In Virtual Pigeon Racing, race results are protected by a system designed to prevent manipulation. Once a race begins, the inputs that determine the outcome are locked and the race events are recorded in a verifiable way.
Because of this system, race results cannot be secretly changed by players or by the platform after the race.
How VPR protects race results
Race conditions are locked before the race
Before a race starts, the full race configuration is locked.
At that moment the system freezes:
The pigeons entered in the race
The attributes of those pigeons
The weather conditions used for the race
The race engine version
A cryptographic commitment to the race randomness
This locked state forms the official race setup. Once it is locked, the data cannot be changed without breaking the verification system.
Weather conditions are frozen
Weather plays an important role in race performance. To keep the race fair, the system takes a weather snapshot before the race begins.
This snapshot is used for the entire race simulation.
Weather is not updated live during the race
The snapshot is included in the locked race data
Any attempt to change it would be detectable
This ensures that all pigeons compete under the same verified conditions
Randomness is locked before the race
Some parts of the race simulation use randomness.
To prevent manipulation, VPR uses a commit–reveal system:
Before the race begins, a secret random value is generated.
A cryptographic fingerprint of that value is published.
The secret is revealed after the race finishes.
This prevents anyone from rerolling randomness or changing outcomes after seeing the result.
Every race event is recorded
During the race, the system records a timeline of events such as:
Position updates
Weather ticks
AI decisions
Random number usage
Each event is cryptographically linked to the previous one, creating a tamper-evident chain. If even a single value were changed afterward, the verification would fail.
Race inputs are anchored on the blockchain
Before the race begins, a cryptographic fingerprint of the race setup is stored on the Polygon blockchain. This creates a public timestamp showing that the race configuration was locked before the race started. Even the platform cannot rewrite this record afterward.
Races can be independently verified
After the race finishes:
The secret random value is revealed
The race data can be verified
The race can be replayed using the same inputs
Because the race engine is deterministic, the same inputs will always produce the exact same result. This allows independent verification of the race outcome.
Note: For a deeper technical explanation of how races are secured and verified, see: Fairness and competitive integrity.