Chang Upgrade: Update on Public Keys and Signing

Fully implementing the Chang upgrade brings Cardano into the final stages of Voltaire, reinforcing on-chain, decentralized governance

With the Chang upgrade now fully implemented, the Cardano Foundation is publishing its three Constitutional Committee (CC) cold public keys, plus the native script used to generate the CC script hash found on the genesis file. We have also decided to publish the signatures of a message using the cold keys, in order to verify the authenticity, ownership, and control of those three keys by the Cardano Foundation.

After extensively evaluating a variety of key management tooling, the Foundation has chosen an approach that best aligns with our current procedures and operations.

We chose to use three different key generation methods, each with a distinct entropy source to enhance security during creation. We also employed native scripts to enable the required redundancy and location-based risk mitigations. To authenticate ourselves cryptographically, we opted for message signing, an already established process within the Cardano community—namely with CIP-8 and CIP-30—as well as the broader blockchain ecosystem. It is used to prove ownership of public keys without the need for an on-chain action, such as a transaction.

Additionally, we introduced a new tool—the Cardano Message Verification, so that everyone can independently verify signed messages, hoping to encourage usage of this versatile concept, already e.g. used by Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) for "Satoshi Tests", proving asset ownership off-chain, at a wider scale. For verifying our published data, the process flows as follows: for each of the three keys, enter the public key, the full message below, and the respective signature to verify the message was cryptographically signed by the respective keys. You can thus be sure that the content of the message reflects what the key owner wants it to be.

Reproducing and verifying the Cardano Foundation’s CC cold credential hash

Those seeking to fully corroborate that the CC cold credential hash aligns with the three public keys can recreate the script hash and verify the match by comparing the message signatures with the three corresponding keys. Simply use the following data:

Message:
This is to verify that the Cardano Foundations Constitutional Committee Cold Credential Hash b6012034ba0a7e4afbbf2c7a1432f8824aee5299a48e38e41a952686 fully represents the Cardano Foundation in its role as Constitutional Committee Member. This script hash is a two out of three multi-sig Cardano native script consisting of the following 3 public keys, which are independently created, owned and controlled by the Cardano Foundation. 1: 58205537059d08997bc59cfd06a4b59bf8a6171348e318cac0c64ff45a9cdb7f757d; 2: 5820125a92a30d9236fe67747988aecdb7f6aff800426d7d82f66a05715bcbd0961d; 3: 582045b653175f23c6de0a47b0a2d2380092c4fce08ede7359ed1586dad1d1428fd2.
 
CF iCC cold public key 1: 58205537059d08997bc59cfd06a4b59bf8a6171348e318cac0c64ff45a9cdb7f757d

CF iCC cold public key 2: 5820125a92a30d9236fe67747988aecdb7f6aff800426d7d82f66a05715bcbd0961d

CF iCC cold public key 3: 582045b653175f23c6de0a47b0a2d2380092c4fce08ede7359ed1586dad1d1428fd2
 
Signature of message for CF iCC cold 1: (remove new lines when copying)

845829a201276761646472657373581cee27ad4fc3774eea0f9fdfc71b797d35fe2c0c5d4f0e700683ab142da166686173686
564f5581ca0f61df6a09b9b33eb9bf4ec3d1dd449871d2b7d27201f2da105822f58402381c1e44c8dc5e207d995f36d510f07
8813f5f2437820f4a5d24160600b07d09d6882f61b3a3cb95fe824dbd188e4026918cd05c0cbe1a60a46454354a34707

 
Signature of message for CF iCC cold 2: (remove new lines when copying)

845829a201276761646472657373581c58eb65e406f4a097ded0abf02808b3b6ecc974cfb75fe869f4de3453a1666861736
86564f5581ca0f61df6a09b9b33eb9bf4ec3d1dd449871d2b7d27201f2da105822f584088a973b314bab6a4226ff88b1e857
0e347d14a4faf5f8f2a99801f9f916b7b3109a64fd7cf291e0973fe4e801e500f76a664d83f86bb5b8863a1101716ed1304

 
Signature of message for CF iCC cold 3: (remove new lines when copying)

845829a201276761646472657373581ca01035970f9f33c756f780a5398fda844568586e97f12157bef5a4b8a1666861736
86564f5581ca0f61df6a09b9b33eb9bf4ec3d1dd449871d2b7d27201f2da105822f5840697fad6d2a721665635da340fa128
059e354ca7d21fd0908c065aea740db0d24997585a496e3274c3c921fb537184b9aabe3e682ee81ec3d49936694e74a130e

 
 
The increased transparency surrounding the Cardano Foundation’s CC cold public keys reinforces our commitment to decentralization and community involvement. The Foundation encourages everyone in the Cardano ecosystem to actively engage in governance discussions by registering as delegated representatives (DReps) or delegating their vote to a DRep. By participating in the decision-making processes, the entire community can help to actively shape the future of Cardano and ensure its continued growth and success.

Interested in learning more about Cardano and blockchain? Explore the Cardano Academy today.