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FAQs

Frequently asked questions about the Notareum protocol, token, validator economics, and integration patterns. Each answer links to the canonical doc for further reading.

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Protocol basics

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What is a .nota file?

A .nota file is a signed JSON document that binds a blockchain resource (wallet address, smart contract, transaction hash, NFT, IPFS CID) to an issuer identity. It carries chain context, optional verification level, and a cryptographic signature. Wallets, exchanges, and dapps parse it, verify the signature, and cross-reference NotaRegistry before acting. See .nota File Format.

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Is Notareum just ENS?

No. ENS resolves names to addresses on Ethereum. Notareum does more, across chains:
  1. Chain-agnostic: every major chain (EVM, Solana, Bitcoin, Cosmos) is first-class.
  2. Carries issuer identity, not just an address.
  3. Has a validator-driven verification layer with configurable trust levels.
  4. Supports resource types beyond addresses: contracts, transactions, NFTs, CIDs.
  5. Maintains protocol-level revocation with economic consequences.
Notareum and ENS coexist. You can use your ENS name as a Notareum alias and inherit ENS UX while gaining the full trust model. See Wallet Address Sharing.

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Which chains does Notareum support?

The protocol is chain-agnostic. The file format carries chain context in every record. Current first-class support: Ethereum and every EIP-155 EVM chain (Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, BNB, Avalanche), plus Solana, Bitcoin, and Cosmos SDK chains. New chains are added by extending the chainId / chainName registry without protocol changes. See Cross-Chain Identity.

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Why does the protocol need a token?

The $NOTA token serves three concrete functions:
  1. Fee payment. Every on-chain write (register, verify, dispute) pays a NOTA fee that routes to treasury, burn, and validator rewards.
  2. Validator collateral. Validators stake NOTA; the stake is at risk via slashing if they misbehave. Economic stake is what makes validator attestations meaningful.
  3. Governance. veNOTA (vote-escrowed NOTA) holders vote on protocol parameters, upgrades, and treasury use.
A tokenless protocol would have no way to make attestations costly to buy or misbehavior costly to commit. See the Token Economics overview.

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How is the protocol decentralized?

Four independent layers of decentralization:
  1. Validator set. Permissionless entry: any address that stakes 10,000 NOTA becomes an active validator. Tier progression is stake-driven, not gate-kept.
  2. Governance. Every parameter change, upgrade, and role grant passes through veNOTA voting plus an AccessManager timelock. No individual entity can unilaterally alter the protocol.
  3. Off-chain identity. Issuers control their own keys and DIDs. The protocol records attestations but does not issue identities.
  4. Open source. MIT-licensed contracts, SDKs, and dApp. Anyone can run their own indexer, validator, or alternative frontend.

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What is the verification quorum?

Quorum is the validator count and approval ratio required for a verification request to finalize as approved: Higher levels cost more and take longer but give consumers stronger trust signals. See VerificationEngine.

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Costs and gas

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What does it cost to register a .nota?

On Ethereum Sepolia testnet: a few cents equivalent in ETH plus the protocol fee (10 NOTA default). On mainnet, gas costs depend on L1 conditions. Projected cost on Ethereum mainnet at 30 gwei and 2,500ETH:approximately2,500 ETH: approximately 11 for registration and 45–45–140 for a full verification cycle at Enhanced level. Cheap to free on L2s. See NotaRegistry gas notes.

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Are fees paid in NOTA or in gas?

Both. Gas is the standard EVM transaction fee paid in the chain’s native asset (ETH, MATIC, etc.). Protocol fees are paid in NOTA via ERC-20 allowance. Permit (EIP-2612) is supported to combine approval and fee payment in one transaction.

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Do I need NOTA to consume .nota files?

No. Consuming a .nota (parsing, validating, verifying signatures, reading the registry) requires zero NOTA. Only resource owners who register or request verification, and validators who stake, need NOTA. Wallets integrate Notareum for free.

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Revocation and lifecycle

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How does revocation work?

The resource owner calls NotaRegistry.revokeResource(resourceId, reason). The record is flagged isRevoked = true and emits ResourceRevoked. Consumers checking getResource see the flag and MUST treat the resource as untrusted. Revocation is cheap (~50k gas) and immediate. See NotaRegistry.

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Can a revoked resource be un-revoked?

No. Revocation is terminal for that specific resourceId. The owner can register a new resource with a different identifier (a new address, a new contract, a new tokenId), which computes a new ID and starts fresh. This keeps the revocation signal unambiguous for consumers.

