A DRep group is an on-chain record of which DReps belong together. Every change to a group is a small transaction with metadata under label 8416, signed by the DReps it concerns, so any tool can read the same history and check it by the same rules. DRepTalk builds these transactions for you, collects the signatures and shows each group with its members, policies and history in the group directory. To try groups without real funds, use the same pages on the preprod test network at preprod.dreptalk.com/groups.
What a group is and what it does not do
A group expresses affiliation. It has a profile (name, description, website, charter, image), a list of members and one or two policies that say who manages it. A group holds no voting power and casts no votes on chain. Members may agree to vote together, as a party or council would, yet each member still casts its own vote with its own DRep and its own rationale, delegators keep delegating to individual DReps, and joining or leaving a group changes no delegation. Where DRepTalk adds numbers up for a group, it labels them as the voting power of affiliated DReps.
The group directory lists groups once they have enough active members, ranked by the voting power of affiliated DReps. For the directory each DRep counts toward its oldest group only, and toward its next oldest once that membership ends, so one DRep cannot fill the directory with groups of its own. Member counts and member lists still show every membership, and every group has its own page from its first member, so a founder can share the link right away.
Open and permissioned groups
- Open group: membership is self-declared. Every registered DRep joins with their own signature and is a member as soon as the transaction is confirmed. No admin is involved, and an open group cannot remove anyone.
- Permissioned group: membership is confirmed by the group. A join is a request that stays pending until the admins approve it. Admins can also decline a request and remove an active member.
The mode is chosen at founding and cannot be changed later.
Who manages a group
A group is managed by a management policy: a native script over the DRep keys of its admins with a threshold, for example 3 of 4. Any three of the four admins together can change the profile, change the admins or the threshold, or dissolve the group. In a permissioned group an admission policy approves and declines requests and removes members. By default it is the same policy as the management policy. As an advanced option, a permissioned group can use a separate admission policy with its own keys and threshold, for example any two admins to approve a member and three to change the profile.
Admins are the DRep keys of key-based DReps. When a key is added to a policy, DRepTalk checks that it belongs to a currently registered DRep. Script DReps can be members of a group, but not admins.
Found a new group or DRep party
Sign in as a registered DRep with your DRep key and open Found a new group or DRep party. The wizard asks how members join, who founds the group, how many admins must sign, and for the profile, then shows a review of who has to sign.
- Found alone: you are the only admin, the policy is 1 of 1. You sign the founding in one wallet step and DRepTalk submits it, no signing link needed. In a permissioned group the same transaction also approves your own membership. The group grows through admissions, and each admission can bring the new member into the policy (see below).
- Found together: add the other founders by DRep id. DRepTalk checks that each one is a registered key DRep. Then pick the threshold, which starts at more than half of the founders. Every founder becomes a member and an admin.
Every listed key signs the founding, also when the threshold is lower. With three founders and a threshold of 2 of 3, all three still sign the founding transaction. The protocol requires this so that nobody can be listed as an admin of a group without having agreed to it. The threshold counts for every change after the founding. Keys of a separate admission policy that are not founders also sign the founding, without becoming members. After you sign, DRepTalk gives you a signing link to share with the other founders.
The profile needs a name, a description and an image (JPG or PNG, up to 256 KB). A website and a link to the group’s charter are optional. A later change of the profile keeps all three required fields. DRepTalk hosts the profile document and the founding transaction records its hash, so anyone can check that the profile shown is the one the group signed.
Join and leave
Signed-in DReps see Join on the page of an open group and Request to join on a permissioned one. A key DRep signs with their wallet and DRepTalk submits the transaction. A script DRep’s own script has to be satisfied, so its join goes through a signing link for the keys of that script. Your own action shows as confirming until the chain confirms it, usually a few minutes after it is about 10 blocks deep.
Leaving is always possible with your own signature, also while your request is still pending and whatever the group’s policies say. An admin who leaves stays in the management policy until the group updates it. When the remaining admins could no longer reach the threshold without you, the page warns you and offers to update the policy first. Leaving stays possible either way.
Approve requests
In a permissioned group, admins see the Requests to join on the group page and get a notification for each new request. Tick one or more requests and use Approve or Remove (which declines them). Several requests go into one transaction. When the admission policy needs more signatures than yours, DRepTalk gives you a signing link for the other admins.
Remove members
In a permissioned group, admins who may approve requests can also remove an active member. Under the member list, admins see Remove members, with Remove next to each active member, and a confirmation that names the member before anything is built. Removing a member changes no delegation, and the member’s DRep keeps voting on its own. The removal is signed and submitted like an approval, with a signing link when the admission policy needs more signatures than yours. An admin who is removed stays in the management policy until the group updates it. Your own membership ends with Leave instead.
Keep the management policy in step with the members
Approving a member adds them to the member list only. The management policy stays as it was, so without an update a group that has grown to ten members is still managed by the keys it was founded with. That is why DRepTalk offers, with every approval of a member who is not yet an admin, to update the management policy in the same transaction.
The proposal keeps the current admins who are still members, adds the newly approved members, and carries the ratio of the current threshold forward, rounded up. You can change the threshold, use More than half, or untick keys, and the form shows the share each choice stands for. When the admission policy is the same as the management policy, it follows the update.
