Reputation

Reputation accrues for Validators while their PortalOS node remains online and they participate in consensus. Accumulating reputation solely relies on being online. A Validator returning online with a negative balance triggers immediate slashing upon subsequent offline or suspended status. This serves as a strong incentive for rectifying issues and maintaining reliability well before the reputation balance turns negative. To prevent scenarios where a long-operating Validator stays offline for extended periods without penalty, a cap on uptime is implemented.

The Portal Network verifies a Validator node's online status via periodic polling, where Validator node must routinely submit a specific (non-significant) transaction to the Notary Chain. This transaction serves as evidence of their node connectivity. Failure to submit a valid transaction before the interval deadline on-chain automatically shifts the Validator to the Offline state, leading to reputation loss. The Validator reverts to the online state upon submitting a valid transaction at the subsequent interval deadline.

Validators can face suspension under two scenarios. Firstly, a failure to participate in a Signing Ceremony, where a selected Validator might miss signing or conveying messages, triggering a ceremony timeout. This forces a redo, decided by consensus among online Validators, resulting in the suspension of non-compliant Validators. Subsequently, a new ceremony excluding these suspended nodes is attempted to proceed with the process. Secondly, the failure to broadcast involves Validators needing funded accounts in account-based chains to broadcast transactions. If a Validator fails to submit a signed transaction to the Notary Chain for broadcast, leading to a new broadcaster selection, they are suspended from their duties. In the Suspended state, Validators are excluded from signing or broadcasting, and if the state coincides with a negative reputation, slashing penalties may apply. However, they are still expected to participate in witnessing and submit regular heartbeats.

More information regarding suspension conditions and reputation scores will be detailed in the coming weeks.