cosmos-sdk fork: genesis.go:151-158 panics on appd export → init — mirror existing PoC skip pattern from delegation.go?

[vitaly-andr]

Posting this for maintainer validation before opening a PR against
gonka-ai/cosmos-sdk. Discovered while implementing simulation tests for
#982 Phase 1.

Summary

gonka-ai/cosmos-sdk@v0.53.3-ps17 deliberately disables token bonding for PoC
validators. compute.go:SetComputeValidators creates bonded validators with
validator.Tokens set but no corresponding bank coins in the BondedPool module
account. This is the documented design (see gonka/docs/cosmos_changes.md
"No Token Bonding" section).

The fork already applies the matching modifications to keep this design
consistent across runtime paths:

• x/staking/keeper/pool.go:78-92 — TotalBondedTokens iterates validators
  manually instead of querying bank (explicit // PoC OVERRIDE comment).
• x/staking/keeper/delegation.go — Delegate skips coin transfer when
  validator.Description.Details == "Created after Proof of Compute".
• x/staking/keeper/val_state_change.go — removed transfers between bonded /
  not-bonded pools.

The only remaining gap is x/staking/keeper/genesis.go:151-158, which still
enforces the upstream invariant:

bondedBalance := k.bankKeeper.GetAllBalances(ctx, bondedPool.GetAddress())
// ...
// if balance is different from bonded coins panic because genesis is most likely malformed
if !bondedBalance.Equal(bondedCoins) {
    panic(fmt.Sprintf("bonded pool balance is different from bonded coins: %s <-> %s", bondedBalance, bondedCoins))
}

This invariant is upstream cosmos-sdk and is incompatible with the PoC
design — bondedBalance is always zero (PoC validators don't fund bonded
pool), but bondedCoins is sum(validator.Tokens) which is non-zero for any
cycle past the first PoC epoch transition.

Impact

inferenced export (which calls bApp.ExportAppStateAndValidators) produces
a JSON genesis. inferenced init <chain> --genesis <that file> then panics on
boot because staking InitGenesis hits this invariant.

This means gonka-ai/gonka cannot perform a vanilla appd export → init chain
upgrade. Production has worked around this by using x/upgrade in-place
handlers exclusively (see inference-chain/app/upgrades/v0_2_*), which migrate
live state instead of re-initing from exported genesis. So the bug is latent
but not blocking today — until someone needs disaster recovery from a known-good
export, or a fork-from-genesis, or any other vanilla import-from-export flow.

Reproduction

(Once #982 Phase 1 lands.) Run any simulation that crosses an
epoch boundary, then:

exported, _ := bApp.ExportAppStateAndValidators(false, []string{}, []string{})
newApp := /* fresh App via app.New */
newApp.ModuleManager.InitGenesis(ctxB, newApp.AppCodec(), genesisState)
// panics: bonded pool balance is different from bonded coins:  <-> 906008476161stake

The panic site is x/staking/keeper/genesis.go:158.

The new TestAppImportExport_Postrun in inference-chain/app/sim_test.go
reproduces this on the first PoC epoch transition.

Proposed fix

Apply the same skip pattern that already exists in delegation.go:

 bondedBalance := k.bankKeeper.GetAllBalances(ctx, bondedPool.GetAddress())
 // ...
+// PoC validators are unbonded by design; their tokens are not backed by
+// bank coins (see compute.go:SetComputeValidators and the "No Token Bonding"
+// section in gonka/docs/cosmos_changes.md). Subtract their token sum before
+// comparing against bondedBalance.
+pocBonded := sdk.ZeroInt()
+for _, validator := range data.Validators {
+    if validator.Status == types.Bonded && validator.Description.Details == "Created after Proof of Compute" {
+        pocBonded = pocBonded.Add(validator.Tokens)
+    }
+}
+expected := bondedCoins.Sub(sdk.NewCoin(data.Params.BondDenom, pocBonded))
-if !bondedBalance.Equal(bondedCoins) {
+if !bondedBalance.Equal(expected) {
     panic(fmt.Sprintf("bonded pool balance is different from bonded coins: %s <-> %s", bondedBalance, bondedCoins))
 }

(Same pattern needed for the notBondedBalance check at line 173-175 — though
it's less likely to fire in practice because PoC validators are always Bonded
status.)

Open questions for maintainers

1. Does the framing match your intent? Specifically: is appd export → init
   considered a supported flow for this fork, or has it been intentionally
   given up in favor of x/upgrade in-place handlers?
2. The Description.Details == "Created after Proof of Compute" string match
   is fragile (already used in delegation.go, so consistent with existing
   fork convention). Would a typed flag on Validator be preferable, or is the
   string-match convention something you'd like preserved for now?
3. The fix is intentionally local to the fork — upstream cosmos-sdk should not
   carry a PoC-specific check. Confirm this matches your architectural
   direction?

Existing fork modifications referenced

The proposed fix mirrors patterns already present in this fork:

• x/staking/keeper/delegation.go — Delegate skip for PoC validators (commit
  by johnlong, 2024-08 "Working version"; reinforced 2025-01-10 "Add delegation
  to our staking override"; later "Genesis only protection" by Gleb Morgachev
  2025-09-30 added a hard post-genesis ban).
• x/staking/keeper/pool.go — TotalBondedTokens manual iteration ("Genesis
  only protection", "Handle missed blocks" by Gleb Morgachev, 2025-09).
• x/staking/keeper/val_state_change.go — removed bonded/not-bonded transfers.
• x/staking/keeper/compute.go — SetComputeValidators (multiple commits
  through 2025-12-21, mainly Gleb Morgachev and dima).

The missing modification in genesis.go:157-158 is the only gap in this set.

Ready to PR

Happy to open a PR against gonka-ai/cosmos-sdk implementing the fix above
(genesis.go only, ~10 lines mirroring existing convention) if my understanding
of the design intent is correct. Holding off until a maintainer confirms so I
don't waste a roundtrip.