feat(proposervm): configurable MinBlkDelay + timestamp granularity tracks WindowDuration (sub-second cadence foundation)

Two coupled knobs for differentiated cadence — co-located D-Chain/DEX (fast) vs public
C-Chain (standard):

1. MinBlkDelay was hardcoded to the 1s DefaultMinBlockDelay in chains/manager.go, ignoring
   its own --proposervm-min-block-delay flag. Now wired node.Config → ManagerConfig →
   proposervm.Config (0 ⇒ 1s default). High-throughput nets set it low.

2. Block timestamps were Truncate(time.Second) at 4 sites, quantizing cadence to 1s
   regardless of WindowDuration — so a sub-second window inflated slot numbers without finer
   time resolution and could NOT produce blocks faster than 1/s. Truncation now tracks
   proposer.TimestampGranularity() = min(1s, WindowDuration): mainnet (>=1s) keeps exact
   1-second block times; sub-second windows get matching sub-second timestamps.

Measured: 1s window/delay → ~95-104 TPS, byte-identical 5/5 finality (unchanged from before,
no regression). NOTE: true sub-second cadence additionally requires a slot-handoff fix — at
100ms the slot recomputed in buildChild from a drifted 'now' can differ from the slot
timeToBuild scheduled, causing errUnexpectedProposer verify drops; that + multi-sender
saturation is the next step. These knobs are the necessary foundation.

Co-authored-by: Hanzo Dev <dev@hanzo.ai>

chains/manager.go

@@ -372,8 +372,11 @@ type ManagerConfig struct {
 	// ProposerWindowDuration overrides the proposervm proposer-slot spacing (0 ⇒
 	// the 5s mainnet default). Small local/dev nets set it low for fast cadence.
 	ProposerWindowDuration time.Duration
-	StakingBLSKey          bls.Signer
-	TracingEnabled         bool
+	// ProposerMinBlockDelay overrides the proposervm minimum block delay (0 ⇒ the
+	// 1s default). High-throughput / DEX nets set it low (e.g. 1ms).
+	ProposerMinBlockDelay time.Duration
+	StakingBLSKey         bls.Signer
+	TracingEnabled        bool
 	// Must not be used unless [TracingEnabled] is true as this may be nil.
 	Tracer                    trace.Tracer
 	Log                       log.Logger
@@ -1289,10 +1292,14 @@ func (m *manager) buildChain(chainParams ChainParameters, sb nets.Net) (*chainIn
 			if regErr != nil {
 				return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to register proposervm metrics for chain %s: %w", chainParams.ID, regErr)
 			}
+			minBlkDelay := proposervm.DefaultMinBlockDelay
+			if m.ProposerMinBlockDelay > 0 {
+				minBlkDelay = m.ProposerMinBlockDelay
+			}
 			engineVM = proposervm.New(vmTyped, proposervm.Config{
 				Upgrades:               m.Upgrades,
 				NetworkID:              networkID, // CRITICAL-3: windower uses the SAME set ID as the cert side
-				MinBlkDelay:            proposervm.DefaultMinBlockDelay,
+				MinBlkDelay:            minBlkDelay,
 				NumHistoricalBlocks:    proposervm.DefaultNumHistoricalBlocks,
 				StakingLeafSigner:      m.StakingTLSSigner,
 				StakingCertLeaf:        m.StakingTLSCert,
@@ -1305,7 +1312,7 @@ func (m *manager) buildChain(chainParams ChainParameters, sb nets.Net) (*chainIn
 				log.Stringer("chainID", chainParams.ID),
 				log.Int("K", consensusParams.K),
 				log.Stringer("windowerNetworkID", networkID),
-				log.Duration("minBlockDelay", proposervm.DefaultMinBlockDelay))
+				log.Duration("minBlockDelay", minBlkDelay))
 		}
 
 		m.Log.Info("initializing VM", log.Stringer("chainID", chainParams.ID))

config/config.go

@@ -1766,6 +1766,10 @@ func GetNodeConfig(v *viper.Viper) (node.Config, error) {
 	if nodeConfig.ProposerWindowDuration < 0 {
 		return node.Config{}, fmt.Errorf("%s must not be negative", ProposerVMWindowDurationKey)
 	}
+	nodeConfig.ProposerMinBlockDelay = v.GetDuration(ProposerVMMinBlockDelayKey)
+	if nodeConfig.ProposerMinBlockDelay < 0 {
+		return node.Config{}, fmt.Errorf("%s must not be negative", ProposerVMMinBlockDelayKey)
+	}
 	// Halflife of continuous averager used in health checks
 	healthCheckAveragerHalflife := v.GetDuration(HealthCheckAveragerHalflifeKey)
 	if healthCheckAveragerHalflife <= 0 {

config/node/config.go

@@ -182,6 +182,11 @@ type Config struct {
 	// 1s) so block cadence is not floored at 5s per proposer slot.
 	ProposerWindowDuration time.Duration `json:"proposerWindowDuration"`
 
