What is Slashing?
IMPORTANT NOTE: Slashing is currently using the BETA tag. During this time, the Ethos team reserves the right to alter, modify, or reverse the results of a slashing at any point in time. It is important that we are able to observe and ensure slashing is aptly working as the mechanism we intended it to be, without compromising the integrity of Ethos overall.
Slashing allows reputable Ethos participants to flag potentially unethical behavior. When someone is "slashed," their credibility score may be reduced based on community voting.
Currently, Ethos only supports social slashing, which affects credibility scores. Financial slashing, which would involve monetary penalties, is planned for the future but not yet available.
Reminder, credibility scores on Ethos reflect community-driven sentiment about public accounts (like Twitter and ENS addresses) based on publicly available interactions. These scores are not an absolute measure of credibility, trustworthiness, or character but rather an aggregation of user-submitted feedback and publicly available metrics.
Social Slashing is a community-driven accountability mechanism where users can challenge and call out behavior by initiating a Slash against a publicly available accounts. The validity of a Slash is then determined by platform-wide consensus voting.
Key Principles of Social Slashing:
Community-Driven: No single user or moderator determines the outcome—the community votes on whether a Slash is valid.
Consensus-Based: A Slash only stands if the majority of voters agree.
Transparent Process: Every Slash is recorded with public justifications and voting results.
🛑 Important: A Slash is NOT an accusation of illegal activity or a definitive statement of wrongdoing. It simply flags behavior for community review.
Slashing is based on the Proof of Stake concept where those who degrade the integrity of the protocol have funds removed. https://eth2book.info/capella/part2/incentives/slashing/
How Slashing Works
Proposal: A reputable user proposes a slash against someone they believe has violated community standards. They submit a bond - an amount of score they wish to deduct from the accused.
Voting: For 48 hours, the community votes on whether they agree with the slash
Resolution: Based on consensus, the slash is either successful, failed, or inconclusive.
Penalty:
Upon success: accused’s score decreases by the bond amount
Upon failure: the accuser’s score is reduced by the bond amount
Inconclusive: no scores are adjusted
When to Use Slashing
Slashing is intended for major violations of trust on which there is strong consensus.
Ethos does not prescribe exact slashable offenses.
Slashing Rules You Should Know
Score Required: You need a credibility score of at least 1600 to initiate a slash
Protocol Limit: Across all of Ethos, only 3 active slashes can exist simultaneously
One at a Time: You can only have one active slash at any moment
Limited Impact: The maximum slash amount is limited to:
No more than 1/8th of your own score
No more than 1/3rd of the target's score
Cooling Period: You cannot slash someone who has been slashed in the last 10 days
No Retribution: You cannot slash someone who slashed you within the last 10 days
Early Options: Within the first hour, you can:
Edit your comment to clarify your reasoning
Cancel the slash if you made a mistake
Community Decision: The outcome depends on voting:
Successful: The target's score is reduced by the amount you proposed
Failed: Your score will be penalized instead
Inconclusive: If not enough people vote or the vote is too close, no score changes occur
How Votes Are Counted
Not all votes carry equal weight. Users with higher credibility scores have more voting power:
Untrusted: 0 points
Questionable: 0 points
Neutral: 1 point
Reputable: 2 points
Exemplary: 3 points
For a slash to be successful, at least 1% of all Ethos users must vote, and at least 60% of weighted votes must support or reject the slash.
Types of Slashing
Score Slashing (Currently Available)
Score slashing affects the credibility score of Ethos Network profiles. This impacts how much weight their actions and votes carry in the community.
Financial Slashing (Coming Soon)
Financial slashing will introduce monetary consequences for serious violations. This feature is still in development and will be introduced in a future update.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I slash anyone?
You can slash any Ethos user, Ethereum address or social account (ex: on x.com)
Can I cancel a slash I initiated?
Yes, but only within the first hour after creating it.
Can I be slashed multiple times?
Not in quick succession. There's a 10-day cooling period after someone has been slashed.
Are there rewards for slashing?
Not at this time.