9. Failure Cases & Abuse Resistance

RouterLink assumes participants may behave imperfectly. The protocol limits impact and discourages abuse through structure:

Attack Vector	Mitigation
Performance Manipulation	Cross-node PoLP observation; divergent reports lose routing priority
Mispriced Services	Market-driven correction through observable demand
Centralization Attempts	Delegator mobility; stake distribution constraints
Usage Manipulation	Signed PoTU receipts as canonical records
Partial Failures	Automatic routing shift to available alternatives

Design Principle: Honest participation remains economically advantaged; dishonest behavior is not sustainably rewarded.