Account Abstractions

Substrate uses multiple sets of public/private key pairs to represent participants of the network, including validators, nominators and normal users.

As an example, the Substrate node uses a Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) algorithm to select validators. Validators and nominators may hold significant amounts of funds, so Substrate's Staking pallet introduces account abstractions that help keep funds as secure as possible.

These abstractions are:

• Stash Key: a Stash account is meant to hold large amounts of funds. Its private key should be as secure as possible in a cold wallet.
• Controller Key: a Controller account signals choices on behalf of the Stash account, like payout preferences, but should only hold a minimal amount of funds to pay transaction fees. Its private key should be secure as it can affect validator settings, but will be used somewhat regularly for validator maintenance.
• Session Keys: these are "hot" keys kept in the validator client and used for signing certain validator operations. They should never hold funds.

Account keys

A key pair can represent an account and control funds, like normal accounts that you would expect from other blockchains. In the context of Substrate's Balances pallet, these accounts must have a minimum amount (an "existential deposit") to exist in storage.

Account keys are defined generically and made concrete in the runtime.

To continue with our example of Stash and Controller accounts, the keys to these accounts are distinguished by their intended use, not by any underlying cryptographic difference. When creating Stash or Controller keys, all cryptography supported for normal account keys are also supported.

Stash keys

The Stash keys are the public/private key pair that defines a Stash account. This account is like a "savings account" in that you should not make frequent transactions from it. Therefore, its private key should be treated with the utmost security, for example protected in a safe or layers of hardware security.

Since the Stash key is kept offline, it designates a Controller account to make non-spending decisions with the weight of the Stash account's funds. It can also designate a Proxy account to vote in governance on its behalf.

Controller keys

The Controller keys are the public/private key pair that defines a Controller account. In the context of Substrate's NPoS model, the Controller key will signal one's intent to validate or nominate.

The Controller key is used to set preferences like the rewards destination and, in the case of validators, to set their Session keys. The Controller account only needs to pay transaction fees, so it only needs a minimal amount of funds.

The Controller key can never be used to spend funds from its Stash account. However, actions taken by the Controller can result in slashing, so it should still be well secured.

Next steps

Learn more

• Learn more about Session Keys in the this article.
• Learn about the cryptography used within Substrate.

Examples

• Follow our tutorial to create a local network and generate keys.

References

• Visit the reference docs for the session keys runtime API.

• Take a look at the default session keys in the Substrate node runtime.