# Meeting the Payout Criteria

Previously, anyone could sign up as a Watson, join a contest, and get paid for any valid issues they submit. The only caveat is that there was a USDC penalty for invalid issues.&#x20;

The USDC penalty is now gone, and it's replaced by 2 "Audit Contest Payout Criteria."

{% hint style="info" %}
If you don't pass either of these criteria at any time, your USDC payouts will be withheld until you pass both criteria, at which point they'll be paid out in full.&#x20;
{% endhint %}

## Audit Contest Payout Criteria

### 1. 2 Valid Issues

Until you've submitted 2 valid issues with your Watson account, you will not receive USDC payouts.&#x20;

{% hint style="info" %}
Although this rule is new, it will look at your account's lifetime record to see if >=2 valid issues have been submitted.&#x20;
{% endhint %}

### 2. Issues Ratio

Your "issues ratio" must be >=20% otherwise you will not receive USDC payouts.

The "issues ratio" is defined as:

```
# of valid issues submitted / total # of issues submitted
```

If less than 20% of the issues you submit are valid, your USDC payouts will be withheld until this ratio gets back above 20%. This is a lifetime ratio on your account, so it looks at every contest you ever participate in!

{% hint style="info" %}
Because this rule is new, it will only look at contests that started on or after July 1st, 2023.&#x20;
{% endhint %}

#### What's the point of these criteria?

The intention is to limit the number of invalid issues submitted to Sherlock. Sherlock receives hundreds of invalid issues in every contest and it requires a lot of time and resources for Sherlock to review each one of them. By implementing these criteria, Sherlock hopes that more of a contest's cost (in USDC) can be directed towards Watsons who are finding important vulnerabilities, and not on reviewing invalid issues.&#x20;

The "Issues Ratio" obviously wants to prevent a single account from submitting infinite invalid issues.

The "2 Valid Issues" criteria is in place to prevent people from creating infinite accounts and submitting 1 issue in each account (hoping a few accounts get paid).&#x20;