| Healthy validator | Principal target 32 CTN, effective balance 32 CTN, no deficit, fresh oracle | Principal remains covered and reward accounting can be considered normally | Reward path may be available if claim mode, trigger, reserve, and caps allow | Fresh risk observation, reserve coverage, gatekeeper state |
| Healthy with dust | Actual balance 31.9999 CTN, effective balance still safe, dust below configured threshold | Dust is tracked; it does not automatically become claimable reward | Claim mode may remain limited or available depending on dust policy | Dust thresholds and current controller state |
| Reduced effective balance | Actual 32 CTN, effective 31 CTN | Economic safety treats this as reduced validator effectiveness, not a reward | Claims should fail closed or reduce advance until policy allows | Risk observation and claim-state derivation |
| Recovery | Prior deficit 0.5 CTN, later receipt or balance repair 0.5 CTN | Recovery repairs principal before creating reward | No reward appears until deficit bucket is cleared | Receipt classification and ledger readback |
| Slashing | Slashing flag true with actual 30 CTN | Validator moves to unsafe/incident handling | Routine claims should stop; settlement or reserve response begins | Slashing proof and controller observation |
| Exit pending | Exit requested, no final receipt yet | Validator lifecycle is no longer routine-running | Claims depend on exit/settlement state and pending delays | Exit request and accepted-exit evidence |
| Stale oracle | Last observation older than freshness window | State is not trustworthy enough for normal claims | Claims and deposits depending on readiness fail closed | New finalized observation |
| Receipt before safe claim epoch | Receipt at epoch 100, cleared safe epoch 98 | Receipt must not be treated as safely claimable yet | Claim waits or is classified conservatively | Safe-epoch proof |
| Consensus reward without physical receipt | Consensus delta shows 0.1 CTN, vault receipt absent | Consensus recognition alone does not prove spendable vault funds | Advance may be capped or unavailable depending on reserve/smoothing policy | Vault receipt or reserve-backed policy evidence |
| Physical receipt after consensus recognition | Receipt 0.1 CTN arrives after prior consensus recognition | Receipt reconciles physical funds against prior recognition | Avoid double count by consuming the relevant bucket once | Receipt id/source uniqueness |
| Claim consumes reward bucket | Reward bucket 0.1 CTN, claim 0.04 CTN | Remaining bucket becomes 0.06 CTN | Same 0.04 CTN cannot be claimed again | Post-claim ledger readback |
| No value reappears without input | Bucket after claim 0, no new receipt or consensus delta | No new claimable value should appear | Claim remains unavailable | New economic input, not time alone |