Worked example. Alice, Bob, Carol and Dave manage a permissioned group with 3 of 4 (75%). Erin requests to join. Bob ticks her request, keeps the policy update ticked and sees the proposal: Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave and Erin with a threshold of 5 × 3 / 4 = 3.75, rounded up to 4 of 5 (80%). The signing page then lists two lines: approve Erin, and change the management to 4 of 5 with the five names.
Who signs that transaction:
- three of Alice, Bob, Carol and Dave, which satisfies the current 3 of 4 for both the approval and the update,
- and Erin, because every key an update newly lists has to sign it.
The approval comes first in the transaction, so it is checked against the policy in force before the update. The next admission would propose 5 of 6, then 6 of 7. Rounding up can raise the share over time, so check the number before you continue.
You can untick the update and approve alone. The policy then stays as it was, and the group page shows a notice to members and admins in permissioned groups: “The group is still managed by: Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave. Members not in the policy: Erin.” Its Update the policy button starts an update with every active key DRep member, at the carried ratio. Untick members who cannot sign right now, they stay out of this update. Each member who is newly listed has to sign. Open groups get no such notice, since anyone can join them and their members and admins differ by design.
Signing links
When an action needs more than your own signature, DRepTalk builds the transaction in your browser, your wallet pays the fee and signs the fee input, and the transaction gets a signing link. Share it with the other signers. Signers with a DRepTalk account also get a notification.
- Only keys that may sign this action can open the link.
- The page shows what the transaction does in plain words, read from the transaction itself, never from a description by the person who started it.
- Must sign lists every key that has to sign, with who has signed so far.
- Sign with your wallet, or sign the transaction body hash offline with
cardano-signerand paste its output. - Once every required signature is there, any signer can submit. The page then shows the transaction as confirming and, after the chain confirms it, whether the change took effect, took effect in part, or was not accepted by the group rules.
A group has at most one open management action at a time: a change of the profile, the admins or the threshold, a dissolution, or an approval combined with a policy update. While one is open, the others show a note and a link to it. Joins, leaves, plain approvals and declines are not limited.
Each open action holds the coins of your wallet that pay its fee until it is confirmed, cancelled or past its 48 hours. A new action is paid from your other coins, so a wallet that holds a single coin can run one action at a time. Should a coin of an open action be spent by another transaction anyway, its signing page says that the transaction can no longer be submitted and stops offering signing. Cancel it and start it again.
When the majority does not sign in 48 hours
Every group transaction DRepTalk builds is valid for 48 hours. If the required signatures are not all collected in that time, the transaction can no longer be submitted. Once the chain is safely past that point, the signing page says the transaction never reached the chain, the group’s management slot is free again, and you start the action again if you still want it.
An open management action also becomes invalid when another management change of the same group is confirmed first, since every management change counts the group’s changes and an action built against an older count is rejected. Start it again from the current state.
Cancel, and cancel for real
The person who started an action can cancel the signing link. That stops the link on DRepTalk. Signatures that were already handed out stay usable until the 48 hours have passed, so someone holding a fully signed copy could still submit it. For that reason a cancelled management action keeps the group’s slot until it expires.
To make the transaction unusable for good, the signing page then offers Cancel for real to the person who started it. Their wallet sends the fee input back to their own address, for a small network fee. A transaction whose input is spent can never be included, and the slot is freed once DRepTalk sees the input spent on chain.
Dissolve a group
Admins dissolve a group from Manage the group on the group page. Dissolving is a management action, so the management policy has to be satisfied, and the page asks for an explicit confirmation. It cannot be undone. Every membership closes, members’ delegations do not change, and the group page with its history stays readable.
Retired admins: the group signer login
A key stays in a group policy when its DRep retires or becomes inactive, and it can still sign for the group. The normal DRep sign-in refuses retired and inactive DReps, so DRepTalk signs such a key in as a group signer while it is in a policy of an active group. That login opens group pages and signing links where the key is needed, and grants no other DRep rights. The group can then update its policy to keys of active members.
Notifications
Under DRep groups in your notification settings, DRepTalk sends join requests to the admins in a group’s admission policy and signature requests to every selected signer except the person who started the action, by browser push or Telegram. The setting is on by default.
Frequently asked questions
Does a DRep group vote?
No. A group records which DReps belong together. Every member votes with their own DRep and their own rationale, and joining or leaving a group changes no delegation.
What is the difference between an open and a permissioned group?
In an open group membership is self-declared: every registered DRep joins with their own signature. In a permissioned group membership is confirmed by the group: a request stays pending until the admins approve it.
Why must every founder sign, even when the threshold is 2 of 3?
The protocol requires every key a new group lists as an admin to sign the founding transaction, so nobody can be shown as an admin without having agreed. The threshold applies to every later change.
Can I always leave a group?
Yes. Leaving needs only your own signature, also in a permissioned group and while your request is still pending.
Why should a group update its management policy after admitting members?
Approving a member adds them to the member list only. Until the policy is updated, the group stays managed by the keys it had before. DRepTalk offers the update with every approval, for example from 3 of 4 to 4 of 5.
What happens when not enough admins sign within 48 hours?
Every group transaction is valid for 48 hours. After that it can no longer be submitted, the signing page says so, and the action has to be started again.
I retired as a DRep but my key is still in a group policy. Can I still sign?
Yes. Sign in with your DRep key as usual. While your key is in a policy of an active group, DRepTalk signs you in as a group signer, which opens group pages and signing links and nothing else.
Where can I use DRep groups?
On mainnet at dreptalk.com/groups, and for testing on the preprod test network at preprod.dreptalk.com/groups.