Validator Decay Schedule
NetZero Chain starts more centralised than most chains: ten validator seats, all run by the operating company. That is deliberate (a bot farm must never be able to take the chain over) and temporary. The schedule below is written into the genesis configuration. The node refuses blocks whose validator set contradicts it, so the company cannot postpone it without a hard fork that every operator would have to knowingly adopt.
The schedule
| Chain age | Company seats | Elected seats | Company share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years 1–5 | 10 | 0 | 100% |
| Year 6 | 9 | 1 | 90% |
| Year 7 | 8 | 2 | 80% |
| Year 8 | 7 | 3 | 70% |
| Year 9 | 6 | 4 | 60% |
| Year 10 | 5 | 5 | 50% |
| Year 11 | 4 | 6 | 40% |
| Year 12 | 3 | 7 | 30% |
| Year 13 | 2 | 8 | 20% |
| Year 14 | 1 | 9 | 10% |
| Year 15 and after | 0 | 10 | 0% |
A "year" is 10,512,000 blocks at 3 seconds. The testnet configuration compresses the schedule (decay start at block 20,000, one conversion every 5,000 blocks) so that seat conversion can be exercised within a day once the ValidatorSet contract that performs it exists; until then the ten genesis seats stay in place (see Status below).
What the percentages mean in a 7-of-10 quorum
- Years 1–8 (10 to 7 company seats): the company can finalise on its own and can veto.
- Years 9–11 (6 to 4 seats): the company can still block finality but needs elected seats to finalise.
- Year 12 onward (3 seats or fewer): the company can neither finalise nor veto. It is an ordinary participant.
- Year 15: no reserved seats. The company can win seats in elections like anyone else.
We state these cliffs openly because "10% less voting power" is meaningless without them.
Elections
From year six, elected seats are filled once per election epoch (30 days on mainnet) by a weighted electorate:
- 50% miner work: share of accepted mining shares over the epoch.
- 50% USDn stake: USDn bonded in the ValidatorSet contract.
A candidate must post a bond (proposed 25,000 USDn), publish identity metadata, and meet the same technical requirements as company seats. A seat is lost by missing more than 5% of its slots in an epoch or by a proven double-sign; the bond is slashed and the seat re-elected.
Why both work and stake: pure hashrate elections would hand the chain to whoever rents the most CPUs, pure stake to whoever holds the most dollars. Requiring both, plus a bond and one seat per identity, means a takeover needs many real entities rather than one farm.
Company seats during years 1–5
The company can rotate its own keys (a failed server, a compromised key) through the ValidatorSet contract with a 24-hour delay and an on-chain event. It cannot change the seat count, the quorum, or the schedule.
Status
On the current testnet the seat list is carried in checkpoint headers and stays constant: the schedule parameters are in the config, but the seat conversion and the elections need the ValidatorSet contract (phase 4), so nothing has converted yet even though the chain is past block 20,000. See Roadmap.