Slashing

A penalty where some of your staked crypto gets taken away if you break the rules or go offline for too long.

Example

An Ethereum validator losing some of their 32 ETH for trying to cheat or being offline when they should be working.

Related Terms

Advanced Concepts

⚙️How It Works

1
Stake Locked
Validators lock crypto as collateral for good behavior
2
Bad Behavior Detected
Network identifies double-signing, downtime, or other violations
3
Penalty Applied
A portion of the stake is automatically destroyed
4
Funds Lost
Slashed funds are typically burned, not redistributed

~0.5 ETH

ETH Minor Slash

for being offline

Up to 32 ETH

ETH Major Slash

for malicious behavior

Higher penalty

Correlated Slashing

if many validators fail together