> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.bitsafe.finance/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.bitsafe.finance/product-suite/decentralization-manager/introduction.md).

# Introduction

Decentralization Manager is the open-source application for creating, configuring, and managing Decentralized Parties, and the governed applications that run on them.

A Decentralized Party is a single on-chain party whose keys and approvals are split across several independent node operators, so no single node can act alone. Understanding Decentralization Manager starts with understanding parties on Canton.

### Parties on Canton

On Canton Network, assets are held by a party, not by the contract itself. A party can be controlled by a single node, which means one operator holds the keys and can act alone. The Decentralized Party is native Canton technology that distributes control of a party across multiple independent nodes under a signing threshold, so an application no longer depends on, or has to trust, any single node.

### Single-party building concentrates risk

When one operator controls the party that holds an application's assets, several risks compound:

* **Custodial risk:** a single operator can move or freeze assets.
* **Operational risk:** if that one node goes offline, the application stops.
* **Counterparty risk:** users and partners place full trust in a single entity.
* **Regulatory risk:** sole control of user assets concentrates custodial responsibility in one operator.

Institutions ask two questions before committing capital: who can move or freeze these assets, and what happens if one operator goes down.

### Distributing trust makes applications institutional-grade

Decentralization Manager is the solution on Canton Network for building with Decentralized Parties and making applications institutional-grade. Decentralization Manager handles both sides: adding and removing operators, coordinating approvals, and keeping governance in sync. A party can be created, built upon, and configured from a visual interface or a CLI, and by connecting with peer operators, it runs the applications built on top of it.

### How Decentralization Manager works

Members propose an action, confirm it against a signing threshold, then execute, with keys and governance distributed across independent nodes by design.

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### What can be built

The same propose, confirm, execute lifecycle supports a wide range of applications:

* **Tokenization and real-world assets:** multi-party issuance with on-chain governance, no single signer on the asset.
* **Governed token issuance:** wrapped assets, stablecoins, and backed tokens issued and managed by a Decentralized Party.
* **Decentralized custody and wallets:** threshold-confirmed transfers with no single custodian counterparty.
* **DEXs, lending, and structured products:** governed parameters, treasury workflows, and admin operations on custom DAML.
* **Vaults:** pooled deposits under a curator, governed by a Decentralized Party.
* **Governed admin and protocol operations:** hold an application's most sensitive admin and governance actions, such as updating price oracles, adjusting supply caps, tuning interest rate formulae, and setting liquidation thresholds and borrowing limits, behind a signing threshold, so no single operator can change critical parameters alone. A protocol can decentralize these admin keys first, as a security operations baseline, before extending distribution to user-facing flows or to infrastructure resilience.

The rest of these docs cover product architecture, deploying Decentralization Manager on a Canton node, creating a Decentralized Party, onboarding node operators, and building with each module.