I was discussing Lido and a question came up. What exactly happens with the non-lost ETH of a slashed validator? What happens to the corresponding stETH? I’ve looked at the docs (docs (dot) lido (dot) fi/guides/lido-tokens-integration-guide/#steth - I can’t post links yet) but this exact detail is not clarified.
In practice, does it play out as follows: (i) every stETH holder loses the same proportion of their stETH, (ii) the total lost stETH equal the total unbonded ETH, (iii) the slashed validator gets the non-lost ETH? (Terminology note: non-lost ETH + lost ETH = unbonded ETH)
More concretely, say Lido validator Victor stakes 32 ETH. At a later point in time there exist 128 stETH in total. Then Victor misbehave is slashed. In this case, the Ethereum protocol punishes 1 ETH and unbonds the remaining 31 ETH.
Assuming these, this is my understanding of what happens next, please correct me wherever I’m wrong: Lido burns 32 stETH (i.e., all accounts & smart contracts that own any amount of stETH lose 1/4th of it) and the Ethereum protocol gives 31 ETH to Victor.
Please consider this example in a vacuum: don’t consider any new staking, unstaking, rewards, orother slashings in parallel.