Slashing

What is slashing?

Slashing is a penalty system. If a validator misses their duties, such as not validating a block in time, they can lose a portion of their staked KUB. The deducted amount then gets awarded to the official pool as a reward.

Slashing in the Bitkub Chain ensures that validators meant to secure the network act in the best interests of all users. If a validator doesn’t perform its duties, slashing comes into play.

How does it work?

1. Tracking:

After the first warning, the system starts tracking the validator's performance for roughly 24 hours. This tracking period is called the "Slashing Epoch," which lasts 345 spans.

2. Slashing Threshold:

Suppose a validator misses block validations repeatedly and reaches a threshold of 50 spans which is approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes within 345 spans which is approximately 24 hours for the slash epoch in a network of the Bitkub Chain. The validator will be slashed. However, the counter resets if they don’t reach this threshold or if it reaches 345 spans.

Penalty Amount:

The amount of penalty depends on the type of node:

Pool Node: 1,000 KUB penalty

Solo Node: 1% of the validator’s staked amount

Warnings: Before penalizing validators, they are issued warnings as an initial measure against missed duties.

Behind the Scenes

Technically, once a validator doesn't propagate its block in time, the official node steps in. The official node creates a block, adds a slashing transaction, and signs it. This transaction triggers the SlashManager smart contract, which takes care of the slashing procedure based on the abovementioned rules.