Vaults

The Vaults in the Cygnus protocol serve as the core management layer for delegation and restaking processes. These vaults play a crucial role in the Cygnus economy by managing three key aspects: Accounting, Delegation Strategies, and Reward Distribution. Here’s an overview:

Key Functions of Vaults:

1. Accounting: Vaults manage deposits, withdrawals, and slashing of collaterals, handling the underlying assets associated with them.

2. Delegation Strategies: Vault deployers or owners define strategies for delegating and restaking collateral to operators across Cygnus networks. Networks need to opt into these strategies.

3. Reward Distribution: Vaults are responsible for distributing staking rewards from networks to those who have deposited collateral.

Types of Vaults:

1. Operator-Specific Vaults: Designed for specific operators, allowing them to restake collateral across different networks.

2. Curated Multi-Operator Vaults: These vaults offer curated configurations of restaked networks and operators, with customizable slashing limits.

3. Immutable Pre-Configured Vaults: These vaults are deployed with fixed rules that cannot be changed, providing extra security for users.

Modules:

1. Accounting: All accounting operations are managed within the vault itself.

2. Slashing Logic: Managed by a separate module called the Slasher. This module ensures slashing requests are valid, including checking that operators are opted into the vault and network.

3. Limits and Delegation Logic: Managed by a Delegator module, which sets limits on operator and network stakes, ensuring that these limits are adhered to during restaking and slashing events.

Epoch and Withdrawal Process:

1. The vault operates on an epoch-based system, where deposits increase the active balance immediately, while withdrawals involve a request and claim process that spans multiple epochs.

2. Slashing incidents reduce the active balance proportionally across all users.

Slashing Mechanics:

1. Slashing is enforced through the Slasher module and involves either Instant Slashing or Veto Slashing (which includes a veto phase before execution).

Limits and Delegation:

1. Two types of delegators exist: FullRestakeDelegator (for restaking across operators and networks) and NetworkRestakeDelegator (focused on preventing restaking within the same network).

Rewards Distribution:

1. Staker Rewards: Calculated based on active shares at specific timestamps.

2. Operator Rewards: Managed by the delegator module, based on the operator's stake in the network.

This comprehensive system of vaults ensures secure and efficient management of collateral, delegation, and rewards in the Cygnus protocol.