Insolvency

When someone creates an unbounded stream on Superstream, it must always be topped up (or funded) enough that the recipient can withdraw the whole amount of money that they are owed. If a stream is unable to uphold this condition, it is said to be insolvent.

Example

Suppose Alice wants to pay Bob $100 per hour. She creates an unbounded stream and funds it with $1000. If she forgets to fund the stream any further, the stream would become insolvent after 10 hours.

What happens on insolvency?

Insolvency is bad for obvious reasons - recipients don't get paid what they are promised via payment streams.

To minimise this and punish offenders, Superstream's solution is Superstream Inspector - an off-chain software that monitors the on-chain program and cancels streams when they become insolvent. Senders of streams pay a deposit amount upfront. This amount is not given back to the stream senders as punishment and distributed as a reward to whoever found the insolvent stream.