The seven cryptographic keys minted at the launch of Cardano and distributed across the three genesis entities: three to Input Output, two to the Cardano Foundation, and two to EMURGO. During the federated Byron era these keys signed every block; as the d protocol parameter declined through Shelley, block production shifted to community stake pools.
d reached 0 on March 31, 2021, leaving block production fully in community hands. The Genesis Keys still held a federated governance role after that: under a 5-of-7 threshold across the three genesis entities, they were the only keys that could submit protocol-parameter updates and initiate hard forks. That last role ended when the Chang hard fork started the Conway era; the keys were burned on August 30, 2024, and on-chain CIP-1694 governance replaced them.
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- ByronThe first era of Cardano development, establishing the foundation of the network.View term
- OuroborosThe family of proof-of-stake consensus protocols that power Cardano, designed with formal security proofs against the known attack catalogue against PoS chains.View term
- Genesis BlockThe very first block of a blockchain, kickstarting the ledger that every subsequent block extends.View term
- d parameterThe Shelley-era protocol parameter that controlled the share of blocks produced by federated genesis nodes versus community stake pools.View term