What is slashing?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 4 min
In short
Slashing destroys part of a validator's stake when it commits a provable fault. It makes attacking the network economically self-defeating, which is what gives participants a reason to behave. Delegated stake is cut in the same proportion.
Key points
- Destroys staked funds in response to provable faults
- Double signing and contradictory votes are the classic triggers
- Delegated stake is cut in the same proportion
- Mere downtime is normally a reward loss, not slashing
Definition
A proof-of-stake mechanism that forcibly reduces the staked balance of a validator that has violated protocol rules.
In proof of work a failed attack merely wastes electricity. Proof of stake consumes no such resource, so the cost of misbehaving has to be created deliberately — and slashing, which destroys part of the offender's deposit, is that cost.
Only faults that leave on-chain evidence qualify. On Ethereum those are proposing two blocks for one slot, publishing contradictory attestations, and publishing an attestation that surrounds another. Anyone can verify the evidence and submit a transaction that triggers the penalty.
Beyond the deduction, the validator is forcibly exited. The design also scales the penalty up when many validators are slashed around the same time, separating an isolated misconfiguration from a coordinated attack. Plain downtime is handled differently: no slashing, but missed rewards and a slowly leaking balance.
Watch out for
- · A botched failover that runs the same keys twice gets you slashed with no malicious intent
- · Delegators lose funds for their validator's fault even though they did nothing
- · Slashed funds are gone: there is no operator to appeal to and no compensation scheme