Protocol Mechanics

Ingress Proofs

When a miner receives newly uploaded data, it generates a cryptographic ingress proof.

Only a miner holding the complete data can generate the proof, and anyone holding the data can verify it.

An ingress proof records:

• Inclusion of the data in the Submit Ledger, identified by its Merkle root
• Which miner and partition accepted responsibility
• The time at which the data was received

See Submit Ledger for more on how data enters the network.

By generating an ingress proof, the miner confirms that it has received the data and accepts responsibility for maintaining it.

Data is promoted from the Submit Ledger to the Publish Ledger only after sufficient ingress proofs have been collected to satisfy the protocol's promotion threshold. This prevents partially uploaded or insufficiently replicated data from becoming permanent. Promotion requires ingress proofs from multiple distinct miners, so data that reaches the Publish Ledger already exists in several copies across the network.