Ekklesia

Verifiable on-chain voting on Cardano — powered by Hydra.

What is Ekklesia?

Ekklesia is a voting platform for verifiable and transparent on-chain voting on Cardano. It supports votes for all kinds of voter groups — DReps, SPOs, token or NFT holders, or anyone with a Cardano wallet. Ekklesia also supports MultiSigs and CLI-based authentication via CardanoSigner.

Ekklesia is developed by Adam Dean & Mad Orkestra, with funding from IOG, Intersect and Project Catalyst Fund 14.

Why “Hydra-Powered” Voting?

Unlike off-chain voting systems where you trust the operator, Ekklesia leverages Cardano’s Hydra L2 state channels to process votes. This means:

  • Every vote is a real transaction processed inside a Hydra head
  • Final results are settled on-chain (Cardano L1), creating a permanent, tamper-evident record
  • Merkle proofs allow anyone to independently verify that their vote was included in the final tally
  • The security model inherits from Cardano itself, not from a centralized server

This is not “off-chain voting with a blockchain receipt.” The entire voting process runs through cryptographic state channels with on-chain settlement.

Documentation Sections

Getting Started

How to connect your wallet and cast your first vote on Ekklesia.

Vote Types

Default, Budget, Scale, Ranked — the different voting mechanisms and their rules.

API Reference

Integrate with Ekklesia — query ballots, fetch results, and submit votes programmatically.

Hydra & Architecture

How Hydra state channels power the voting process and what that means for security.

Auditability

Verify your vote was counted, or audit an entire ballot from start to finish.

Wallet Integration

CIP-30/CIP-95 auth flows, multisig support, and building your own frontend.