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Delegate votes to a Delegated Representative (DRep)

Delegating your voting power to a Delegate Representative (DRep) operates much like delegating your stake to a stake pool. Voting power delegation involves the issuance of a delegation certificate from your stake credential to the chosen DRep. Just as with stake delegation, the process of delegating votes to a DRep does not entail relinquishing control of your funds. Instead, the vote delegation certificate grants the selected DRep permission to vote on your behalf.

In addition to the registered DReps, the system features a couple of default voting options:

  • --always-abstain: this option signals your intention not to participate in the voting procedures, indicating a choice to abstain from the voting process

  • --always-no-confidence: this option signifies your lack of trust in the current constitutional committee, indicating a vote of no confidence in their decisions

Prerequisites​

Generating the vote delegation certificate​

Generate the vote delegation certificate.​

  • Delegating to the --always-abstain default voting option:
cardano-cli conway stake-address vote-delegation-certificate \
  --stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
  --always-abstain \
  --out-file vote-deleg.cert
  • Delegating to the --always-no-confidence default voting option:
cardano-cli conway stake-address vote-delegation-certificate \
  --stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
  --always-no-confidence \
  --out-file vote-deleg.cert
  • Delegating to a key-based registered DRep:
cardano-cli conway stake-address vote-delegation-certificate \
  --stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
  --drep-key-hash $(< drep.id) \
  --out-file vote-deleg.cert
  • Delegating to a script-based (i.e. multisignature) registered DRep:
cardano-cli conway stake-address vote-delegation-certificate \
  --stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
  --drep-script-hash $(< drep-multisig.id) \
  --out-file vote-deleg.cert

Submitting the certificate in a transaction​

  • Build:
cardano-cli conway transaction build \
  --tx-in $(cardano-cli query utxo --address $(< payment.addr) --testnet-magic 4 --out-file  /dev/stdout | jq -r 'keys[0]') \
  --change-address $(< payment.addr) \
  --certificate-file vote-deleg.cert \
  --witness-override 2 \
  --out-file tx.raw
  • Sign with payment and stake keys:
cardano-cli conway transaction sign \
  --tx-body-file tx.raw \
  --signing-key-file payment.skey \
  --signing-key-file stake.skey \
  --out-file tx.signed
  • Submit:
cardano-cli conway transaction submit \
  --tx-file tx.signed