Flow

Time factors

Protocol timeHuman readable time

Protocol time 1

Block

1 second

Protocol time 2

Epoch

7 days

First reward delay

1 epoch

7 days

Reward frequency

Every epoch

7 days

Unbonding period

2 epochs

14 days

  • The protocol has a block time target of 1 second. However, this is not an enforced parameter and block times can fluctuate depending on network conditions.

  • The length of an epoch is not an enforced parameter and it can fluctuate by a couple of hours depending on network conditions.

  • Each epoch ends and begins around 19:00 UTC every Wednesday.

Lifecycle

  • Every week approximately between 19:00 UTC Tuesday and 19:00 UTC Wednesday (24 hours before a new epoch begins), stakers cannot stake or unstake tokens.

Must know before staking

Minimum stake amount

❌

Partial stake changes

✅

Partial reward withdrawal

❌

Compounding

❌

Penalty

❌

Slashing

❌

  • Blackout period. Every week approximately between 19:00 UTC Tuesday and 19:00 UTC Wednesday (24 hours before a new epoch begins), stakers cannot stake or unstake tokens.

  • There are 4 different types of validators. Each validator type has different responsibilities in securing the network. Stakers in different validator types will receive the same rewards.

Advanced topics

General

  • Every epoch has 3 different phases.

    • Staking auction: Stakers can stake or unstake tokens during this period. This is the only phase where users can stake or unstake tokens.

    • Epoch setup: All staking related changes during the staking auction are frozen and finalized in preparation for the upcoming epoch.

    • Epoch committed: Validators sync with the network and get ready for the upcoming epoch.

Rewards

  • Rewards come from newly issued tokens and transaction fees.

    • Fixed inflation rate applied to total supply. The protocol issues 5% of total supply to distribute to stakers as rewards.

  • Factors that impact realized rewards.

    • Commissions. Commissions for validators are fixed at 8%.

Risks

  • Soft downtime penalty. While the protocol does not have any automated penalties for underperforming validators, it will manually deduct the reward amounts by 50% for validators who have severe uptime issues.

  • Manual slashing. The protocol does not have any automated slashing mechanism for malicious validators. The protocol team will assess any malicious activities and determine slashing on a case-by-case basis.

Validators

Total validator cap

❌

Validator requirements

✅

Verification Nodes: 135,000 FLOW Collection Nodes: 250,000 FLOW Consensus Nodes: 500,000 FLOW Execution Nodes: 1,250,000 FLOW

  • There are 4 different validators on the protocol.

    • Verification nodes confirms the execution work conducted by execution nodes.

    • Collection nodes manages the transaction pool and forwards transactions to Consensus nodes.

    • Consensus nodes propose and vote on blocks.

    • Execution nodes executes transactions and smart contracts.

  • Validators must have enough stake and receive authorization to run verification, collection, consensus, execution nodes.

  • Access nodes provide local access to the protocol state. They do not participate in the core of the protocol, and therefore are not considered validators. Running access nodes require 100 FLOW, but they do not receive any staking rewards.

  • Commissions for validators are fixed at 8%.

Resources

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