Delegation

In the physical world, we have well-established ways to authorize others to act on our behalf. A business owner can delegate signing authority to their managers. Parents can authorize caregivers to make medical decisions for their children. Lawyers can represent their clients in court. These delegation patterns are fundamental to how modern society functions, allowing complex systems to operate efficiently while maintaining clear lines of authority and responsibility.

The Royal Protocol’s delegation system brings these powerful patterns to the digital realm, solving a critical challenge in blockchain-based systems: how to enable smooth, efficient operations while ensuring users maintain absolute control. At its core, delegation in the Royal Protocol is designed around user sovereignty - you can grant specific permissions to trusted parties for seamless operations, but you always retain the power to revoke these permissions instantly. This creates a system that’s both highly efficient and fundamentally respectful of user control.

Why Delegation Matters

Traditional blockchain interactions have historically forced users into an impossible choice: either maintain strict security by signing every transaction (creating terrible user experience) or hand over complete control of their private keys (compromising security). Imagine if every time your accountant needed to record a transaction, they had to get your physical signature, or alternatively, you had to give them complete access to your bank account. Neither option is acceptable.

While smart contract wallets and advanced authorization systems are making this better, the Royal Protocol’s delegation system takes a powerful approach: it provides a flexible authorization layer that works seamlessly with any web3 technology stack. Whether you’re using a traditional EOA wallet, the latest smart contract wallet, or custom authorization logic, the delegation system adapts and enhances rather than replaces. This technological agnosticism means the system can bridge authorization gaps today while remaining fully compatible with tomorrow’s innovations. When a smart wallet or smart contract implements its own authorization logic, the Royal Protocol’s delegation system steps aside, allowing that native logic to work as intended. This “plays well with others” approach ensures that users and developers can adopt the best tools for their specific needs while still benefiting from the protocol’s delegation capabilities.

Delegation creates a middle path. It allows users to grant specific permissions to trusted parties while maintaining ultimate control. This is particularly crucial for the Royal Protocol’s provenance system, where content often needs to be registered at the moment of creation, but requiring users to sign every registration would create an insurmountable barrier to adoption.

How Delegation Works

Think of delegation like issuing a limited power of attorney. When you delegate authority in the Royal Protocol, you’re essentially saying “This registrar can perform these specific actions on my behalf, but only these actions.” This delegation is:

• Specific: You can grant precise permissions rather than all-or-nothing access
• Revocable: You maintain the power to withdraw the delegation at any time
• Transparent: All delegations are visible on-chain, creating clear audit trails
• Composable: Different types of delegations can be combined to enable complex workflows

The system recognizes several types of delegations, each serving different needs:

General Delegation allows a registrar to act on your behalf across all contracts. This is like giving someone broad power of attorney - useful when you fully trust a service to handle multiple aspects of your digital presence.

Contract-Specific Delegation limits authority to specific contracts. This is analogous to giving someone authority to handle matters with a specific institution but not others.

Practical Applications

Consider a digital artist using a creative suite that integrates with the Royal Protocol. Through delegation, their software can automatically register provenance claims for new works the moment they’re created. The artist doesn’t need to sign each registration - the software handles it seamlessly - but they maintain the power to revoke this delegation if they ever want to switch tools.

Or imagine a music studio serving as a registrar for its artists. Through delegation, the studio can register provenance claims for recordings as they’re produced, assign NFTs to represent the works, and manage the technical aspects of blockchain interaction. The artists maintain control over their Royal IDs and can revoke or modify these delegations at any time, but don’t need to understand the technical details of blockchain transactions.

Technical Foundation

The delegation system is built on a robust technical foundation that separates concerns effectively. The core protocol defines what delegations exist and how they’re verified, but doesn’t prescribe how they should be used. This separation allows the system to evolve and adapt as new use cases emerge.

At its heart, delegation works through a simple but powerful verification system, elegantly encapsulated in a single function: canAct. This function serves as the universal entry point for authorization checks, answering one straightforward question: “Can this account act on behalf of that account?”

When any action is attempted, the system performs this verification through canAct, which checks:

• Who is trying to perform the action
• On whose behalf they’re acting
• What specific permissions they’ve been granted

The beauty of canAct lies in its simplicity and openness. Unlike traditional authorization systems like OAuth that require complex server setups and trusted intermediaries, canAct is completely permissionless and transparent.

Any third party can query this function to verify delegation rights, making it a powerful building block for decentralized applications. Want to check if an account has delegation rights? Just call canAct - it’s that simple.

This open verification model represents a fundamental shift from traditional authorization systems. While OAuth requires trust in central authorities and complex integrations, canAct provides a permissionless, trustless verification system that’s fully controlled by end users. They can grant and revoke permissions at will, and any system can verify these permissions without special access or privileges. This creates a powerful foundation for building decentralized applications that respect user sovereignty while enabling seamless interactions.

Best Practices

Effective use of delegation follows certain patterns:

Grant Minimum Necessary Permissions: Just as you wouldn’t give someone complete power of attorney when they only need to handle a specific task, delegate only the specific permissions required for the intended function.

Maintain Delegation Hygiene: Regularly review and revoke unnecessary delegations, just as you would audit and update access controls in any security system.

Looking Forward

The delegation system is designed to evolve as the ecosystem grows. Its flexible architecture allows for new types of delegations and new patterns of use while maintaining backward compatibility. This adaptability ensures that as new needs emerge - whether for more granular permissions, new types of authorized actions, or novel patterns of collaboration - the system can accommodate them without compromising its core security model.

Through delegation, the Royal Protocol achieves a critical balance: enabling the seamless user experiences necessary for widespread adoption while maintaining the security and control that blockchain systems promise. It’s a fundamental building block that makes the entire ecosystem more usable, more secure, and more powerful.