Some several extreme cases to study

Node Operator Experience
1

I tried to run node operator in rocket pool , I tried to check some extreme cases.

Is ‘auction’ progressed when the node oprator manually shuts down the node??

Is there any material that explains the ‘auction’ mechanism?

How does the system work if the validator activity cannot be continued for a long period of time (forever) due to an accident during node operator operation?

2

Is ‘auction’ progressed when the node oprator manually shuts down the node??

The auction subsystem is currently disabled. It may be enabled in the future.

Is there any material that explains the ‘auction’ mechanism?

Nothing in great detail. Rocket Pool — Staking Protocol Part 1 | by David Rugendyke | Rocket Pool | Medium mentions it, saying:

When depositing ETH, node operators must also deposit a minimum amount of RPL to act as collateral in the case they incur any of these penalties. Should a penalty occur and the user finishes staking with < 16 ETH, the collateral is sold for ETH at auction and the proceeds from this sale are given back to the protocol to compensate for the missing ETH.

How does the system work if the validator activity cannot be continued for a long period of time (forever) due to an accident during node operator operation?

It would be advisable for the Node Operator to exit their validator if they foresee such a scenario. However, if the are offline anyway, their eth bond is penalized first when they exit their validators, so generally speaking no auction is required in this case.

3

Say we have a node with one minipool that somehow ended up with a balance of 15 ETH and it is exited. And let’s say the node has 160 RPL staked and 1 RPL = 0.01 ETH based on the last oDAO price update.

  1. Once the 15 ETH minipool balance is distributed, 100 RPL is slashed based on 16 ETH - 15 ETH = 1 ETH and 1 ETH = 100 RPL according to oDAO price. The remaining 60 RPL can be unstaked by the node operator.
  2. If enabled (currently it is not), anyone can start an auction of these 100 RPL now by calling a function. There is an associated gas cost for doing so.
  3. An auction starts at the oDAO price of 1 RPL = 0.01 ETH and is reduced every block down until 1 RPL = 0.005 ETH (50% of the starting value).
  4. Anyone can place a bid. Partial bids are allowed and work like this: I can bid for only 90 of the total 100 RPL in the block that the auction starts, by sending 90 * 0.01 ETH = 0.9 ETH. At this point others are only able to bid on the remaining 10 RPL. If over the next blocks nobody does so, eventually the price will hit 0.009 ETH. Since 100 * 0.009 ETH = 0.9 ETH, my bid is now enough to cover the entire lot and I am able to claim 100 RPL for my 0.9 ETH.
  5. The 0.9 ETH would then go towards rETH.