Consensus Mechanism
Orbinum runs Aura for block production and GRANDPA for finality, with a permissioned validator set today and Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) as the target model.
Aura and GRANDPA are live and work as described below. NPoS validator
selection is not yet active: the current validator set is permissioned. Candidate
selection happens off-chain and sudo records it with a single addValidator call —
there is no on-chain candidacy, and no bond. Nomination and slashing arrive with NPoS.
See Staking & Rewards for the target model and the path to open validation.
Overview
Orbinum runs Substrate's battle-tested Aura and GRANDPA, which provide:
- 6-second block time via Aura (Authority Round)
- ~12-second finality via GRANDPA (GHOST-based Recursive Ancestor Deriving Prefix Agreement)
- Byzantine fault tolerance with support for up to 1/3 malicious validators
- Deterministic finality rather than probabilistic (unlike PoW chains)
For detailed information about how Aura and GRANDPA work, see the Substrate documentation on consensus.
Network parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Block Time | 6 seconds |
| Finality Time | ~12 seconds |
| Authority Set Size | 32 maximum (MaxValidators); 5 active on testnet today |
| Session Duration | 600 blocks ≈ 1 hour |
| Set Change Latency | 2 session boundaries ≈ 2 hours |
| Unbonding Period | N/A today (no bond); expected 7-28 days under NPoS |
What a validator earns
Today: relay fees only. Ordinary transaction fees are burned by the runtime, and the staking rewards described in Network Economy belong to the NPoS model that is not yet active. See Relay Setup and Rewards for how fees are actually collected.
Slashing is not implemented. The runtime configures GRANDPA with
KeyOwnerProof = Void and no equivocation reporting, and pallet-session with no
disabling strategy — so an equivocation proof cannot be constructed and a
misbehaving validator is never disabled automatically. Removal is a sudo call.
The conditions slashing will cover under NPoS — equivocation, extended unresponsiveness, invalid block production — are described in Staking & Rewards.
Next Steps
- Becoming a Validator — the five steps from a bare server to authoring blocks
- Validator Operations — why a stalled finality gap is the alert to act on
- Staking & Rewards — the NPoS target model, and the path to open validation