F6: Disaster: When all is at stake

Disaster recovery (DR) is an area of security planning that aims to protect an organization from the effects of significant negative events.

Having a disaster recovery strategy in place enables an organization to maintain or quickly resume mission-critical functions following a disruption.

Cardano as a proposed financial operating system for the world must have several layers of built in redundancies even for events that may seem remote or very unlikely now.

Although a testnet exists, real-world conditions can never be fully replicated. Maybe proposers can develop a way of incentivizing further SPO participation in the Cardano testnet and more simulations.

Why is it important?

A system that aspires to become a global financial operating system, must be stress tested. Running nodes should be prepared for disaster.

How does success look like?

Likely points of failure identified. Disaster communication channels set up. Recovery procedures identified. Testing procedures developed.

Key Metrics to measure

• has a methodology for decentralized stress testing of the main network been developed - by and for stakepool operators?
• are participating stakepools being rewarded for taking part in mainnet disaster recovery tests?
• are there enough incentives in place for participating in the Cardano testnet?
• are stakepool operators able to conduct limited network stress testing (overload, disconnection, bad actor, DDoS … scenarios) and are they rewarded for participating in these tests (instead of being punished by losing slots)?
• have new guidelines, recommendations and emergency communication channels been established for stakepool operators who wish to take part in these emergency preparations?
• has a a dedicated risk-assessment and risk-management team been set up?
• have protocols been developed for recovering from an emergency situation that could take most of the main network offline?
• have proposals been developed for building in different kinds of redundancies?
• have new benchmarks been developed to measure whether the Cardano stake pool network is safer, more stable, more resilient and more decentralized?
• have wider screening of risk sources been performed: CyberSecurity, political and regulatory risks, internet-related risks etc.