Getting Started
Last updated
Last updated
You’ll need to complete 3 steps to get started in Catalyst: 1. Setup Base Profile 2. Create Catalyst Keychain 3. Link Cardano Wallet & Roles
In this step, you’ll choose your username, set your communication preferences, and agree to a few terms and conditions.
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).
Your email is what the Catalyst team will use to contact you.
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 and Privacy Policy, and also give us permission to contact you via the email you provide.
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.
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.
As you build your track record and add roles to your Keychain, you’ll unlock new ways to participate and earn rewards.
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.
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. You can enter the words manually, or you can 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 device, you’ll need to enter your 12-word seed phrase to prove ownership of your Catalyst Keychain.
You'll enter your 12-word seed phrase each time you want to access Catalyst account from a new 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 a password, rather than entering your seed phrase again. In this step, you’ll set that password.
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 or Proposer.
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.
All light wallets which follow the CIP-30 specification should work out of the box. The following light wallets are officially supported:
(subject to change) - Lace - Eternal - Vespr - Yoroi - Nufi
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.
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.
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 to funding round
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.
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!
No Wallet Installed You may not have a compatible wallet installed. If you need to get started, try one of our .