsible for: their own safety and the safety of others while producing entries; obtaining consent from every person who appears in submitted media; respecting third-party property, privacy and intellectual property rights; complying with all applicable laws; and reporting and paying any taxes owed on winnings. You must not submit content you do not own or have the rights to use.
6. Prohibited content & challenges
No challenge, entry, showcase post, message or profile may involve: illegal acts; trespass; harassment, bullying or hate content; weapons; drugs or drug use; dangerous stunts or acts likely to cause injury; sexual content or nudity; exploitation of minors in any form; animal harm; fraud or deception; or anything that endangers a person or property. VAULT may remove any content, cancel any challenge, withhold any payout, and suspend or terminate any account at its sole discretion where these rules are violated or legal risk is suspected.
7. Payments, escrow & commission
When a sponsor funds a challenge, the prize amount plus a non-refundable platform fee of 12% is collected at funding, and the prize is held in escrow until a winner is selected or the challenge is cancelled under its stated rules. VAULT retains a commission of 10–15% of each funded pool. Sponsors have a strict 5-minute change window that begins the moment a challenge is submitted and funded. Within those 5 minutes the sponsor may edit the challenge or cancel it; on cancellation the prize amount is returned to the sponsor's wallet, but the 12% platform fee is earned at funding and is not refunded under any circumstances. Once the 5 minutes expire the challenge can no longer be edited. A sponsor may still cancel a challenge after the change window has expired, at any time before a winner is paid: the challenge is then removed from the app and from the sponsor's portal, the escrowed prize amount is returned to the sponsor's wallet, and the 12% commission fee is expressly NOT refunded for a cancellation made after the change window. Cancellation is permanent and cannot be undone. Payouts are issued to the winner's verified payout account after winner selection and any required identity, age or tax verification. VAULT is not a bank or money transmitter; payment processing is performed by third-party payment providers, and you agree to their terms when you fund a challenge or cash out.
8. Entry limits
A creator may submit up to three (3) entries to the same active challenge before it expires. On a fourth attempt the upload is blocked and the creator is told that they have already submitted 3 entries for that challenge and should participate in a different challenge.
9. Voting & winner selection
Challenges are decided either by the sponsor's pick or by community upvotes, as stated on the challenge. Vote manipulation — including bots, multiple accounts, paid votes or coordinated voting rings — is prohibited and voids the affected votes. VAULT may disqualify entries and withhold or reverse payouts where manipulation is detected. Community-vote results are final once the challenge closes. Where a challenge is set to sponsor-pick, the sponsor has 48 hours from the moment the challenge expires to select a winner. If the sponsor does not select a winner within that 48-hour window, VAULT automatically awards the prize to the entry holding the most upvotes at the close of the challenge, and that automatic award is final. Winner selection is irreversible: once a winner is selected or automatically awarded, the prize is released from escrow to the winner and cannot be refunded to the sponsor.
10. Assumption of risk & release
You use VAULT and participate in challenges entirely at your own risk. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release and discharge VAULT, its owners, officers, employees, contractors and affiliates from any and all claims, demands, damages, losses, injuries, penalties or disputes arising out of or relating to: any challenge; any entry or other user content; any interaction, transaction or agreement between users; any act that takes place off the platform; and any payout, escrow hold or dispute between users.
11. No warranty
VAULT is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. VAULT does not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, that any challenge will be completed, or that any user will perform their obligations.
12. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, VAULT will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill or earnings, arising from your use of the service or the conduct of any user. VAULT's total liability for any claim will not exceed the greater of one hundred US dollars (US$100) or the commission VAULT actually retained from the challenge giving rise to the claim. VAULT is not responsible for the acts, omissions, content, challenges, entries or payments of any user, sponsor or creator.
13. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless VAULT and its owners, officers, employees and affiliates from any claim, loss, liability, damage and expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of: your content; your challenges or entries; your violation of these terms; your violation of any law or the rights of any third party; or any dispute between you and another user.
14. Content license & intellectual property
You keep ownership of the photos and videos you post. By posting, you grant VAULT a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, display, reproduce and distribute that content solely to operate and promote the service. You represent that you own or control all rights to what you post. If you believe content infringes your rights, report it through the app's support channel and VAULT will respond to valid removal requests.
15. Disputes between users & escrow holds
Disputes about a challenge outcome are resolved between the sponsor and the creators involved. Where the release of escrowed funds is contested, VAULT may hold the funds until the parties resolve the matter, the dispute window expires, or a lawful order directs release. VAULT's reasonable determination of vote manipulation, fraud or policy violation is final for purposes of escrow release.
16. Termination
You may delete your account at any time in Settings. VAULT may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, create legal risk, or engage in fraud. Deleting your account does not complete pending payouts, which are handled under the payment terms above, and does not relieve you of obligations already incurred.
17. Apple is not a sponsor
Apple Inc. is not a sponsor of, and is not involved in any way with, any challenge, contest, prize or promotion run on VAULT. All challenges are run solely by the sponsors who fund them, under the responsibility terms above. VAULT, not Apple, is responsible for compliance with all applicable contest laws and for the payment of prizes as described in these terms.
18. Changes & contact
VAULT may update these terms from time to time and will note the effective date in the app. Continued use after an update constitutes acceptance. Questions about these terms can be sent through the Contact form in Settings or on this website.
Acceptance is required to create an account, fund a challenge, or submit an entry. See also the Privacy Policy.