Help · Operators

Stake (1 TON per node)

Registering a node locks 1 TON of your balance as its stake. Three or more critical fraud flags in 24 hours cost 10% of it. Deleting the node returns what is left to your balance at once.

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Register a node  → 1 TON of your balance locked
3+ critical flags in 24 h → 10% of the stake slashed
Delete the node  → the rest back to your balance

Every node locks a 1 TON stake from your balance when you register it. Registration fails if less than 1 TON is available. The stake makes cheating cost money and makes running many fake nodes expensive.

What gets slashed

ProofKit's checks raise flags on a node, either warning or critical. When a node has 3 or more critical flags within 24 hours, 10% of its current stake is slashed, at most once in any 24 hours. Critical flags come from, among others:

  • probes finding that the node reported 1.5 times or more the traffic they measured over a day, or content that came back altered;
  • reported traffic above 1.1 times what the network interface carried, three reports in a row;
  • a checkpoint counter that goes backwards.

Warnings, such as a gap between an edge and an origin, a checkpoint diff above 20%, or an hour of billed traffic far above the node's own previous 7 days, don't count toward a slash. See How nodes are checked.

Slashing and suspension are separate

  • A slash only reduces the stake; the node keeps running.
  • A node is suspended (taken off the marketplace) when it has been offline for 24 hours, or when its health score drops below 30. Downtime is never slashed.
  • To bring a suspended node back, register it again from the same server with the same type: it is reactivated in place, keeping its ID and stake. A score still under 30 suspends it again.

Getting the stake back

Delete the node. The stake, minus anything slashed, is released to your balance immediately, and you can withdraw it from your Wallet page. A node can be deleted only once its earnings have been claimed.

If you think a slash was a mistake, open a ticket under Support → Contact ProofKit Support → Slash appeal. It is reviewed by hand; nothing is refunded automatically.