Default

A default is the protocol’s answer to one situation, a matured bond that the Coffer contract cannot pay in full. Nothing else triggers it, and nothing but full payment ends it.

What triggers it

The moment any single matured bond cannot be paid in full from the contract balance, Declare Default becomes callable by anyone, on that bond. Until that moment a declaration reverts, a covered bond cannot be declared. Near the boundary the race is real, if a bond matures while the balance is short, a default can land in the same block as your top up, or before it. Size your minimum duration against your own monitoring habit.

What it does

Three things happen at once. Bond sales freeze. Every validator extraction path freezes, you can take nothing out. And every outstanding bond accelerates, each becomes claimable at its full maturity value immediately, first come, first served, whatever its maturity date said.

While the default stands, anyone can request your validator’s full exit, repeatedly, and the caller pays the small request fee the protocol charges for it. The request is irrevocable. Once it is in, your validator exits even if you settle every bond first, and the swept stake arrives in the contract about two days later. Once the last bond settles, the request gate closes, a third party cannot force the exit of a validator who has paid.

Why paying late does not undo it

A declared default does not clear when the balance recovers. It stands until every outstanding bond has received its full maturity value, through holders claiming or through you settling bonds yourself with the validator redemption path, which stays open in default. Topping up after the declaration funds those claims, it does not dismiss them.

The way out

When every bond is settled, clear the default. Your Coffer’s page shows you a card with the Clear Default button, and only you see it. What clearing gives you depends on whether an exit was requested. If no exit ever landed, your validator keeps its status and the Coffer can issue bonds again, and the card says, “Every bond in this Coffer is settled. Clearing the default unfreezes bond sales and the validator’s funds movements.” If an exit was requested, the whole stake is swept to the contract, and the card says, “Every bond in this Coffer is settled and the validator has exited. Clearing the default lets you withdraw the ETH from the Coffer contract.” While the exit is still running the card reads “is exiting” in place of “has exited”. The contract refuses every withdrawal while the default stands, so clearing it is the only way to take that ETH out. In practice, treat a default as the end of the validator and of the Coffer, the whole design of your buffer and your minimum duration exists so you never meet one.