Erabeta

If Era ever goes down

Read this once

You shouldn't need this page on a normal day. Read it before you go live, the way you'd note where the exits are in a new building. Then you'll already know what to do.

Your users' funds stay in the vault

Era is a ZK settlement layer on Ethereum. Every balance lives in a vault contract on Ethereum, and every settled state is proven before it's accepted. If Era stops, the vault doesn't. Funds stay where they are.

When the vault freezes

Anyone can freeze the vault if a deposit or withdrawal has waited two hours without a settlement, or more than a day in all. If nothing is waiting, the vault stays open.

A freeze pauses deposits, withdrawal requests and settlement. It moves no funds, and unsettled deposits can still be reclaimed.

Your users can leave on their own

Once the vault freezes, any user can escape directly on Ethereum, for at least seven days and for as long as it stays frozen. Escape doesn't need our approval. Their wallet requests the account's exit proof and submits it to the vault, and the vault pays out the settled balance. ETH is paid out in a second step, when the user claims it.

What you do

  1. Pause Era. Stop routing new payments through Era as soon as the vault shows frozen.
  2. Route on Ethereum. Send over plain Ethereum, or your backup provider, for the duration. Your product stays up.
  3. Point users to escape if they want their funds out while the vault is frozen.
  4. Resume when status shows settled state matching and the vault open again.

Alerts you'll receive

  • settle.lag — Settlement is running behind. Watch for a freeze.
  • vault.frozen — The vault is frozen. Pause Era now.
  • escape.window — An escape is waiting to be settled.
  • key.broken — Era is fixing a settlement issue.

Admin changes

Changes to who settles and how it's proven are announced on Ethereum eight days and two hours before they can take effect. You'll always see them coming.

One line for your runbook

If Era freezes: pause Era, route on Ethereum, point users to escape, resume when the vault is open.