Getting Started

You’ll need to complete 3 steps to get started in Catalyst: 1. Setup your Profile 2. Create Catalyst Keychain 3. Link Cardano Wallet & Roles

Before proceeding, be sure that you have a browser-enabled Cardano wallet with at least 5 ADA.

You may watch the full account creation walkthrough here:

Introduction

In this step, you'll learn more about what to expect as you proceed through Getting Started.

To proceed, you'll need to accept the mandatory acknowledgements. These acknowledgements ensure that you’ve understood and agreed to the terms of participating in Catalyst. You’ll need to accept the Catalyst Terms & Conditions, Project Catalyst Platform Privacy Policy and Project Catalyst Platform Terms of Use.

Project Catalyst Terms and Conditions

Project Catalyst Platform Terms of Use

Project Catalyst Platform Privacy Policy

Setup your Profile

In this step, you’ll choose your username and set your communication preferences.

We store email in a mutable database.
We do not store your e-mail on-chain ever.
We only use email for communication about Catalyst.

USERNAME

Your username is how other users will see you in the app, when you create a proposal or leave a comment. Feel free to use your real name or a nickname. It’s best to choose something that will be memorable or recognizable to other users that already know you on other platforms (e.g. your X or Discord handle).

EMAIL

Your email is what the Catalyst team will use to contact you.

If you’ve participated previously in Catalyst, be sure to use the email associated with your Ideascale account. This allows us to link all your previous participation history and track record with your account in the new system.

- Providing e-mail is optional during Account creation. E-mail is required for Proposer and Reviewer roles, so make sure to set this up correctly. - The Community Review module lives outside of the Catalyst App.

Create Catalyst Keychain

In this step, you’ll create your Catalyst Keychain. Designed with decentralization in mind, your Keychain forms the basis for your digital identity in Catalyst.

You'll use it to access the platform, build up your track record in Catalyst, and unlock opportunities to participate in community-driven innovation.

Think of it like any other user account, but with cryptographic security and built-in interoperability across the Cardano ecosystem.

Please keep in mind that your Catalyst Keychain is stored in your browser, so please use the browser that has your wallet extensions enabled.
Please make sure the browser that contains your Catalyst Keychain is your default browser, as your account lives in the browser you created your account with.

GENERATE KEYCHAIN

You’ll start by generating your Keychain. It’s a cryptographic keypair unique to your account - but you can think of it as your all-access pass to all things Catalyst.

CONFIRM SEED PHRASE

Next, you’ll be presented with a 12-word seed phrase that represents your Keychain. It’s kinda like your email and password all rolled into one - so be sure to keep it somewhere safe!

You can choose to write down your seed phrase, or you can export a digital copy.

NOTICE: Keep in mind that while the digital copy may be more convenient, it may be less secure than physical offline storage.

CONFIRM SEED PHRASE

Option 1 - Enter your Catalyst Seed Phrase manually You’ll need to validate that you’ve saved your seed phrase correctly. You’ll be asked to enter the correct words in the correct order before you can proceed.

Option 2 - Import your Catalyst Seed Phrase Another option is import your seed phrase (requires exporting in the previous step).

After this step, the app will forget your seed phrase. If you lose it, you’ll need to perform an account recovery to generate a new one. We don’t save your seed phrase, because we believe it’s important for YOU to own YOUR data.

If you ever want to restore your account on a new/other device, you’ll need to enter your 12-word or Import your seed phrase to prove ownership of your Catalyst Keychain.

SET UNLOCK PASSWORD

Lock/Unlock are the replacement for email/login passwords as you own your Keychain on your device.When you leave, your account will be locked, but your Keychain will remain saved inside the application.

To unlock your account, you'll enter your unlock password, rather than entering your seed phrase again. In this step, you’ll set that password.

We only provide an indication of password strength, it is up to you to decide how strong you want to make your password. The only requirement is a minimum of 8 characters.

Link Cardano Wallet & Roles

This is the final and most important step in your account setup. In it, you’ll link your Cardano wallet to your Catalyst Keychain, so that we know where to send any rewards you might earn. You’ll also add Roles to your Keychain, so that you can get started participating as a Contributor and/or Proposer.

CONNECT WALLET

First, you'll connect your wallet, so that we can record your payment address, and associate important on-chain information like your token holdings to your Keychain.

You should be able to use any browser extension wallet that supports the CIP30 wallet connect standard, but we recommend using one of our Officially Supported Wallets.

OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED WALLETS

All light wallets which follow the CIP-30 specification should work out of the box. The following light wallets are officially supported: - Lace - Eternl - Vespr - Yoroi - Nufi

If you’re having trouble connecting, be sure that your wallet browser extension is enabled, and you’ve properly configured any Dapp connection preferences in your wallet settings.

After successfully connecting your wallet, you’ll see a screen confirming the wallet balance and wallet address. Review these carefully to make sure that you’ve connected the wallet that you’d like to link to your Catalyst account.

Remember that you’ll need 5 ADA in your wallet to complete the account setup process.

BROWSER COMPATIBILITY FOR WALLET EXTENSION

Browser Compatibility for Wallet Extensions

Chrome 137 (all wallet extensions supported)
Firefox 139 (only Lace and Yoroi have extensions available)
Safari 18.5 (no wallet extensions available)

WALLET CONNECT TROUBLESHOOTING

Here are a few reasons why wallet connect might fail, and how you can resolve them.

Wrong Browser Please launch the browser with your wallet extension installed, and revisit Catalyst.

Disabled Extension Please enable the browser extension for your wallet, and refresh the application.

No / Failed Authorization You may need to authorize the Catalyst app in your wallet. Please see wallet specific instructions for Dapp connect.

No Wallet Installed You may not have a compatible wallet installed. If you need to get started, try one of our Officially Supported Wallets.

SELECT ROLES

Next, you’ll choose how you want to participate in Catalyst. You’ll add roles to your Keychain to gain access to new abilities and opportunities. Don’t worry - you can always update this later from your account settings.

Contributor Role

- Comment on ideas to provide proposers with constructive feedback - Save ideas to your favorites list to come back to later

Proposer Role

- Unlock the Catalyst Workspace - Create private drafts for ideating - Share public drafts for feedback - Submit proposals

SUBMIT REGISTRATION TRANSACTION

In this last step, you’ll submit a registration transaction to Cardano mainnet, establishing a verifiable link between your Catalyst account, your connected Cardano wallet, and your selected roles.

Once you’ve reviewed the transaction summary in the app, click “Sign transaction with wallet” to send the transaction to your wallet.

You’ll need to pay a small transaction fee to record this information on Cardano mainnet, so be sure to have 5 ADA in your wallet.

This will launch a pop-up, where you’ll be asked to enter your wallet spending password to submit the final transaction. Once this transaction gets processed on Cardano mainnet, you’ll be ready to start participating!

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Last updated 6 months ago