Network governance

Governor nodes are responsible for running the consensus and ensuring that the network can decide on new blocks to be appended to the blockchain.

Built into the protocol are mechanisms for monitoring the activity of governor nodes during consensus rounds to ensure that optimal number of governor nodes are active.

Whenever a governor node misses more than the threshold number of consensus rounds, a voting process automatically occurs between the group of governors to verify that the node is inactive for a majority of the network.

The process is as follows:

  • The governor node initiating the request requests other governor nodes to verify that the node is inactive for the majority of the network.

  • The governors all sign their messages and pass them to the requesting governor node.

  • The requesting governor node then raises a request with a specific smart contract that decides whether to replace the node with a candidate node.

  • If the node is found to be inactive, the governor node is replaced with a randomly selected candidate node.

  • An inactive governor node can be in one of three states:

    • Chilling: In a window size of 100 consensus rounds, if the node misses less than 50 rounds, the node is classified as chilling.

    • Jailed: In a window size of 100 consensus rounds, if the node misses more than 50 rounds, the node is classified as jailed. It is removed from the set of governors and 20% of its stake is slashed. To get out of jail the node operator can either prove their inactivity was not intentional within 21 days after being jailed, or wait for 4 weeks and top up their slashed coins.

    • Tombstoned: If a node is jailed four times without proving their inactivity was not intentional, the node is classified as tombstoned. Once tombstoned, the node cannot rejoin the network and the entirety of their staked balance will be slashed.