Slashing serves as a vital tool in Cere to curb malicious actions by imposing penalties on validators who undermine the network and their nominators. Validators involved in harmful activities may forfeit a part of their staked CERE tokens through slashing. This process is crucial for upholding the network's security and integrity, as it encourages validators to align their actions with the network's overall well-being.
This article sheds light on slashing and offers insights for nominators on how to mitigate the risks associated with losing a portion of their staked assets.
Slashing occurs when a validator exhibits detrimental behavior, leading to a loss of some staked tokens for both the validator and all their nominators as a punitive measure.
If you were actively backing that validator at the time of the slashing event, your stake would be slashed as well. This system not only promotes ethical conduct among validators but also necessitates that nominators exercise due diligence when selecting validators to nominate. Slashing can affect you whether you nominate directly or through a nomination pool.
A validator's misconduct within the network can trigger slashing. Such misbehavior might encompass a validator going offline with others, launching attacks on the network, or utilizing altered software. The proportion of the stake slashed is contingent on the gravity of the violation.
Minor infractions do not result in slashing. Generally, if a validator remains offline for an extended duration (at least 4 hours on Cere), they will merely be chilled, meaning they will cease validating until the issue is resolved and they restate their intention to validate.
Slashing due to unavailability only occurs if a minimum of 10% of active validators go offline simultaneously, indicative of a potential network attack. Extreme misconduct that poses significant security or financial threats to the system or widespread collusion may even culminate in the slashing of most or all of the stake!
Unbonding post-offense will not shield you from slashing. The unbonding period spans 28 days on Cere. During this timeframe, the slash remains pending, and a governance proposal to reverse it can be initiated. If the community does not opt to reverse the slash, it will be enforced before the unbonding tokens can be retrieved.
All tokens that are slashed are transferred to the Treasury. This ensures that tokens confiscated from malicious entities can be redirected to reward community contributors who actively participate in the network and ecosystem development.