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Staking & Governance

Staking and governance are two things your users do on Cardano, and a dApp can build all of it. Delegating stake, claiming rewards, registering as a DRep, delegating a vote, and voting on governance actions are ordinary on-chain transactions, the same build → sign → submit flow you already know, with a few extra certificate types.

This module is the developer slice: how to integrate staking and governance into an application.

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

In this module​

  • Staking: Cardano's non-custodial delegation model (no lock-up, no slashing), how rewards and timing work, and how to register, delegate, withdraw, and query stake from a dApp.
  • Governance: what CIP-1694 governance means for developers, and how to register a DRep, delegate voting power, and vote, including the CIP-95 wallet APIs.

Next steps​

  • Staking, start here if you're adding delegation or rewards
  • Governance, add DRep registration, vote delegation, or voting