# Searcher FAQ

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Shio permanently shut down on 12 May 2026. This page is kept as a historical reference only; the Shio feed, bidding APIs, explorer, and RPC endpoints are no longer active.
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### What does \`txBytes\` and \`sig\` mean when submitting bid?

`txBytes` is the base64 encoded bcs-serializion of a `TransactionData` structure, while `sig` is a single base64 encoded signature.

The two parameters follow the same format as `sui keytool decode-or-verify-tx` command.

### I have submitted a bid but it did not get accepted, what could be the issue?

In order to troubleshoot bid submission, searchers used [Submission through JSON-RPC](/archived-searcher-guides/submit-bid.md#submission-through-json-rpc). Through this method, unlike through WebSocket, an error message would be returned.

If you do not see an error message, it is very likely that your bid came in after the auction has already ended.

### Historically, why could a bid still land despite [Explorer](https://getshio.com/explorer) showing it did not win the auction?

We may submit one or more bids to validators, depending on a number of factors. This is to ensure if a bid fails, some bid with a lower amount could have to chance to execute instead.

This is controlled by the auctioneer and there is no way to opt-out this.

### There was no error from bid submission and I won the auction. But my bid has never landed, why?

Please make sure your transaction can be successfully submitted to validators.

A common reason is that your owned objects (such as gas objects) has already been locked by another transaction, or another transaction has just been submitted so that the object version specified in the bid is no longer valid.

The auctioneer will drop your bid (despite shown as winning) if it cannot find a way to successfully submit it.


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