cardano-cli 11.7 Adds BLS Key Tool for Stake Pools

Intersect has released cardano-cli 11.7.0.0, adding a command that helps stake pool operators prepare registration certificates with BLS keys. The keys are intended for participation in the voting system planned for Ouroboros Leios.

The command-line interface update also introduces tools for sub-transactions, protocol parameter proposals and certificate inspection. Its Dijkstra features are being developed and tested ahead of a future Cardano mainnet upgrade.

Updating a Pool Certificate With a BLS Key

The new cardano-cli dijkstra stake-pool bls-registration-certificate offline command reads an existing pool registration certificate and creates an updated version. It uses a BLS signing key to derive a public BLS key and a corresponding proof of possession.

The command preserves the pool’s other settings, so operators do not need to reenter parameters such as the margin, fixed cost, pledge or relay addresses. According to the release notes, it supports both the initial addition of a BLS key and its later rotation.

It also accepts certificates created during the Conway era, including files written by earlier versions of cardano-cli. The command displays the pool ID and the old and new BLS keys, and warns if the keys are identical.

The operation runs offline and creates a certificate. To register the change on a network, the certificate must be included in a transaction that is signed and submitted.

How BLS Keys Relate to Leios

BLS keys form part of the planned voting process for Ouroboros Leios, a development of Cardano’s consensus protocol. Selected committee members would sign votes for endorser blocks, and their individual signatures could be combined into a shorter certificate.

Stake pool BLS key registration is already being tested on DijkstraNet. Intersect reported that the network moved to protocol version 12 on November 2. The node version used there supports key registration but does not include full Linear Leios.

A separate test network, Musashi, runs a prototype containing full Linear Leios and a version of the broader Dijkstra feature set. In its November 6 update, Intersect listed cardano-node 11.1.3 as the recommended release for mainnet and described 11.2 as a pre-release for DijkstraNet.

Intersect also outlined plans for node 11.2.1, intended to receive mainnet clearance and address a memory usage regression. Version 11.3 is the target release candidate for the full Dijkstra feature set, including Linear Leios.

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New Options for Developers and Governance

The CLI release adds Dijkstra options to the command for creating protocol parameter update proposals. These cover minimum pool margin, maximum pledge leverage, Peras parameters and reference input costs.

Developers can now create signatures for a sub-transaction separately and combine them with an unsigned sub-transaction. The tool rejects signatures that do not match its contents.

Other additions include CIP-159 account balance intervals and guard scripts for building Dijkstra transactions. A new debug certificate view command displays certificate files in JSON or YAML.

The release also changes field names in the output of debug transaction view. Scripts that read certificate information from that output will need to use the new field names.