Refactor: Move difficulty adjustment ownership to lib-consensus

[PeterGRutherford]

• Create DifficultyManager in lib-consensus
• Move DifficultyConfig to lib-consensus
• Update BlockchainConsensusCoordinator to use DifficultyManager
• Update Blockchain to delegate difficulty adjustment to Coordinator
• Add governance parameters for difficulty adjustment
• Update documentation and architecture diagrams

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR refactors difficulty adjustment ownership from lib-blockchain to lib-consensus, establishing the consensus layer as the authoritative source for difficulty policy. The changes implement a new DifficultyManager that encapsulates Bitcoin-style difficulty adjustment logic and makes parameters governable via DAO proposals.

Key Changes:

• Created DifficultyManager and DifficultyConfig in lib-consensus with Bitcoin-compatible defaults
• Updated BlockchainConsensusCoordinator to own and manage difficulty calculations
• Modified Blockchain::adjust_difficulty() to delegate to consensus coordinator while maintaining backward compatibility
• Extended DAO governance to support blockchain difficulty parameter updates

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 12 out of 13 changed files in this pull request and generated 11 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
lib-consensus/src/lib.rs	Adds difficulty module export and re-exports key types
lib-consensus/src/difficulty.rs	New module implementing DifficultyManager with Bitcoin-style adjustment algorithm, validation, and DAO governance support
lib-consensus/src/dao/dao_types.rs	Adds governance parameters for blockchain difficulty (InitialDifficulty, AdjustmentInterval, TargetTimespan)
lib-consensus/src/dao/dao_engine.rs	Adds validation for blockchain difficulty parameters in DAO governance proposals
lib-consensus/docs/api-reference.md	Documents DifficultyManager API, configuration options, and DAO integration patterns
lib-consensus/README.md	Adds difficulty management section highlighting consensus ownership and DAO governance
lib-blockchain/src/lib.rs	Re-exports difficulty types from lib-consensus for convenience
lib-blockchain/src/integration/consensus_integration.rs	Integrates DifficultyManager into BlockchainConsensusCoordinator with delegation methods
lib-blockchain/src/blockchain.rs	Delegates difficulty adjustment to consensus coordinator with legacy fallback
lib-blockchain/docs/architecture.md	Updates architecture to include difficulty management coordination
lib-blockchain/docs/api-reference.md	Documents that DIFFICULTY_ADJUSTMENT_INTERVAL is now a fallback constant
Cargo.toml	Changes package.metadata to workspace.metadata (appears unrelated to PR scope)
Cargo.lock	Adds new dependencies (rand_chacha, turmoil, rand_distr, libm) not mentioned in PR description

[umwelt]

Code review

Found 1 issue:

1. Inconsistent error handling for zero actual_timespan between DifficultyManager and legacy fallback creates consensus risk

When the consensus coordinator path is used, DifficultyManager::adjust_difficulty() returns an error if actual_timespan == 0. However, when this error triggers the fallback to calculate_difficulty_legacy(), the legacy code silently returns the current difficulty unchanged for the same condition. This creates a window where different nodes could diverge on difficulty calculations:

• Node A: coordinator succeeds, returns error (actual_timespan == 0)
• Node B: coordinator fails, fallback silently handles it → different result
• Result: potential chain fork

Both paths should handle zero timespan consistently—either both error out or both silently return current difficulty (but not mixed).

The-Sovereign-Network/lib-blockchain/src/blockchain.rs

Lines 104 to 112 in 9350cf7

	/// Validator information stored on-chain
	#[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
	pub struct ValidatorInfo {
	/// Validator identity ID
	pub identity_id: String,
	/// Staked amount (in micro-ZHTP)
	pub stake: u64,
	/// Storage provided (in bytes)
	pub storage_provided: u64,

https://github.com/SOVEREIGN-NET/The-Sovereign-Network/blob/9350cf7350a953bf249d40878703cef8a265cad0/lib-consensus/src/difficulty.rs#L1184-L1192

[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud