module_slashing

slashing module

Introduction

Validators are responsible for signing or proposing block at each consensus round. A penalty should be imposed on validators' misbehavior to reinforce this.

Specifically, slashing functionality that aims to dis-incentivize network-observable actions, such as faulty validations. The penalties may include losing some amount of their stake, losing their ability to perform the network functionality for a period of time, collect rewards etc.

Overview

Network parameters

Below are all the network parameters used to configure the behavior of validator punishments. Details of all these parameters and their effect on behavior of validator punishments is discussed later in this document.

• signed_blocks_window: Number of blocks for which the liveness is calculated for uptime tracking;

• min_signed_per_window: Maximum percentage of blocks with faulty/missed validations allowed for an account in last; signed_blocks_window blocks before it gets deactivated;

• downtime_jail_duration: Duration for jailing;

• slash_fraction_double_sign: Percentage of funds being slashed when validator makes a byzantine fault; and

• slash_fraction_downtime: Percentage of funds being slashed when a validator is non-live.

Slashing mechanism

Punishments for a validator are triggered when they either make a byzantine fault or become non-live:

• Liveness Faults (Low availability)

  A validator is said to be non-live when they fail to sign at least min_signed_per_window blocks (in percentage) in the last signed_blocks_window blocks successfully. signed_blocks_window and min_signed_per_window are network parameters and can be configured during genesis and can be updated during runtime by the governance module.

For example, if block_signing_window is 2000 blocks and min_signed_per_window is 0.5, a validator will be marked as non-live and jailed if they fail to successfully sign at least 2000*0.5=1000 blocks in last 2000 blocks.

• Byzantine Faults

  A validator is said to make a byzantine fault when they sign conflicting messages/blocks at the same height and round. Tendermint has mechanisms to publish evidence of validators that signed conflicting votes so they can be punished by the slashing module. For example:

  • Validator who votes for two different blocks within a single round ("Equivocation validator"/ "Double signing");

  • Validator who signs commit messages for arbitrary application state ( "Lunatic validator").

Remark: The evidence of a set of validators attempting to mislead a light client can also be detected and captured. However, even the Amnesia attack can be detected, punishment can not be applied at this stage, as we can not deduce the malicious validators.

Implementation note: Tendermint passes Evidence of a byzantine validator in BeginBlock request. Before jailing any account due to byzantine fault, that evidence should be verified. Also, it should be checked that evidence provided by tendermint is not older than max_age in tendermint.

Inactivity Slashing

It is important that the validators maintain excellent availability and network connectivity to perform their tasks. A penalty should be imposed on validators' misbehavior to reinforce this.

When a validator fails to successfully sign missed_block_threshold blocks in last block_signing_window blocks, it is immediately jailed and punished by deducting funds from their bonded and unbonded amount and removing them from active validator set. The funds to be deducted are calculated based on slash_fraction_downtime. Kindly refer to this link on the logic of the liveness tracking.

Jailing

A validator is jailed when they make liveness or Byzantine fault, when a validator is jailed, it will no longer be considered as an active validator until they are un-jailed. Furthermore, it cannot be un-jailed before downtime_jail_duration. This downtime_jail_duration is a network parameter which can be configured during genesis.

Important: When a validator is jailed because of a byzantine fault, their validator public key is added to a list of permanently banned validators and cannot re-join the network as a validator with the same public key, see staking tombstone

Un-jailing

When a jailed validator wishes to resume normal operations (after downtime_jail_duration has passed), they can create an unjail transaction which marks them as un-jailed. Validator will then rejoin the validator set once it has been successful un-jailed.

Slashing for Byzantine Fault

When there is byzantine fault detected, they are immediately slashed other than jailed. The funds to be deducted are calculated based on slash_fraction_double_sign. Furthermore, validator who commit this double-signing fault will also be put into the "tombstone state", which means it will be blacklisted and jailed forever.

Transactions and Queries

Transactions

tx slashing unjail - Unjailing a validator

Validator could be punished and jailed due to network misbehaviour, for example if we check the validator set:

$ chain-maind query staking validators -o json | jq
................................
    "operator_address": "crocncl18prgwae59zdqpwye6t4xftmq3d87vl0h0rj0qq",
    "consensus_pubkey": "crocnclconspub1zcjduepqg0yml2l63qjnhr2cuw4tvprr72tle0twf3zymrxllmr0sj9uv3tqmpcrhs",
    "jailed": true,
    "status": 1,
................................

After the jailing period has passed, one can broadcast a unjail transaction to unjail the validator and resume its normal operations by

$ chain-maind tx slashing unjail --from node1 --chain-id cro-test
  {"body":{"messages":[{"@type":"/cosmos.slashing.v1beta1.MsgUnjail"...}]}
  confirm transaction before signing and broadcasting [y/N]: y

Queries

query slashing params - Query the current slashing parameters

We can query the current slashing parameters by

$ chain-maind query slashing params --output json | jq

  {
    "signed_blocks_window": "2000",
    "min_signed_per_window": "0.500000000000000000",
    "downtime_jail_duration": "3600s",
    "slash_fraction_double_sign": "0.050000000000000000",
    "slash_fraction_downtime": "0.001000000000000000"
  }

Appendix

slashing module: Network Parameters and configuration

The following tables show overall effects on different configurations of the slashing related network parameters:

	signed_blocks_window	min_signed_per_window	downtime_jail_duration
Type	string (int64)	string (dec)	string (int64)
Higher	Larger window for calculating the downtime	Higher availability is required	Longer jailing duration
Lower	Smaller window for calculating the downtime	Lower availability is required	Longer jailing duration
Constraints	Value has to be a positive integer	Value has to be positive	Value has to be a positive integer
Sample configuration	2000 (2000 blocks)	0.5 (50%)	3600s (1 hour)

---

	slash_fraction_double_sign	slash_fraction_downtime
Type	string (dec)	string (dec)
Higher	Heavier penalty on byzantine faults	Heavier penalty on liveness faults
Lower	Lighter penalty on byzantine faults	Lighter penalty on liveness faults
Constraints	Value has to be less or equal to 1	Value has to be less or equal to 1
Sample configuration	0.001 (0.1%)	0.05 (5%)