Network reconfiguration

Redbelly's optimal performance is achieved with a validator set of 200 governor nodes. As a security measure and to allow greater decentralisation, additional nodes are included in the network. Thus, nodes are split into two groups: candidates and governors. Governors are classified as nodes who are currently participating in consensus whereas candidates are nodes that are awaiting to be rotated into the group of governors. 

Periodically, the group of governors is reshuffled randomly to ensure a consistent rotation of consensus participants. At regular intervals, the network will automatically replace the network tolerance of Byzantine nodes from the set of governors with randomly selected candidates. 

Regardless of whether a node is presently a governor or a candidate, the node will maintain state. However, as governor nodes participate in consensus and candidate nodes do not, governor nodes will receive twice the gas fees relative to candidate nodes. There is no difference in signup bonus or staking rewards for candidates and governors.

Governor status brings higher incentives, but maintaining those incentives requires ongoing compliance. Nodes that fail to meet the additional governor requirements detailed below may be demoted, lose incentives, or be replaced according to the governance mechanics.

Additional Governor Node Requirements

  1. Notification of Planned Downtime
    Operators must inform Redbelly at least three days in advance of any planned maintenance or downtime that may impact governor activities.

  2. Binary Update Timeline
    When a new governance or node-binary is released, governor operators must deploy within five days and perform hash/integrity validation from at least two trusted sources (for example: the official Redbelly website, Jira release page, verified Redbelly email).

  3. Strict Traffic Integrity
    Network traffic entering or leaving the node must not be modified, reordered, delayed or monitored in a way that is not compliant with Redbelly governance rules.

  4. Security of Keys and Certificates
    Certificates and private keys must be stored securelyd, expired certificates must be renewed promptly, and any compromise must be reported immediately to the Redbelly team.

  5. Uptime & Monitoring Compliance
    Governors must achieve uptime and performance consistent with the expectations of the network governance model. Refer to the Network Governance page for thresholds on missed consensus rounds, designation states (chilling, jailed, tombstoned) and their consequences.