Every license on Autheo Chain moves through a four-state machine managed by the x/license keeper.
The four states
| Status | Description |
|---|
ISSUED | License minted and owned. Not yet attached to any validator. Can be bound or transferred (if policy allows). Does not earn rewards. |
BOUND | License attached to a validator. No active delegation yet. Cannot be transferred. Does not earn NFT emission rewards. |
ACTIVE | License attached to a validator with a live delegation that has positive token value. Earns per-block NFT emission rewards. |
REVOKED | Governance-suspended. No staking operations permitted. Only MsgReinstateLicense (governance only) can restore it. |
State transitions
ISSUED → BOUND
Triggered by MsgBindLicense. Requirements:
- License status must be
ISSUED
- Category policy must permit the binding
- Any cooldown from a prior unbind must have elapsed
- For Sovereign: binding target must be the owner’s own validator address
- For Prime/Core: target validator must exist, be bonded, and not be jailed
BOUND → ACTIVE
Triggered automatically when delegation is created or increased on the bound validator:
| Trigger | Description |
|---|
MsgDelegate | Owner delegates tokens to the bound validator |
MsgCreateValidator | SDK self-delegates on validator creation |
MsgCancelUnbondingDelegation | Owner cancels unbonding and restores delegation |
MsgUnjail (post-call) | Validator unjailed with owner’s live delegation |
ACTIVE → BOUND
A license moves back to BOUND when:
- Owner fully undelegates from the bound validator
- Validator is jailed (JailInterceptor fires)
- Governance revokes the license
Partial undelegation does not change license status. The license remains ACTIVE as long as any delegation with positive token value exists.
BOUND → ISSUED (unbinding)
Triggered by MsgUnbindLicense. Requirements:
- No active delegation to the bound validator
- Cooldown period from any prior unbind must have elapsed
After unbinding, a cooldown timer starts. The license cannot be re-bound until the CooldownPeriod in the category policy has elapsed.
autheod query license category-policy 1 # SOVEREIGN
autheod query license category-policy 2 # PRIME
autheod query license category-policy 3 # CORE
Any → REVOKED
Triggered only by MsgRevokeLicense via governance proposal. For Sovereign revocations, the validator is immediately jailed. For Prime/Core revocations, only same-owner sibling licenses are affected.
REVOKED → ISSUED
Triggered only by MsgReinstateLicense via governance. The owner must complete the full recovery sequence manually:
Governance reinstates
MsgReinstateLicense → license status: ISSUED
Owner binds
MsgBindLicense → license status: BOUND
Operator unjails
MsgUnjail — JailInterceptor allows because Sovereign license is no longer REVOKED
Owner delegates
MsgDelegate → license status: ACTIVE
Transfer restrictions
Only ISSUED licenses can be transferred. The category policy must have Transferable = true. Transferring a license does not clear the unbind cooldown timer — the new owner inherits it.
Edge cases
| Scenario | Behavior |
|---|
| Double-sign / tombstone | License can get stuck in BOUND if validator is tombstoned (cannot be unjailed) |
| Dust shares | Zero-token shares from repeated slashing are excluded from reward accrual and treated as fully removed during undelegation |
| IBC delegations | IBC-sourced delegate/undelegate messages do not trigger license transitions |
| Redelegation | Permanently disabled; cannot trigger license transitions |
