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Staking & Governance

You can already build transactions and manage native tokens. This module adds what an ADA holder's stake can do from your application: back the network's security (staking) and steer the protocol's evolution (governance). Everything here is the same build → sign → submit flow you know, with a few extra certificate types, and a dApp can build all of it.

The module runs concept before practice, twice:

  • Staking: the staking concept. Cardano's non-custodial delegation model, how rewards and timing work, and the lifecycle every integration follows.
  • Delegate and withdraw: practice. Register a stake credential, delegate it to a pool, and withdraw rewards.
  • Manage stake: practice. Query delegation and rewards, deregister cleanly, and the combined certificate flow that bridges into governance.
  • Governance: the governance concept. Why CIP-1694 shapes the platform you build on, the three bodies, the seven action types, and ratification.
  • DReps & vote delegation: practice. Register a DRep, key- or script-based, and delegate voting power.
  • Vote & propose: practice. Cast votes on live actions and put actions of your own on-chain.
  • Governance operations: the appendix. Committee credentials, governance-state queries, CIP-95, and the handover to smart contracts.
Not covered here
  • Running a stake pool (relays, block producers, KES keys, pool registration, monitoring) is a separate discipline with its own section: Operate a Stake Pool.
  • Participating in governance as an ADA holder, DRep, or committee member (delegating your vote, browsing actions, the constitution, submitting actions as a human) lives on the participant hub at cardano.org/governance.

This module is about building staking and governance features, not operating a pool or participating by hand.

Next steps​