A governance action is the way to put a proposal in front of Cardano’s DReps, SPOs and the Constitutional Committee. DRepTalk can build and submit one for you. You write the action in a form, see it the way the action page will show it, and sign it with your wallet.
Submitting is open on preprod at preprod.dreptalk.com and comes to mainnet soon. The page is marked Beta.
Before you start
- Sign in. Any signed-in account can submit, whatever its role. See Signing in.
- Get feedback first. An action cannot be changed once it is on-chain. Get feedback on a proposal explains how to discuss a draft in Proposal Drafts before you pay the deposit.
- Have the deposit ready. The wallet that signs pays the deposit: 100,000 ada on mainnet, 1,000 tADA on preprod, plus a small transaction fee. Its stake address has to be registered, because that is where the deposit goes back to.
Submit an action step by step
Open Submit action from the account menu, or the Submit a governance action card on your home page.
- Pick the action type. Each card says what the action does and who votes on it. Governance action types explains them in detail.
- Fill in the type’s details. A motion of no confidence, a hard fork, a new constitution and a committee update each build on the last action of their kind, and DRepTalk fills in that previous action for you. A hard fork asks for the protocol version, a new constitution for the constitution document, a committee update for the members and the quorum, and a treasury withdrawal for its recipients.
- Write the metadata. Every action carries a title (up to 80 characters), an abstract, a motivation and a rationale, plus up to ten references. Link your Proposal Drafts thread with Link a Proposal Draft, so DRepTalk connects the draft to the action once it is on-chain.
- Sign as author. This is on by default. Your wallet signs the metadata, which makes your authorship verifiable. Enter the name you want to appear as the author, or turn it off to publish without an author.
- Review. Review shows the action exactly as its page on DRepTalk will render it. Check the text, the links and the on-chain changes.
- Sign and submit. Pick your wallet and connect it. DRepTalk shows the deposit next to your wallet’s balance. Then it publishes the metadata on IPFS, checks that the published file matches its hash, builds the transaction and asks your wallet to sign it.
Your form is saved in your browser as you type, so you can leave and come back. The saved draft never contains wallet data.
Treasury withdrawals
A treasury withdrawal pays ada from the Cardano treasury to one or more stake addresses. On DRepTalk it is available on preprod for now.
- Add up to 20 recipients, each with a stake address and an amount in tADA. The form shows the exact total.
- Every recipient must be a registered stake address. DRepTalk checks them while you type and again right before you sign.
- Add my wallet’s stake address puts your own stake address into the list. If no wallet is connected yet, Connect wallet and add my stake address connects it for you.
- The constitution’s guardrails script checks every treasury withdrawal. DRepTalk runs that check before your wallet signs. If the script rejects the withdrawal, nothing is signed and the page tells you why.
- The transaction needs about 5 ada in plain ada UTxOs as collateral. It is only spent if the script check fails on-chain, which the check before signing is there to prevent.
After you submit
DRepTalk shows the transaction hash. Once the transaction is in a block, the action gets its own page on DRepTalk with a discussion thread, the votes as they come in, and its status. Understanding a governance action explains that page.
An action stays open for voting for a limited number of epochs. It is enacted if the required bodies ratify it in time, and it expires otherwise. Either way the deposit returns to the reward address that submitted it.
When something goes wrong
- “The guardrails script could not be checked.” DRepTalk could not confirm which guardrails script the constitution currently uses. Nothing was published or signed. Try again later.
- “This stake address is not registered.” The recipient cannot receive a treasury withdrawal. Ask them to register their stake address first, or remove the row.
- “Your wallet needs about 5 ada in plain-ada UTxOs that can serve as collateral.” Send about 5 ada to your wallet as a separate payment and try again.
- Not enough funds. The wallet holds less than the deposit plus the fee. The page tells you how much is missing.
Frequently asked questions
Who can submit a governance action on DRepTalk?
Anyone who is signed in. You do not need to be a DRep, an SPO or a committee member. Any ada holder can propose a governance action on Cardano.
How much is the deposit for a Cardano governance action?
100,000 ada on mainnet and 1,000 tADA on preprod. DRepTalk reads the current amount from the chain and shows it before you sign.
Do I get the deposit back?
Yes. The deposit goes back to the reward address of the wallet that submitted the action once the action is enacted, expires or is dropped.
Do I need a wallet to write a governance action?
No. You can fill in the form, save it as a draft and review it without a wallet. You only connect a wallet in the last step, to pay the deposit and sign.
Which governance actions can I submit?
Info actions, motions of no confidence, hard fork initiations, new constitutions, committee updates and, on preprod, treasury withdrawals. Parameter changes are not offered yet.
Why does a treasury withdrawal need my stake address to be registered?
The ledger only pays treasury withdrawals to registered stake addresses. DRepTalk checks every recipient before you sign, so the transaction does not fail on-chain.
Can I change a governance action after I submit it?
No. Once it is on-chain, the action and its metadata are fixed. Collect feedback in Proposal Drafts first.