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What happens to validator attestations when a resource is revoked?

Attestations persist in the event log as historical record, but the registry’s verification level field is implicitly meaningless once revoked: consumers check isRevoked first. Validators are not penalized for attesting resources that are later revoked by the owner.

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Validator economics

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How do validators earn rewards?

Two streams:
  1. Per-attestation reward when a request they attested to finalizes. The reward is a share of the verification fee paid by the requester, allocated pro rata by tier multiplier.
  2. Baseline staking yield distributed from the treasury validator-incentive allocation, proportional to bonded stake and time.
Both accrue off-book and are claimed via ValidatorStaking.claimRewards. See ValidatorStaking.

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What happens if a validator goes offline?

After 4 consecutive epochs (default 4 weeks) of missed attestations, any watcher can call SlashingManager.reportDowntime(validator). The validator is slashed at a low rate (0.25%–1% depending on tier) and may be frozen temporarily. Extended outages compound.

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Can a validator exit the network?

Yes. Call unstake(amount) to move bonded stake to cooldown, wait the tier’s cooldown period (14–42 days), then withdrawPending(). During cooldown, the stake is still slashable. This design prevents validators from escaping accountability by exiting mid-dispute.

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Governance

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Who controls protocol parameters?

Nobody unilaterally. All parameter changes (fee tables, slashing rates, tier minima, role grants, upgrades) go through a Governor vote weighted by veNOTA balances, then a delay-gated execution via AccessManager. Default delays range from 24 hours (unpause) to 14 days (rate changes, upgrades). See AccessManager.

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How do I vote?

  1. Hold NOTA.
  2. Call veNOTA.createLock(amount, unlockTime) to lock NOTA for up to 4 years.
  3. Your veNOTA balance (with linear time-decay) is your voting weight.
  4. Cast votes on active proposals through the Governor contract.
See veNOTA.

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When will mainnet launch?

The public timeline targets mainnet activation after:
  1. Completion of external audits (in progress).
  2. Demonstrated stable testnet operation across the governance-set observation window.
  3. A successful governance proposal to schedule mainnet deployment.
See the Changelog for the current release status.

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Licensing and usage

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What is the license?

The protocol specification, all smart contracts, all three SDKs, the dApp, and the whitepaper are MIT-licensed. The code is free to fork, modify, and deploy for any purpose including commercial. See the LICENSE file in each repository.

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Can I fork the protocol?

Yes. The MIT license permits full forks. Anyone can deploy their own Notareum instance; what makes the canonical instance valuable is the network of validators, issuers, and consumers anchored to it. Forks without that network effect carry less trust but are free to exist.

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Can I use .nota files in my closed-source product?

Yes. The MIT license permits use in proprietary software. You are not required to open-source your integration.

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Are there trademark restrictions?

The protocol name and logo (see Brand Assets) are subject to the brand usage guidelines: you can reference “Notareum” as an integrated protocol, but cannot claim endorsement or use the logo in a way that suggests official affiliation without permission.

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Integration

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How do wallets integrate Notareum?

Minimum viable integration:
  1. Detect .nota input (file upload, QR scan, deep link).
  2. Parse and validate with the SDK.
  3. Render issuer identity, verification level, and any warnings on the send-confirm screen.
  4. Block the transaction if signature fails, resource is revoked, or level is below a user-set policy.
Typical wallet integration is a few hundred lines of code. See Wallet Address Sharing and Your First .nota File.

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How do exchanges integrate Notareum?

Exchanges issue signed .nota files for deposit addresses and accept them for withdrawal allowlists. A single institutional issuer registration covers all downstream addresses. See Exchange Deposits.

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Can I use Notareum without the on-chain registry?

Partially. Off-chain signature verification works without touching the chain; a .nota from a key you already trust can be validated fully offline. On-chain features (verification level, aliases, protocol-level revocation) require the registry. Most integrations use both.

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Is there a hosted service I can call?

The protocol itself is on-chain and stateless. Third-party providers run hosted addresses.json mirrors, subgraph endpoints, and RPC. The dApp is also hostable; running your own is supported and encouraged for high-assurance integrations.

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Security and audits

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Has the protocol been audited?

Audits are in progress; completed reports will be published at github.com/notareum/audits. Mainnet activation requires at least one completed external audit.

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How do I report a vulnerability?

Email security@notareum.org with details. Do not open public issues for security-relevant findings. See the Security Disclosure policy for the full process, PGP key, and bug bounty tiers.