{"id":775,"slug":"what-is-slashing-in-proof-of-stake","question":"What is slashing in proof of stake?","intent":"informational","language":"en","url":"https://worldwiki.io/q/what-is-slashing-in-proof-of-stake","entity":{"slug":"proof-of-stake","name":"Proof of Stake","url":"https://worldwiki.io/entity/proof-of-stake"},"answer":{"short_answer":"Slashing is the penalty for provable misbehaviour by a validator in a proof-of-stake network. On Ethereum, a validator is slashed for proposing two blocks in the same slot or for casting contradictory votes. The penalty works in three steps. The validator loses part of its stake straight away. It then pays an extra penalty around day 18, which is larger if many validators were slashed at the same time. Finally, it is removed from the network on day 36.","detailed_answer":"<p>Slashing is separate from the smaller penalties for being offline. If the chain cannot finalize for more than four epochs, an inactivity leak also drains the stake of non-voting validators <span class=\"ref\">[1]</span>.</p>","format":"paragraph","confidence":75,"verified_at":"2026-09-18 07:10:23","updated_at":"2026-09-18 16:10:23"},"sources":[{"id":161,"title":"Proof-of-stake (PoS)","url":"https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:20"},{"id":208,"title":"Proof-of-stake vs proof-of-work","url":"https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/pos-vs-pow/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:01"},{"id":160,"title":"The Merge","url":"https://ethereum.org/roadmap/merge/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:18"},{"id":209,"title":"Ethereum proof-of-stake attack and defense","url":"https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/attack-and-defense/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:01"},{"id":210,"title":"Proof-of-stake Frequently Asked Questions","url":"https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/faqs","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:01"},{"id":201,"title":"Prague-Electra (Pectra)","url":"https://ethereum.org/roadmap/pectra/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:48"},{"id":211,"title":"Ethereum Activates 'Pectra' Upgrade, Raising Max Stake to 2,048 ETH","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/05/07/ethereum-activates-pectra-upgrade-raising-max-stake-to-2048-eth","publisher":"CoinDesk","type":"news","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:03"},{"id":212,"title":"Ethereum's energy usage will soon decrease by ~99.95%","url":"https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/country-power-no-more","publisher":"Ethereum Foundation Blog","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:03"},{"id":213,"title":"Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol (Advances in Cryptology – CRYPTO 2017, pp. 357–388, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-63688-7_12)","url":"https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/ouroboros-a-provably-secure-proof-of-stake-blockchain-protocol/","publisher":"University of Edinburgh Research Explorer / Springer","type":"academic","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:04"},{"id":214,"title":"Peercoin","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peercoin","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"other","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:04"},{"id":215,"title":"Proof-of-stake — Octez & Protocol documentation","url":"https://octez.tezos.com/docs/active/proof_of_stake.html","publisher":"Tezos / Octez documentation","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:05"},{"id":216,"title":"Statement on Certain Protocol Staking Activities","url":"https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/statement-certain-protocol-staking-activities-052925","publisher":"U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Corporation Finance","type":"government","accessed_at":"2026-09-19 18:00:05"}],"published_at":"2026-09-18 07:10:23"}