Slot (Cardano)
Slot is a term used to describe a base unit of time in the Cardano blockchain. It is used to measure the passage of time on the network and serves as a basis for other important features, such as slot leader elections.
In Cardano, each Slot represents one 20-second interval, with every epoch consisting of 21600 slots. Each Slot has an associated block height which can be determined through its block hash – this makes it easy to track when different events occur on the blockchain over time. At each slot, new blocks are added to the chain and validators are elected by stakeholders who take part in stake pooling or delegation (staking). The current state of any given ledger is determined by all blocks that have been created up until that point in time; thus, slots serve as markers along this timeline.
The concept of Slots also extends beyond their role as temporal markers on the Cardano blockchain. In addition to being used for timing purposes, they also play an important role in determining how rewards and penalties are distributed among participants within staking pools and delegations; these rewards/penalties are based upon whether or not a given validator was able to produce a valid block during their assigned slot(s). Thereby contributing towards overall consensus building processes within Cardano’s unique Ouroboros Proof-of-Stake protocol system .
