---
name: midnight-node:node-governance
description: Midnight governance, federated authority, Council, TechnicalCommittee, Technical Committee, Substrate, pallet, governance motions, voting, proposals, two-body governance, runtime upgrades, D-parameter, systemParameters_getDParameter, pallet_system_parameters, validator selection balance, membership, Cardano mainchain governance sync, motion lifecycle, approval threshold, 5-day voting window, governance root operations, how does voting work on Midnight, how are governance members selected.
version: 0.1.0
---

# Node Governance

The Midnight network uses a federated authority governance model implemented on-chain through Substrate pallets. Governance controls critical operations such as runtime upgrades, system parameter changes, and validator set management.

## Federated Authority Model

Governance uses a two-body system where both bodies must independently approve an action for it to take effect.

```text
┌─────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐
│       Council       │     │  Technical Committee     │
│                     │     │                          │
│  General governance │     │  Technical assessment    │
│  oversight          │     │  and validation          │
│                     │     │                          │
│  2/3 majority       │     │  2/3 majority            │
│  required           │     │  required                │
└────────┬────────────┘     └─────────┬────────────────┘
         │                            │
         │      Both must approve     │
         └──────────┬─────────────────┘
                    │
                    ▼
         ┌──────────────────┐
         │  Root Operation  │
         │  Executed        │
         └──────────────────┘
```

### Council

- **Role:** General governance oversight and policy decisions
- **Composition:** Members synced from Cardano mainchain UTXOs
- **Voting threshold:** 2/3 majority of council members

### Technical Committee

- **Role:** Technical assessment and validation of proposed changes
- **Composition:** Members synced from Cardano mainchain UTXOs
- **Voting threshold:** 2/3 majority of committee members

## Motion Lifecycle

Every governance action follows a defined lifecycle from proposal to execution.

```text
Propose ──→ Vote ──→ Approve ──→ Close
   │          │         │          │
   │          │         │          │
   ▼          ▼         ▼          ▼
Motion     Members   2/3 super-  Execute if
created    cast      majority    both bodies
on-chain   votes     reached     approved
                                 (5-day window)
```

### Stages

| Stage | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| **Propose** | A member of either body submits a motion (a callable dispatch) |
| **Vote** | Members of the originating body cast Aye or Nay votes |
| **Approve** | The motion passes if it reaches a 2/3 supermajority |
| **Close** | After both bodies approve, the motion is executed within a 5-day voting window. The `motion_close` extrinsic can be called by anyone and takes a `proposal_weight_bound` argument that caps the weight the dispatched call may consume; it runs as an `Operational` dispatch |

### Voting Rules

| Rule | Value |
|------|-------|
| Approval threshold | 2/3 majority in each body |
| Voting window | 5 days from proposal |
| Both bodies required | Yes — a motion approved by only one body does not execute |
| Execution | Automatic upon close if both bodies have approved |

### Motion Failure Paths

| Scenario | Outcome |
|----------|---------|
| Motion does not reach 2/3 threshold within the voting window | Motion expires without effect; no on-chain state changes occur |
| One body approves but the other rejects or fails to reach threshold | Proposal fails; the approval from the first body is not carried forward. A fresh motion must be submitted to retry |

## Governance Membership

Governance body membership is not managed on the Midnight chain directly. Instead, membership is synchronized from the Cardano mainchain.

```text
Cardano Mainchain
    │
    │  UTXOs designating governance members
    │
    ▼
Midnight Node (main chain follower)
    │
    │  Reads and validates membership UTXOs
    │
    ▼
On-chain Governance Pallets
    │
    ├── Council membership updated
    └── TechnicalCommittee membership updated
```

This design anchors governance authority in the Cardano mainchain, ensuring that governance membership changes follow Cardano's own security and finality guarantees.

## Governed Operations

The federated authority model governs the following critical operations:

| Operation | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| **Runtime upgrades** | Deploy new WASM runtime to upgrade on-chain logic |
| **System parameter changes** | Modify D-parameter, Terms & Conditions, and other chain parameters |
| **Critical system operations** | Emergency actions requiring root-level dispatch |

### Runtime Upgrades

Runtime upgrades replace the on-chain WASM runtime without requiring a hard fork. Both governance bodies must approve the upgrade motion containing the new runtime blob. The two bodies approve independently and in any order — there is no required Council-then-TechnicalCommittee sequence. The upgrade executes once the required proportion is reached in both bodies at close.

```text
              New Runtime WASM
                    │
        ┌───────────┴───────────┐
        ▼                       ▼
Council Motion          TechnicalCommittee Motion
(propose + 2/3 approve) (propose + 2/3 approve)
        │                       │
        └───────────┬───────────┘
                    │  (independent, any order;
                    │   both required at close)
                    ▼
          Runtime Upgrade Executed
     (new WASM runtime active at next block)
```

## D-Parameter

The D-parameter controls the balance between permissioned (federated) candidates and registered (staked) candidates selected into the block-producing committee. It is not a single `0.0`–`1.0` scalar. It is stored as a `(u16, u16)` tuple — an Ariadne T/P ratio that sets how many permissioned versus registered candidates are selected for each committee.

| Field | Meaning |
|-------|---------|
| `num_permissioned_candidates` (`u16`) | Expected number of permissioned (federated) candidates selected into a committee |
| `num_registered_candidates` (`u16`) | Expected number of registered (staked) candidates selected into a committee |

A higher permissioned share makes block production more federated; a higher registered share makes it more permissionless. The two values together define the proportional blend used by the Ariadne selection algorithm — there is no single combined value.

The D-parameter is stored on-chain via `pallet_system_parameters` and can be queried via the `systemParameters_getDParameter` RPC method. Changes to the D-parameter require governance approval through the federated authority process.

> **Deep dive:** `references/governance-internals.md` — the two `pallet_collective` instances (Council Instance1 / TechnicalCommittee Instance2), `pallet_membership`, the `FederatedAuthorityEnsureProportionAtLeast<1,1>` origin, the `MOTION_DURATION = 5 * DAYS` constant, `motion_close` mechanics, and the D-parameter `(u16,u16)` storage.

## References

| Name | Description | When used |
|------|-------------|-----------|
| `references/governance-internals.md` | Pallet-level governance mechanics: the two collective instances, membership origins, the federated-authority proportion origin, motion lifecycle, and D-parameter storage | When auditing the governance flow or building governance tooling |

## Cross-References

- `core-concepts:architecture` — High-level network architecture and the role of governance in the Midnight ecosystem
- `midnight-indexer:indexer-data-model` — Indexed governance data including D-parameter history and Terms & Conditions
- `midnight-node:node-architecture` — Governance pallets and their role in the runtime
- `midnight-node:node-validator` — How the D-parameter drives validator committee selection
- `midnight-node:node-rpc-api` — RPC methods for querying governance parameters