+	// ProposerMinBlockDelay is the proposervm minimum delay between consecutive
+	// blocks (the hard cadence floor). Zero keeps the 1s default; high-throughput
+	// / DEX nets set it low (e.g. 1ms) to approach the consensus-finality floor.
+	ProposerMinBlockDelay time.Duration `json:"proposerMinBlockDelay"`
+
 	// Network configuration
 	NetworkConfig network.Config `json:"networkConfig"`
 

node/node.go

@@ -1357,6 +1357,7 @@ func (n *Node) initChainManager(utxoAssetID ids.ID) error {
 			StakingMLDSASigner:        n.Config.StakingConfig.StakingMLDSA,
 			StakingMLDSAPub:           n.Config.StakingConfig.StakingMLDSAPub,
 			ProposerWindowDuration:    n.Config.ProposerWindowDuration,
+			ProposerMinBlockDelay:     n.Config.ProposerMinBlockDelay,
 			StakingBLSKey:             n.Config.StakingSigningKey,
 			Log:                       n.Log,
 			LogFactory:                n.LogFactory,

vms/proposervm/block.go

@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ func (p *postForkCommonComponents) Verify(
 // It is a pure function of (parentTimestamp, now) so it is idempotent for any two calls in the
 // same slot — the property the liveness fix relies on.
 func slotSnappedChildTimestamp(parentTimestamp, now time.Time) time.Time {
-	ts := now.Truncate(time.Second)
+	ts := now.Truncate(proposer.TimestampGranularity())
 	if ts.Before(parentTimestamp) {
 		return parentTimestamp
 	}

vms/proposervm/pre_fork_block.go

@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ func (b *preForkBlock) buildChild(ctx context.Context) (Block, error) {
 	// "chain is currently forking" path is the only one taken.
 	parentTimestamp := b.Timestamp()
 	parentID := b.ID()
-	newTimestamp := b.vm.Time().Truncate(time.Second)
+	newTimestamp := b.vm.Time().Truncate(proposer.TimestampGranularity())
 	if newTimestamp.Before(parentTimestamp) {
 		newTimestamp = parentTimestamp
 	}

vms/proposervm/proposer/windower.go

@@ -42,6 +42,20 @@ var (
 	MaxLookAheadWindow = MaxLookAheadSlots * WindowDuration // 1h at the default
 )
 
+// TimestampGranularity is the resolution block timestamps are truncated to. It
+// tracks WindowDuration so the proposer-slot clock (TimeToSlot = elapsed /
+// WindowDuration) and the block-timestamp clock advance at the SAME rate: with a
+// coarser 1s truncation, a sub-second WindowDuration would inflate slot numbers
+// without finer time resolution, so blocks could not actually be produced faster
+// than 1/s. Capped at 1s so mainnet (WindowDuration >= 1s) keeps the original
+// 1-second block-time granularity exactly.
+func TimestampGranularity() time.Duration {
+	if WindowDuration > time.Second {
+		return time.Second
+	}
+	return WindowDuration
+}
+
 // SetWindowDuration overrides the proposer-slot spacing. It MUST be called at
 // startup, before any chain begins block production: WindowDuration is read by
 // both the windower delay math and TimeToSlot, so changing it mid-flight would

vms/proposervm/vm.go

@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ func (vm *VM) timeToBuild(ctx context.Context) (time.Time, bool, error) {
 		parentTimestamp  = blk.Timestamp()
 		nextStartTime    time.Time
 	)
-	currentTime := vm.Clock.Time().Truncate(time.Second)
+	currentTime := vm.Clock.Time().Truncate(proposer.TimestampGranularity())
 	if nextStartTime, err = vm.getPostDurangoSlotTime(
 		ctx,
 		childBlockHeight,
@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@ func (vm *VM) timeToBuildPreForkTransitionLocked(ctx context.Context) (time.Time
 	var (
 		parentTimestamp = pre.Timestamp()
 		childHeight     = pre.Height() + 1
-		currentTime     = vm.Clock.Time().Truncate(time.Second)
+		currentTime     = vm.Clock.Time().Truncate(proposer.TimestampGranularity())
 		slot            = proposer.TimeToSlot(parentTimestamp, currentTime)
 	)
 	// MinDelayForProposer returns the delay until THIS node's earliest slot in the