12190 | Automatic Failover from Long-Term Inactive Validators — Delegator Choice (Testnet Development)

Source from:

• https://validator.info/terra-classic/governance/12190
• https://discourse.luncgoblins.com/t/automatic-failover-from-long-term-inactive-validators/107

Develop/test (testnet) auto-failover for LUNC: per-delegation jail threshold (7–90d) + required action—Redelegate to lowest-power actives or Unstake (21d). Tombstone triggers immediately; long jail triggers next block.

Per-Delegator Choice: Redelegate or Unstake (Testnet Development Approval)

TL;DR
Too much stake sits on inactive (jailed/tombstoned) validators earning 0% and weakening decentralization.
I’m proposing we develop and test on testnet an automatic failover system where every delegation must choose:

• Auto-Redelegate (spread to low-power active validators; smallest get most), or
• Auto-Unstake (start the normal 21-day unbond).
  Each delegator also sets a Jail Threshold (e.g., 7–90 days) for when the action triggers.

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Why now?

• Idle stake = 0% rewards and lower real security.
• Abandoned wallets can trap stake for months/years.
• This makes the set self-healing and nudges stake toward smaller, reliable validators.

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What’s being proposed (for TESTNET first)

1. Per-delegator settings (stored on-chain):

• Failover Action (required): Redelegate or Unstake
• Jail Threshold (required): N consecutive jailed days (between min/max set by governance)

2. Trigger:

• Tombstone: immediate failover
• Jailed ≥ threshold: failover at next block

3. Redelegate rule: pick K lowest-voting-power active validators that meet filters (uptime ≥ 99% over last 10k blocks; commission ≤ 10%; not recently slashed), allocate by inverse voting power (smallest receive proportionally more).
4. Scope: This proposal authorizes design + testnet rollout only. Mainnet would require a separate upgrade vote after results.

Initial testnet parameters (tunable):

• min_threshold_days = 7, max_threshold_days = 90
• auto_failover_k = 4
• auto_failover_min_uptime = 99%
• auto_failover_max_commission = 10%

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Benefits

• No idle stake: every delegation either redelegates or unstakes after the chosen threshold.
• Decentralization: flow toward smaller active validators.
• User control: delegators choose both how and when.
• Security: higher effective active stake.

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Safeguards & anti-churn

• Threshold floor/ceiling (e.g., 7–90 days) to avoid hyper-reactive churn.
• K kept small (e.g., 4) to limit state bloat.
• Per-block processing caps to handle very large validators safely.
• Event logs so explorers/wallets show exactly what happened and why.

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What this is not

• Not an immediate mainnet change.
• Not custody of user funds by a contract.
• Not forcing everyone to redelegate—Unstake is equally available.

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Open questions for feedback

1. Preferred min/max for jail threshold? (e.g., 7–90 vs. 14–60)
2. K destinations = 3, 4, or 5?
3. Filters: uptime window (10k blocks OK?) and commission cap (10% OK?)
4. Weighting: inverse voting power vs. simple cap-fill to median?
5. Any exclusions (e.g., recent governance abuse) validators want considered?

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Proposed timeline

• Week 0–2: Community feedback on parameters & design
• Week 3–6: Implement staking module changes, wallet/CLI hooks
• Week 7–10: Public testnet: run scenarios (tombstone, long jail, mass failover)
• Week 11–12: Publish report + recommended parameters
• After: Separate mainnet software upgrade proposal if community is satisfied

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Ask

Please share:

• Whether you support testnet development of mandatory failover (choose Redelegate or Unstake)
• Your preferred parameters (threshold range, K, filters, weighting)
• Any red flags we should address before coding

If there’s broad support, I’ll open a PR draft and coordinate with wallet devs for a basic UI (dropdown for action + numeric threshold when staking).

Thanks for reading—looking forward to your feedback!