What Is the Difference between ‘Slashing’ and ‘Inactivity Leak’?

Slashing is a severe, immediate penalty that destroys a large portion of a validator's stake for explicitly malicious behavior like double-signing. An inactivity leak is a gradual, continuous reduction of a validator's stake if they are offline and fail to attest to the chain.

The leak is a less severe, non-malicious penalty to incentivize uptime.

What Is ‘Slashing’ in a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) System and How Does It Prevent Malicious Behavior?
Does a Flash Crash or Sudden Price Spike Lead to Higher or Lower Impermanent Loss than a Gradual Change?
What Is the Difference between Being “Jailed” and Being “Slashed”?
What Is “Slashing” in a PoS System?
What Is “Slashing” and How Does It Deter Malicious Behavior in PoS?
What Is ‘Slashing’ in PoS and How Does It Act as a Security Mechanism?
What Are the Risks a Validator Faces When Staking ETH?
What Is the Difference between “Soft Slashing” and “Hard Slashing”?

Glossar