Governance API

The Governance API provides comprehensive functionality for participating in Cardano’s on-chain governance system. It supports DRep registration and management, governance proposal creation, voting, and delegation operations through the QuickTx framework.

Key Features

• DRep Management: Register, update, and deregister as a Delegated Representative
• Proposal Creation: Create various types of governance proposals (Info, Constitution, Parameter Changes, etc.)
• Voting System: Vote on governance proposals with different voter types
• Delegation: Delegate voting power to DReps
• Anchor Support: Attach metadata anchors to proposals and votes
• Multi-Signature Support: Support for committee and stake pool voting

Core Classes

Tx Class

The main class for building governance transactions, extending QuickTx functionality.

Governance Actions

• InfoAction - Information proposals
• NewConstitution - Constitution update proposals
• NoConfidence - No confidence proposals
• ParameterChangeAction - Protocol parameter changes
• HardForkInitiationAction - Hard fork initiation
• TreasuryWithdrawalsAction - Treasury withdrawal proposals
• UpdateCommittee - Committee update proposals

Supporting Classes

• Voter - Represents different voter types (DRep, SPO, Committee)
• Vote - Vote options (Yes, No, Abstain)
• Anchor - Metadata anchor for proposals
• GovActionId - References to governance actions

Usage Examples

Setup

Create QuickTxBuilder and Account instances for governance operations:

QuickTxBuilder quickTxBuilder = new QuickTxBuilder(backendService);

Account account = Account.createFromMnemonic(Networks.preprod(), "your mnemonic words");
String address = account.baseAddress();

In the examples below, <anchor_datahash> is a byte[], the Blake2b-256 hash of the anchor document. If you have it as hex, use HexUtil.decodeHexString(hash). Actions that follow an earlier action need prevGovActionId to be the last enacted action of that type on your network.

DRep Management

Manage Delegated Representative (DRep) registration and operations:

Register DRep

Register an account as a Delegated Representative:

var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx drepRegTx = new Tx()
        .registerDRep(account, anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(drepRegTx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account.drepHdKeyPair()))
        .completeAndWait(System.out::println);

Deregister DRep

Deregister an account as a DRep:

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .unregisterDRep(account.drepCredential())
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.drepKeySignerFrom(account))
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(System.out::println);

Update DRep

Update DRep information (remove anchor):

 Tx drepRegTx = new Tx()
        .updateDRep(account.drepCredential())
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(drepRegTx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.drepKeySignerFrom(account))
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Update DRep information with a new anchor:

var newAnchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx drepRegTx = new Tx()
        .updateDRep(account.drepCredential(), newAnchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(drepRegTx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.drepKeySignerFrom(account))
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Governance Proposals

Create various types of governance proposals using the createProposal() method. Any account can create a proposal — a DRep key signature is not required.

Info Proposal

Create an information proposal:

var govAction = new InfoAction();
var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createProposal(govAction, account.stakeAddress(), anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Constitution Proposal

Create a new constitution proposal:

var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

var govAction = new NewConstitution();
govAction.setPrevGovActionId(new GovActionId("<prevGovActionTxHash>", prevGovActionIndex));
govAction.setConstitution(Constitution.builder()
        .anchor(anchor)
        .build());

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createProposal(govAction, account.stakeAddress(), anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

No Confidence Proposal

Create a no confidence proposal:

var noConfidence = new NoConfidence();
noConfidence.setPrevGovActionId(new GovActionId("<prevGovActionTxHash>", prevGovActionIndex));
var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createProposal(noConfidence, account.stakeAddress(), anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Parameter Change Proposal

Create a protocol parameter change proposal:

var parameterChange = new ParameterChangeAction();
parameterChange.setPrevGovActionId(new GovActionId("529736be1fac33431667f2b66231b7b66d4c7a3975319ddac7cfb17dcb5c4145", 0));
parameterChange.setProtocolParamUpdate(ProtocolParamUpdate.builder()
        .minPoolCost(ADAConversionUtil.adaToLovelace(100))
        .build());

var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createProposal(parameterChange, account.stakeAddress(), anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Hard Fork Initiation Proposal

Create a hard fork initiation proposal:

var hardforkInitiation = new HardForkInitiationAction();
hardforkInitiation.setPrevGovActionId(new GovActionId("416f7f01c548a85546aa5bbd155b34bb2802df68e08db4e843ef6da764cd8f7e", 0));
hardforkInitiation.setProtocolVersion(new ProtocolVersion(9, 0));

var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createProposal(hardforkInitiation, account.stakeAddress(), anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Treasury Withdrawal Proposal

Create a treasury withdrawal proposal:

var treasuryWithdrawalsAction = new TreasuryWithdrawalsAction();
treasuryWithdrawalsAction.addWithdrawal(new Withdrawal("<stake_address>", adaToLovelace(20)));

var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createProposal(treasuryWithdrawalsAction, account.stakeAddress(), anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Update Committee Proposal

Create a committee update proposal:

var updateCommittee = new UpdateCommittee();
updateCommittee.setPrevGovActionId(new GovActionId("b3ce0371310a07a797657d19453d953bb352b6841c2f5c5e0bd2557189ef5c3a", 0));
updateCommittee.setQuorumThreshold(new UnitInterval(BigInteger.valueOf(1), BigInteger.valueOf(3)));

var anchor = new Anchor("<anchor_url>", <anchor_datahash>);

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createProposal(updateCommittee, account.stakeAddress(), anchor)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(s -> System.out.println(s));

Voting

Vote on governance proposals:

var voter = new Voter(VoterType.DREP_KEY_HASH, account.drepCredential());
var govActionId = new GovActionId("5655fbb4ceafd34296fe58f6e3d28b8ff663a89e84aa0edd77bd02fe379cef4c", 0); //some gov action id

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .createVote(voter, govActionId, Vote.NO)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.drepKeySignerFrom(account))
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(System.out::println);

Vote Delegation

Delegate voting power to a DRep:

DRep drep = GovId.toDrep(drepId); // the DRep's drep1... id

Tx tx = new Tx()
        .delegateVotingPowerTo(account.baseAddress(), drep)
        .from(address);

Result<String> result = quickTxBuilder.compose(tx)
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.stakeKeySignerFrom(account))
        .withSigner(SignerProviders.signerFrom(account))
        .completeAndWait(System.out::println);