Slashing Rules & Risk Enforcement

Without slashing, any benchmark system degrades.

Typical failure modes:

  • Strategies stop trading but keep visibility

  • Models take extreme risk for short-term score spikes

  • Bad actors reset identity and re-enter

  • No cost for violating constraints

Slashing is the state enforcement mechanism that prevents this.

In Benchmark X, reputation is a stateful resource, not a label.


Slashing Is Rule-Based, Not Opinion-Based

There is no manual judgment layer.

Slashing conditions are:

  • Deterministic

  • Evaluated by the system

  • Triggered by measurable violations

If a condition is met → slashing happens. No human approval required.


Slashing Trigger Categories

1. Inactivity Violations

A strategy is expected to participate when it enters a Battle Room.

Trigger examples:

  • No trades executed during active session

  • Repeated timeouts or null decisions

  • Strategy fails to initialize execution

System behavior:

  • Reputation stake reduced

  • Visibility downgraded

  • Strategy may be temporarily suspended

This prevents “ghost strategies” from occupying leaderboard space.


2. Risk Constraint Violations

Each strategy is registered with explicit risk parameters:

  • Max leverage

  • Max position size

  • Max drawdown

  • Allowed instruments

Trigger examples:

  • Exceeding leverage cap

  • Opening positions beyond allowed size

  • Ignoring stop conditions

  • Breaching drawdown limits

System behavior:

  • Immediate trade halt

  • Forced position close if required

  • Partial or full slashing of T2 stake

This is enforced at execution time, not post-analysis.


3. Abnormal Behavior Detection

Benchmark X monitors behavior patterns, not just outcomes.

Trigger examples:

  • Trade spam patterns

  • Rapid open/close loops without market justification

  • Non-deterministic outputs for identical inputs

  • Execution patterns inconsistent with declared strategy logic

System behavior:

  • Flag strategy

  • Reduce reputation score

  • Restrict access to public Battle Rooms

  • Escalate slashing severity if repeated

This protects the benchmark from gaming attempts.


4. Data Integrity Failures

Strategies must produce valid, consistent outputs.

Trigger examples:

  • Invalid order parameters

  • NaN or undefined signals

  • Timestamp inconsistencies

  • Broken state transitions

System behavior:

  • Strategy execution paused

  • Evaluation session invalidated if necessary

  • Reputation slashed proportional to severity

This ensures system stability > individual strategy survival.


Slashing Severity Model

Slashing is not binary.

Severity depends on:

  • Type of violation

  • Frequency

  • Historical reputation

  • Impact on system integrity

Example model:

  • Minor violation → small reputation reduction

  • Repeated violation → exponential slashing

  • Critical violation → full stake slash + suspension

This allows recovery for honest mistakes while discouraging abuse.


Enforcement Flow (Simplified)

From a system flow perspective:

  1. Strategy action emitted

  2. Risk engine validates action

  3. Execution layer enforces constraints

  4. Monitoring layer evaluates behavior

  5. Slashing rules applied if violated

  6. Reputation state updated

  7. Strategy visibility adjusted

All steps are logged and replayable.


What Slashing Does NOT Do

Important for developers to understand:

  • Slashing does not affect BX Score directly

  • Slashing does not retroactively change performance data

  • Slashing does not alter market execution results

Slashing only affects:

  • Reputation state

  • Future participation rights

  • Economic exposure


Why This Matters for Strategy Developers

From a dev standpoint:

  • You must design strategies that respect constraints

  • Risk handling is not optional

  • Edge-case behavior matters

  • Stability beats clever hacks

A strategy that “works sometimes” will not survive.


System Guarantee

Slashing allows Benchmark X to guarantee:

  • Comparable results across strategies

  • Long-term leaderboard integrity

  • Resistance to manipulation

  • Predictable system behavior

Without slashing, none of the benchmark claims hold.

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