NCN Components
The three essential components that work together to create a Node Consensus Network
NCN Components
To run an NCN, you need one or more of each of the following three components, which interact with each other: Vaults, Operators, and the NCN Program itself.
1. Vaults
Vaults are accounts that hold tokens and delegate them to operators. They play a crucial role in the NCN by:
- Holding the tokens used for staking.
- Delegating stake (voting power) to chosen operators.
- Enabling stake-weighted participation in the network's governance.
2. Operators
Operators are accounts that receive delegated stake from vaults and actively participate in the voting process. Their key functions are:
- Receiving stake delegations from one or more vaults.
- Casting votes on behalf of the delegated stake during consensus rounds.
- Forming the network of active participants who drive the consensus process.
3. NCN Program
The NCN Program is the core on-chain component of the system. It's the smart contract that NCN developers build and deploy. Its main responsibilities are:
- Storing the global configuration parameters for the NCN instance.
- Maintaining the registry of participating vaults and supported token types.
- Managing the state for each voting epoch (consensus cycle).