Participants

This page introduces Participants in Canton and explains how they are created, configured, and managed using Catalyst. In Canton's execution model, each application party is hosted on a Participant Node, which maintains the party's private state and history and synchronizes with other participants using the Canton protocol via domains.

What is a Participant?

Each party of the application is hosted on a Participant Node. The Participant Node stores the party's unique projection and history of the shared system of record. Participant Nodes synchronize by running a consensus protocol (the Canton Protocol) between them, sending encrypted messages through Domains that provide guaranteed delivery and order consistency.

For more information about Domains, see Domains.

How Do I Create a Participant?

To create a Participant, go to the Participants tab and click the Create button to open a side window.

1

Provide a Participant name

Enter a unique Participant name (required).

2

Fill in the main settings

Using a predefined image is recommended for compatibility. If you want to use an image from a private repository, specify an imagePullSecret.

• Choose participant image

• Choose DAR files to upload

• Enable Navigator if required

• Enable Daemon if required

• Resources allocation:

  • Requested CPU — Guaranteed CPU resources that will be allocated

  • CPU limit — Maximum CPU resources that will be allocated

  • Requested memory (MB) — Guaranteed amount of RAM that will be allocated

  • Memory limit (MB) — Maximum amount of RAM that can be allocated

  • Storage size

• You can add custom environment variables if needed

To prevent pod evictions, you can choose to disable CPU limits for the resource allocation.

3

Fill in Topology

• Enable Embedded Topology if needed

• Topology:

  • Choose between form or raw view topology

  • Choose Admin Port

  • Choose Public port

  • Choose Storage type:

Memory

No additional configuration required.

PostgreSQL

External

• Enable Authorization Service if needed

4

Bootstrap (optional)

Provide bootstrap commands if needed.

How Do I Connect a Participant to a Domain?

After the participant is created, click the Connect to domain button to open a side window.

Select either a domain available in this Catalyst Canton console, or connect to any external domain by providing the full domain URL.

How Do I Upload DAR Files to a Participant?

After the participant is created, click the Upload DAR button to open a side window.

Select one or multiple DAR files to upload to the participant. DAR files can be added to the console through the Collections tab.

Parties & Users

A party represents an entity capable of creating and interacting with contracts on the ledger. Each party is hosted on one or more Participant Nodes.

A Party is created by default once a Participant is connected to a Domain. However, Catalyst Blockchain Manager allows users to add additional parties on a participant node.

Local Parties vs. Parties

The Participant Details page includes the following tabs: Local Parties, Parties, Users, Dar Files, and Logs.

• Local Parties — Allows users to trigger an explicit fetch of all parties registered to this participant on the ledger.

• Parties — Shows parties across the entire ledger (the full network), not just those local to this participant.

If you create a party outside of Catalyst, it will not appear in the list automatically. Click Fetch Local Parties again to pick up that change.

The Local Parties tab is only shown for validator participants. It does not appear for standalone participants (non-validator nodes).

For networks with a large number of parties (e.g., MainNet with ~500,000 parties), the fetch process can take a considerable amount of time.

For detailed Party and User Management, head to the Parties and Users section:

Parties & Users