Slashing

Slashing is the enforcement mechanism that gives ShipLock its credibility. When a project misses its deadline, anyone can trigger the slash. No permissions, no governance, no admin — pure deterministic enforcement.

The Canonical Slashing Rule

A project is slashable if all three conditions are true:

now > graceEndsAt
AND hasAcceptedCheckinForCycle == false
AND lastSlashedCycleNonce != cycleNonce

This rule is objective and does not depend on indexers, UI state, or any human decision. It can be verified directly via RPC.

When Can Slashing Happen?

The timeline:

1. Deadline passes — grace buffer begins
2. Grace ends — if no accepted check-in exists for the cycle
3. Slash becomes permissionless — anyone can call slash(project_id)

The project will show a Violation status on its detail page.

How to Slash

Anyone calls slash(project_id) on the smart contract:

1. No special permissions required
2. No stake required
3. No approval process
4. Only SOL needed for the transaction fee

The slasher (executor) earns a bounty for triggering the enforcement.

Slash Distribution

When a slash is executed, the slashed percentage of the bond is distributed:

Recipient	Share	Purpose
Community Pool	50%	Protocol sustainability
Burn Address	20%	Deflationary pressure
Watcher Rewards	20%	Incentivize validation
Slasher (executor)	10%	Bounty for enforcement

Example

A project with a 100,000 SHIP bond and 5% slash rate:

• 5,000 SHIP total slashed
• 2,500 SHIP → community pool
• 1,000 SHIP → burned
• 1,000 SHIP → watcher rewards
• 500 SHIP → executor bounty

What Happens After a Slash?

After the slash executes:

1. Slash amount is transferred from the bond vault
2. lastSlashedCycleNonce is set to cycleNonce (prevents re-slashing)
3. Cycle advances to the next period:
   • cycleNonce += 1
   • cycleStartAt = now
   • nextDeadlineAt = now + cadence
   • graceEndsAt = nextDeadlineAt + grace
4. The project continues — it can try again in the new cycle

A slash doesn't kill the project. It's a penalty, not a termination. The project continues unless its bond is fully depleted.

Double-Slash Prevention

Each cycle can only be slashed once. The on-chain program enforces this using:

if lastSlashedCycleNonce == cycleNonce:
    reject slash

Even if multiple users try to slash the same cycle, only the first transaction succeeds.

Multiple Violations

Each missed deadline compounds. If a project misses multiple deadlines in a row:

• 1st miss: 5% slashed
• 2nd miss: 5% of remaining slashed
• 3rd miss: 5% of remaining slashed

The bond is never fully drained in a single event. But repeated violations rapidly deplete the bond and damage credibility.

Bond Depletion

If the bond falls below a minimum viable amount after repeated slashes, the project is effectively terminated. The UI displays "Bond depleted" and the project can no longer operate.

Edge Cases

Exactly at graceEndsAt

Strict inequality: slashable only if now > graceEndsAt (not >=). This gives the project the full grace period.

Endorsement arrives at exact window end

Endorsements count only if now <= endorseWindowEndsAt. An endorsement at exactly the boundary is valid.

Indexer lag

The UI must not rely on the indexer for slash eligibility. If the indexer is behind:

• Show a warning to the user
• Allow direct RPC check for on-chain state
• Slashing should always work via direct contract call

Project owner disappears

Not an issue. Enforcement is completely permissionless. The project either ships or gets slashed — no dependency on the owner being present.

Simultaneous slash attempts

Only the first transaction succeeds. Subsequent attempts for the same cycle are rejected by the on-chain program due to the lastSlashedCycleNonce check.

Why Permissionless Enforcement Matters

If slashing required governance approval or admin action:

• Enforcement would be slow and political
• Teams could lobby to avoid consequences
• The system would lose credibility

By making slashing permissionless and bounty-incentivized, ShipLock ensures that enforcement actually happens without depending on any single actor.