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contracts_release

Closes an active escrow contract, either completing the deal normally or terminating it by burning all escrowed coins.

This call is made by side A (normally the buyer). It signs and broadcasts one of the release templates prepared when the contract was accepted. The contract must be in state 2 (contract accepted) or state 5 (cancel proposal sent) — releasing from state 5 overrides a cancellation request that side B has not accepted yet.

Request​

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 0,
  "method": "contracts_release",
  "params": {
    "contract_id": "b6f2c3d18e47a05b9c2d4e6f81a30b57cd94e2f16a8b0c37d5e19f4a2b6c08d3",
    "release_type": "REL_N"
  }
}

Request parameters​

  • contract_id - string; hex-encoded identifier of the contract being closed, as reported by contracts_get_all.
  • release_type - string; how the escrowed coins are to be disposed of. Only two values are accepted:
    • REL_N — normal release. The deal is treated as successfully completed: to_pay goes to side B and both pledges are returned to their owners. The contract moves to state 3 (contract released normally).
    • REL_B — burn release. The deal is terminated: the payment and both pledges are destroyed and nobody receives anything back. The contract moves to state 4 (contract released burned). This is the punitive option used when the parties cannot reach agreement; it is irreversible.

Any other value is rejected with an error. The fee for this transaction is not passed here — it was reserved inside the escrow template as b_fee when the proposal was sent.

Response​

{
  "id": 0,
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": {}
}

Response information​

The result object is empty. A successful call means the release transaction was fully signed and broadcast; failures are reported as a JSON-RPC error. Poll contracts_get_all to see the contract settle into state 3 or 4.