QRL 2.0 replaces QRL Legacy's mining with Proof-of-Stake. Instead of burning electricity to secure the chain, participants put their own coins at stake. This guide explains how that works at a high level; the deeper pieces have their own guides.
Two layers: execution and consensus
QRL 2.0 is built from two cooperating clients, mirroring the modern Ethereum design:
- Execution layer (
gqrl) — processes transactions, runs smart contracts, and keeps account balances. This is the EVM-compatible part. - Consensus layer (the beacon chain, run by
qrysm) — decides who gets to add the next block and whether it's final. This is the Proof-of-Stake part.
The execution layer asks "is this transaction valid?"; the consensus layer asks "is this the canonical block, and is it final?" Together they form QRL 2.0.
Validators replace miners
In place of miners, QRL 2.0 has validators. A validator locks up — stakes — an amount of QRL as a security deposit, then takes on two duties:
- Proposing — occasionally being chosen to build the next block, and
- Attesting — voting that they've seen a valid block, which is how the network reaches agreement.
Honest validators earn rewards for doing this work. Validators that break the rules in provable ways can be slashed — losing part of their stake. The stake-at-risk is what makes attacking the chain economically painful.
The consensus clock: slots and epochs
The beacon chain runs on a fixed schedule. Time is divided into slots of 60 seconds — each slot, one validator may propose a block — grouped into epochs of 128 slots (about 2.1 hours), which the protocol uses to assign duties and account for finality. We cover this clock in detail in slots, epochs and the beacon chain.
Finality
Proof-of-Work offers only probabilistic settlement — a block becomes safer as more blocks pile on top, but is never formally "done." Proof-of-Stake adds finality: once enough validators have attested across epochs, a block is finalised and reverting it would require an enormous, self-destructing fraction of the total stake to be slashed. That gives QRL 2.0 a stronger, more explicit notion of "this is settled" than mining provides.
Rewards arrive as withdrawals
Validator rewards aren't paid as a mined block reward. On QRL 2.0 they reach validators through protocol withdrawals — a distinct mechanism from ordinary transactions. On a quiet test network, these withdrawals can be the main flow of value on the chain.
Where to go next
- Validators and staking — how to participate.
- Slots, epochs and the beacon chain — the consensus clock.
- Withdrawals explained — how rewards are paid.