Slashing
Slashing
Slashing is a mechanism to penalize validators for poor behavior or malicious actions that harm the network. Instead of a fixed amount, slashing removes a percentage of a validator’s stake, meaning validators with larger stakes face bigger penalties. The slashed DOT is added to the treasury to support ecosystem growth.
Nominators who back-slashed validators also lose a proportional amount of their bonded stake. This risk incentivizes nominators to carefully choose validators, often favoring smaller pools to promote decentralization. Examples of slashable offenses include being offline for extended periods or behaving maliciously.
Learn more about slashing penalties here.
Chilling
Chilling removes validators from the active set and disqualifies them from the next Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS) election cycle. Validators may chill voluntarily, such as when planning downtime, to avoid slashing risks. This keeps them active for the current epoch but not the next.
Chilling can also serve as a punishment, removing validators from consensus when they are unresponsive or commit slashable offenses.
More details on chilling as a penalty can be found here.
Key Takeaways
- Slashing: Penalizes poor validator behavior by removing a percentage of their stake.
- Chilling: Temporarily disables validators from participating in future election cycles, either voluntarily or as punishment.
- Risk to Nominators: Nominators share the slashing risks of the validators they back, making careful validator selection crucial.
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Updated 2 months ago