- What's the beacon chain?
- The consensus layer of QRL 2.0 — runs Casper FFG finality on top of the execution chain. Validators propose beacon blocks (one per 60-second slot), which carry attestations, sync-committee signatures, and any proposer/attester slashings. Each beacon block embeds one execution-layer block; the two are bonded but logically separate.
- What's the Head slot vs the Finalized epoch?
- Head = the most recent slot the network has agreed to (subject to reorgs). Finalized = the most recent epoch that's cryptoeconomically locked in via Casper FFG (reverting it would require >1/3 of total stake to be slashed). Finality lag = current_epoch − finalized_epoch should sit at 2 on a healthy chain.
- What's a sync committee?
- A rotating subset of 128 validators (QRL 2.0's SyncCommitteeSize, vs Ethereum's 512) that signs every block during their period of EpochsPerSyncCommitteePeriod = 8 epochs (~17h). Their signatures power light-client proofs. Validators get a small extra reward for participating.
- Why don't I see validator pubkeys here?
- Beacon validators are identified by their integer index (e.g. validator #42) rather than their pubkey. The pubkey IS stored (ML-DSA-87, post-quantum) and visible on /validator/[index] detail pages — it's just long-and-opaque, not a useful lookup key on a list view.
- How fresh is this data?
- The beacon indexer follows the consensus layer at a polling interval set in the ETL config. The 'Indexer lag' KPI (when present) shows how many slots behind real-time we are. On a healthy deploy that's under a minute; mid-double-digits means the indexer is catching up.
- How is QRL's beacon chain different from Ethereum's?
- Three parameters differ. A slot is 60 seconds (not 12), an epoch is 128 slots ≈ 2h 8min (not 32 slots ≈ 6m 24s), and validators sign with post-quantum ML-DSA-87 keys instead of BLS. The Casper FFG finality model and the slot/epoch structure are otherwise the same as Ethereum's beacon chain.
- What makes QRL's Proof-of-Stake quantum-resistant?
- Validators sign every block and attestation with ML-DSA-87, a NIST-standardised post-quantum signature scheme (CRYSTALS-Dilithium family). Ethereum's BLS signatures could be forged by a large quantum computer running Shor's algorithm; ML-DSA-87 has no known quantum attack, so QRL's consensus votes stay unforgeable in a post-quantum world.
- How much Quanta does a validator stake?
- Each validator's stake counts up to a 40,000 Quanta effective-balance cap (MaxEffectiveBalance in the qrysm config). Drop below the 20,000 Quanta ejection floor and the protocol forces the validator to exit. Deposits are made in 1 Quanta increments. Active stake across the whole set is shown on the validators page.